Composer could not find a composer.json - php

Question

I tried to install composer via brew per:
In usr/local/bin (which was not on Mavricks and I had to make personally) I did.
brew tap josegonzalez/homebrew-php
brew install josegonzalez/php/composer
I can run php composer.phar, but when I do php composer.phar install, I get the error:
Composer could not find a composer.json file in /usr/local/bin
To initialize a project, please create a composer.json file as described in the http://getcomposer.org/ "Getting Started" section
So I go to the https://getcomposer.org/doc/00-intro.md. CTRL+F ".json" and nothing's there. Seriously composer?
EDIT:
What I was trying to do was to have composer executable vs php composer.phar. This works at this point from this now.

Answer 1

To install composer and add to your global path:
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
run these in terminal. It does say if you get an error that usr doesn't exist, you do need to manually make it. I know an answer was selected, so this is for anyone who may see this in the future, as i am sometimes, and don't want to be advised to visit yet another site. Its simple just two lines, might have to be in sudo if you have permission error

Answer 2

You are in wrong directory. cd to your project directory then run composer update.

Answer 3

In my case, I did not copy all project files to the folder where I was running composer install. So do:
Copy your project files (including the composer.json) to folder
open CMD (I am using ConEmu), navigate to the new folder, run composer install from there
It should work or throw errors in case the json file is not correct.
If you just want to make composer run, create a new composer.json file with for example:
{
"require": {
"php": ">=5.3.2"
}
}
Then run composer install.

Answer 4

The "Getting Started" page is the introduction to the documentation. Most documentation will start off with installation instructions, just like Composer's do.
The page that contains information on the composer.json file is located here - under "Basic Usage", the second page.
I'd recommend reading over the documentation in full, so that you gain a better understanding of how to use Composer. I'd also recommend removing what you have and following the installation instructions provided in the documentation.

Answer 5

I encountered the same error, and was able to solve it as follows:
composer diagnose to see if something is wrong with the version of composer installed
composer self-update to install the latest version
composer update to update your composer.json file.

Answer 6

Simple solution is install via this command :
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
To install package it's very simple :
composer global require "phpunit/php-invoker=1.1.*"
Ref : composer web site.

Answer 7

In my case, I am using homestead. cd ~/Homesteadand run composer install.

Answer 8

You could try updating the composer:
sudo composer self-update
If that doest works remove composer files & then use:
SSH into terminal & type :
$ cd ~
$ sudo curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php
$ sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer
If you face an error that says: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'ErrorException' with message 'proc_open(): fork failed - Cannot allocate memory' in phar
/bin/dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/swap.1 bs=1M count=1024
/sbin/mkswap /var/swap.1
/sbin/swapon /var/swap.1
To install package use:
composer global require "package-name"

Answer 9

In my case I'm in wrong directory,
My directory Path
eCommerce-shop/eCommerce
I am in inside eCommerce-shop and executing this command composer intsall so that't it throwing this error.

Answer 10

If you forget to run:
php artisan key:generate
You would be face this error : Composer could not find a composer.json

Answer 11

2 things to notice; (i did mistake and corrected with step2)
might be wrong path of compose.json in docker file. ex; if your compose.json file is not in root of repo.
OR
if using any tools to build image, specify relevant path in context.

Answer 12

Create a file called composer.json
Make sure the Composer can write in the directory you are looking for.
Update your composer.
This worked for me