Installing demo with --no-dev doesn't work

[tavy315]

If I use:
composer create-project symfony/symfony-demo --no-dev

I'm getting:
[Wed Mar 14 17:12:58 2018] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class 'Symfony\Component\Dotenv\Dotenv' not found in D:\test\symfony-demo\public\index.php:21

Is this something normal ?

[javiereguiluz]

It's an error ... but it's "normal". It's related to Symfony itself and not this application. The DotEnv component is installed only when not using --no-dev. If you don't have DotEnv you need to define some env vars in your server (in this case, APP_ENV var. See https://github.com/symfony/recipes/blob/a067bebf03a2b244cdf82dd4e3eff52de5320ac2/symfony/framework-bundle/3.3/public/index.php#L11).

That's why you usually don't add --no-dev in your local machine (and everything works) but only in your production server, where you are careful to define all the needed env vars.

[tavy315]

Let's suppose that this was my production machine, so adding --no-dev was the right way to do it for me.

Meanwhile, the problem is still there, "DotEnv" being required in index.php. Loooking at [https://github.com/symfony/demo/blob/master/README.md], I can't see any reference for required ENV variables for production.

This might be an issue for beginners, as I don't have a problem doing what's needed, but perhaps we can improve the documentation?

[jkufner]

I think it would be reasonable to add an explanation to the DotEnv use in index.php. Something like: "Environment variables are not set and DotEnv not installed. See that section in the readme."

[javiereguiluz]

@tavy315 I reviewed the Symfony Flex recipes that create the public/index.php and I realized that it was recently updated to display a better error message for cases like yours. so in #773 we're updating it. Cheers!

[tavy315]

Ok, thanks for looking into it 👍