Composer Update Memory Limit

Composer update memory limit

When you run composer update, the OS will look into the configured paths and try to locate an executable file with that name.

When running php composer update, the composer string is treated as a parameter to PHP, which is not searched in any paths. You have to provide the full path in order to run it.

Running which composer will tell you where the OS finds the composer executable, and then you simply use the full path in the PHP command:

$>which composer
/usr/local/bin/composer

$>php -d memory_limit=512M /usr/local/bin/composer update
...

Note that 512MB might be too few. My perception is that it will happily take 1GB or more, depending on the number of dependencies you use and the variety of versions that you theoretically allow, i.e. if you allow Symfony ~2.3, then you make Composer deal with a lot more possible versions compared to using ~2.7.

Also note that running Composer on the production machine is not the best idea. You would have to have access to Github, maybe provide access credentials, have VCS tools installed, and you will easily break your site if any of the remote hosting servers is offline during your update. It is a better idea to use Composer on a deployment system that does all the preparation, and then moves all the files onto the production server.

Update

It's the year 2020 now, and the way Composer manages its memory has changed quite a bit. The most important thing is that Composer will increase the memory limit by itself if it encounters a limit set too low. This however immediately triggers the problem of running out of memory on machines that have too few memory installed. You can make Composer use less memory by setting the environment variable like COMPOSER_MEMORY_LIMIT=512M, but this will create problems if Composer would need more memory to correctly operate.

My main point remains true: Do not run Composer on machines that have too few memory installed. You potentially need 1.5 GB of free memory to be able to update everything.

Composer require runs out of memory. PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 1610612736 bytes exhausted

To get the current memory_limit value, run:

php -r "echo ini_get('memory_limit').PHP_EOL;"

Try increasing the limit in your php.ini file (ex. /etc/php5/cli/php.ini for Debian-like systems):

; Use -1 for unlimited or define an explicit value like 2G
memory_limit = -1

Or, you can increase the limit with a command-line argument:

php -d memory_limit=-1 composer.phar require hwi/oauth-bundle php-http/guzzle6-adapter php-http/httplug-bundle

To get loaded php.ini files location try:

php --ini

Another quick solution:

php composer.phar COMPOSER_MEMORY_LIMIT=-1 require hwi/oauth-bundle php-http/guzzle6-adapter php-http/httplug-bundle

Or just:

COMPOSER_MEMORY_LIMIT=-1 composer require hwi/oauth-bundle php-http/guzzle6-adapter php-http/httplug-bundle

Composer Update failed -- out of memory

Solved by deleting the whole vendor folder, and then doing the composer update again, and it works... somehow. I don't even understand :v

Increasing memory limit composer

Based on the document, you should be able to add a composer command in the <...>

php -d memory_limit=-1 composer <...>

So, for things like

php -d memory_limit=-1 composer require apackage
php -d memory_limit=-1 composer update

That means to run the composer command with memory_limit = -1.

PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 1610612736 bytes composer update

Run

which composer

This will give you the path to composer like "/usr/bin/composer"

Then use that path in the command below to overcome the memory limit using the php flag for no memory limit, like this:

php -d memory_limit=-1 /usr/bin/composer update