PHP 7.3 breaks composer with continue/targeting error (solution: downgrade to 7.2)

[kakohari]

PHP version not working:

/usr/bin/php7.3 -v
PHP 7.3.0RC4 (cli) (built: Nov  7 2018 10:06:25) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.3.0-dev, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.3.0RC4, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

PHP version working:

PHP 7.2.12-1+0~20181112102304.11+stretch~1.gbp55f215 (cli) (built: Nov 12 2018 10:23:04) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.2.12-1+0~20181112102304.11+stretch~1.gbp55f215, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

My composer.json:

empty / not existing

Output of composer diagnose:

[some bullshit complaining about a wrong SPDX-license code which is clearly existing on https://spdx.org/licenses/]
Checking platform settings: OK
Checking git settings: OK
Checking http connectivity to packagist: OK
Checking https connectivity to packagist: OK
Checking github.com rate limit: OK
Checking disk free space: OK

When I run this command:

kako@devserver:~/skripte$ composer require mpdf/mpdf -vvv

I get the following output:

Reading ./composer.json
Loading config file ./composer.json
Checked CA file /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt: valid
Executing command (/home/kako/skripte): git branch --no-color --no-abbrev -v
Executing command (/home/kako/skripte): git describe --exact-match --tags
Executing command (/home/kako/skripte): git log --pretty="%H" -n1 HEAD
Reading /home/kako/.composer/composer.json
Loading config file /home/kako/.composer/composer.json
Running 1.2.2 (2016-11-03 17:43:15) with PHP 7.3.0RC4 on Linux / 4.9.0-8-amd64
Downloading https://packagist.org/packages.json
Writing /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/packages.json into cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2013.json from cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2014.json from cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2015.json from cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2016.json from cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2017.json from cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2018-01.json from cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2018-04.json from cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2018-07.json from cache
Downloading http://packagist.org/p/provider-2018-10%24aa9e2fdf4422be2ee3f3633edaf047f05e92c0ec96f760c5fa2f2257f89fa98e.json
Writing /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2018-10.json into cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-archived.json from cache
Downloading http://packagist.org/p/provider-latest%2430d19a056d26ac01f571e70ec61607d697a76339914cc646bdfa8416f79f7f07.json
Writing /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-latest.json into cache
Reading /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-mpdf$mpdf.json from cache
Using version ^6.1 for mpdf/mpdf
./composer.json has been updated
Reading ./composer.json
Loading config file ./composer.json
Executing command (/home/kako/skripte): git branch --no-color --no-abbrev -v
Executing command (/home/kako/skripte): git describe --exact-match --tags
Executing command (/home/kako/skripte): git log --pretty="%H" -n1 HEAD
Reading /home/kako/.composer/composer.json
Loading config file /home/kako/.composer/composer.json
Loading composer repositories with package information
Downloading https://packagist.org/packages.json
Writing /home/kako/.cache/composer/repo/https---packagist.org/packages.json into cache
Updating dependencies (including require-dev)

Installation failed, reverting ./composer.json to its original content.

                                                                                           
  [ErrorException]                                                                         
  "continue" targeting switch is equivalent to "break". Did you mean to use "continue 2"?  
                                                                                           

Exception trace:
 () at /usr/share/php/Composer/DependencyResolver/RuleSetGenerator.php:286
 Composer\Util\ErrorHandler::handle() at /usr/share/php/Composer/autoload.php:258
 require() at /usr/share/php/Composer/autoload.php:258
 {closure}() at n/a:n/a
 spl_autoload_call() at /usr/share/php/Composer/DependencyResolver/Solver.php:75
 Composer\DependencyResolver\Solver->__construct() at /usr/share/php/Composer/Installer.php:459
 Composer\Installer->doInstall() at /usr/share/php/Composer/Installer.php:216
 Composer\Installer->run() at /usr/share/php/Composer/Command/RequireCommand.php:175
 Composer\Command\RequireCommand->execute() at /usr/share/php/Symfony/Component/Console/Command/Command.php:259
 Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command->run() at /usr/share/php/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:844
 Symfony\Component\Console\Application->doRunCommand() at /usr/share/php/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:192
 Symfony\Component\Console\Application->doRun() at /usr/share/php/Composer/Console/Application.php:231
 Composer\Console\Application->doRun() at /usr/share/php/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:123
 Symfony\Component\Console\Application->run() at /usr/share/php/Composer/Console/Application.php:104
 Composer\Console\Application->run() at /usr/bin/composer:44

