Composer use MAMP PHP Version

Question

I'm trying to install a package via Composer that requires PHP 5.6.0. My MAC is running PHP 5.5.31 but MAMP runs PHP 7.0. The package will not download because of the PHP requirement is not met since it's looking at my macOS version, not the version I actually use with MAMP. How can I get around this?

Answer 1

MAMP's PHP is located here:

/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php7x.x/bin/

The default OSX PHP is located in

/usr/bin/php

/usr/bin is in PATH variable by default.

When you want OSX to use the MAMP version instead, you need to add /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php7.xx/bin/ to your PATH variable.

Simply edit ~/.bash_profile in your terminal and type

vim ~/.bash_profile

if you cannot find ~/.bash_profile then you have to create one with

touch ~/.bash_profile

and add the following line to end of the file:

export PATH=/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php7.xx/bin/:$PATH

You just have to look at the correct version of your MAMP's php and replace the xx from the example above with that correct number. (eg 7.0.2)

If that went fine, relaunch your terminal.app and do php -v again. Now you have to see the new version.

After that try to install the composer package again! Good luck

Help source: how-to-override-the-path-of-php-to-use-the-mamp-path

Answer 2

If you type 'which php' into Terminal it'll show you where it's looking for PHP. I'm guessing there are 2 different versions of PHP installed into different directories. In which case you might be able to use a bash script to set the correct path to the PHP version you want?

I've had similar issues on my Mac where I've installed software like git, but it's looking elsewhere for it (eg the version bundled with Xcode)

Answer 3

This was easy to me:

First backup system php sudo mv /usr/bin/php /usr/bin/~php

Then crate a symbolic link from /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/phpX.xx/bin/php to /usr/bin/php using this: sudo ln -s /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/phpX.xx/bin/php /usr/bin/php . Now you have your mamp php (with its config) available everywhere.