Unable to self-update Composer - php

Question

I am trying to update Composer without any luck!
What I have tried:
$ composer self-update
[InvalidArgumentException]
Command "self-update" is not defined.
$ sudo -H composer self-update
[InvalidArgumentException]
Command "self-update" is not defined.
$ sudo apt-get install composer
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading
state information... Done composer is already the newest version. The
following packages were automatically installed and are no longer
required: libntdb1 linux-headers-4.2.0-30
linux-headers-4.2.0-30-generic linux-image-4.2.0-30-generic
linux-image-extra-4.2.0-30-generic python-ntdb Use 'apt-get
autoremove' to remove them. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove
and 10 not upgraded.
I am trying to self-update Composer because I am facing the following each time I try:
$ composer update
Loading composer repositories with package information Updating
dependencies (including require-dev)
[RuntimeException]
Could not load package rmrevin/yii2-fontawesome in
http://packagist.org: [UnexpectedValueException] Could not parse
version constraint v4.1 .: Invalid version string "v4.1."
[UnexpectedValueException]
Could not parse version constraint v4.1.: Invalid version string
"v4.1."
How can I fix this issue?
My PHP version is:
php --version
PHP 5.6.11-1ubuntu3.4 (cli) Copyright (c) 1997-2015 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.6.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2015 Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v7.0.6-dev, Copyright (c) 1999-2015, by Zend Technologies
My composer version is:
composer --version
Composer version #package_branch_alias_version# (#package_version#)
#release_date#

Answer 1

As Waqleh said, you have to uninstall PHP Composer and install it again. First, execute:
sudo apt-get remove composer
Then, execute these commands. The checksum here is for Composer 1.10.13, but you'll get the newest Composer (2.0.4 at the moment of editing this answer) when running the first line, so be sure to check in https://getcomposer.org/download/:
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === '8a6138e2a05a8c28539c9f0fb361159823655d7ad2deecb371b04a83966c61223adc522b0189079e3e9e277cd72b8897') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
Now move file composer.phar to a directory that is in your path (from Installation - Linux / Unix / macOS):
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
And execute composer from any directory. That's all!
PS: If you're using PhpStorm (or maybe other IDEs), you'll have to close it and open it again.

Answer 2

Since I posted my answer, I have learnt a new easier way to install Composer programmatically: How do I install Composer programmatically?
Old Answer:
As per #JimL comment, I was able to self update Composer by:
Uninstalling Composer from the package manager (apt).
I installed it according to the official documentation
Now it works as expected.

Answer 3

Install the latest version:
Remove your current Composer version, for example Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt-get remove composer
Now, head to https://getcomposer.org/download/ and paste the script in your command line. This ensures that you get the latest version of Composer (as time of writing: v2.0.7).
Like this:
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === '906a84df04cea2aa72f40b5f787e49f22d4c2f19492ac310e8cba5b96ac8b64115ac402c8cd292b8a03482574915d1a8') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
sudo php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
After some time passed, you can update and there isn't any need to use the sudo prefix:
composer self-update

Answer 4

It worked for me (linux, Ubuntu 20.04):
sudo apt-get remove composer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl
sudo curl -s https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Answer 5

If you have an old version of Composer you need to follow these commands:
composer -V
sudo apt remove composer
cd /tmp
wget http://getcomposer.org/download/1.10.5/composer.phar
php composer.phar -V
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/bin/composer
sudo chmod 750 /usr/bin/composer
composer -V

Answer 6

You can specify the installation directory and filename while setting up PHP Composer - php composer-setup.php like so:
sudo php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/bin --filename=composer

Answer 7

Already there are many answers, Would like to share my experience with this.
I am using Ubuntu 20.04, and My previous Composer version was Composer 2.0.11 and my Project requirement was Composer 2.1.15.
I didn't had to remove anything, I simply used the following command and it worked fine for me :)

Answer 8

I've installed Homebrew and it saves me a lot.
Install brew and then brew install composer to install Composer.

Answer 9

composer 2 on debian :
cd /usr/src
sudo apt-get install curl php7.2-cli
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
chmod 777 composer
nano ~/.bashrc
add : PATH=$PATH/usr/local/bin/
source ~/.bashrc
verify :composer -v

Answer 10

Composer self-update may not work for others and using the documentation from the composer may be confusing for some. The following steps may help reinstall the composer to solve the problem.
#update the package manager
sudo apt update
#install the required packages
sudo apt install php-cli unzip
#retrieve the installer
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer -o /tmp/composer-setup.php
#obtain the latest hash from the Composer page
HASH=`curl -sS https://composer.github.io/installer.sig`
echo $HASH #verify the obtained value
#verify that the installation script safety
php -r "if (hash_file('SHA384', '/tmp/composer-setup.php') === '$HASH') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
#installing composer globally
sudo php /tmp/composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
#test your installation
composer
That's it. Credit: Erika Heidi

Answer 11

Install the latest Composer by the following steps:
Uninstalling Composer
sudo apt-get remove composer
Run following commands
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === '8a6138e2a05a8c28539c9f0fb361159823655d7ad2deecb371b04a83966c61223adc522b0189079e3e9e277cd72b8897') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
php composer-setup.php
Install Composer in the /usr/bin directory to run Composer from anywhere
sudo php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/bin --filename=composer
Remove the installer
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
To check or self update
composer self-update