Switching composer to use a support branch

Question

We have a PHP package which is installed via composer. The master branch of this project is currently at v0.xx We are already using this package on some of our projects, and the composer.json on these projects knows to only look for 0. . releases.

We are looking to bring the package up to date with the latest version of Laravel, and add some new features. This would then be tagged as v1.x. v0.x releases would move to a support branch.

Will composer intelligently pull from the correct branch if 0. . releases move to a support branch, or do we have to reconfigure it somewhere to tell it which branch to use?

Answer 1

Composer goes for the tags. Branches are irrelevant (unless you are pulling a "dev-branch" instead of a version).

Note that you'd only need to establish a support branch if there really is the need for more support. This can be done when the demand is there, because you'd be able to create a branch on an existing tag.