require [--dev] [--prefer-source] [--prefer-dist] [--no-progress] [--no-update] [--no-scripts] [--update-no-dev] [--update-with-dependencies] [--ignore-platform-reqs] [--prefer-stable] [--prefer-lowest] [--sort-packages] [-o|--optimize-autoloader]` [-a|--classmap-authoritative] [--] [<packages>]...

And I expected this to happen:
composer installing mpdf ;-)

[xabbuh]

Which version of Composer do you use? This has been fixed in c861535 which was part in all releases starting with 1.6.0.

[kakohari]

Composer version 1.2.2 2016-11-03 17:43:15

Sorry, my bad. self-upgrading seems not be part of this version(?), coming from a debain package. Did't expect it being that old...

[Seldaek]

Yeah.. thanks linux packages :/ Please install from https://getcomposer.org to get the latest code. We can't offer support for outdated versions sorry.

[lserni]

As a quick and dirty alternative, you can fix the error in that one file. Just replace "continue" with "break" (or maybe "continue 2").

/usr/share/php/Composer/DependencyResolver/RuleSetGenerator.php at line 286

[rafaelqueiroz88]

As a quick and dirty alternative, you can fix the error in that one file. Just replace "continue" with "break" (or maybe "continue 2").

/usr/share/php/Composer/DependencyResolver/RuleSetGenerator.php at line 286

It works to me. Thanks!

[Haritsinh]

For me Same error occured as:

[ErrorException] "continue" targeting switch is equivalent to "break". Did you mean to use " continue 2"?

and what i have done is downloaded the latest composer from the official site and now it is working fine so there is not any fault of PHP 7.3. And downgrading to PHP 7.2 is not the solution. it is giving error because of old version of composer and if you are troubling with the same issue try to upgrading the composer first and see if it works for you.

[voghDev]

For me Same error occured as:

[ErrorException] "continue" targeting switch is equivalent to "break". Did you mean to use " continue 2"?

and what i have done is downloaded the latest composer from the official site and now it is working fine so there is not any fault of PHP 7.3. And downgrading to PHP 7.2 is not the solution. it is giving error because of old version of composer and if you are troubling with the same issue try to upgrading the composer first and see if it works for you.

Can you add instructions or example code to upgrade composer please?

[dbrumann]

@voghDev This is not related to composer. One of your dependencies is raising a warning with PHP 7.3. You have to find out which one and upgrade it. I know that doctrine/orm used to have this problem, but it could also be anything else. Maybe take this to stackoverflow with a detailed description which command showed the error and what your composer.json & lock looks like.

[voghDev]

Thanks for the information. My case is not the same as the creator of the issue but I was getting the same error (the one pointed by @Haritsinh). Finally solved it upgrading my version of composer as he mentioned. I did it by following the download instructions in getcomposer.org. Thanks everyone for your help :)

[exenin]

Thanks @voghDev
used your suggestion. adding
`

UPGRADE COMPOSER

RUN php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
RUN php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === '48e3236262b34d30969dca3c37281b3b4bbe3221bda826ac6a9a62d6444cdb0dcd0615698a5cbe587c3f0fe57a54d8f5') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
RUN php composer-setup.php
RUN php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"

`

in the web dockerfile . just before composer is used solved this for me

[harrygulliford]

Using composer self-update worked for me!