How to install Symfony in Linux from scratch

Introduction

Symfony is a powerful PHP framework that simplifies the development of modern and scalable web applications. By using Symfony on Linux, you can benefit from a robust and highly configurable development environment. This guide will show you how to install the latest version of Symfony on a Linux system, configuring Nginx to serve the application via HTTPS using self-signed certificates.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following prerequisites installed on your system:

PHP

Check if PHP is installed and verify the version:

php -v

If PHP is not installed or the version is below 8.0, install it using your distribution's package manager. Here are the commands for some common distributions:

NB:

  • php-zip (required for handling ZIP archives with Composer)
  • php-gd (useful for image processing, if needed)
  • php-opcache (for improved performance)

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php-fpm php-cli php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-intl php-zip php-gd php-opcache php-xdebug

Fedora:

sudo dnf install php-fpm php-cli php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-intl php-zip php-gd php-opcache php-xdebug

Arch/Manjaro:

sudo pacman -S php php-fpm php-gd php-intl

NB Arch/Manjaro:

Enable the following extensions by editing:

sudo nano /etc/php/php.ini

And adding:

extension=curl
extension=xml
extension=zip
extension=gd
extension=intl
extension=iconv

There might be issues with the official Manjaro packages because mbstring is neither available as a package nor built within PHP itself.

To solve this issue and avoid installing it via AUR, it is advisable to build the extension from source:

sudo pacman -S base-devel
cd /tmp
wget https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.3.11.tar.gz  # Replace with the correct version
tar -xzf php-8.3.11.tar.gz
cd php-8.3.11/ext/mbstring
phpize
./configure
make
sudo cp modules/mbstring.so /usr/lib/php/modules/

Additionally, you can compile the xdebug package, which is not available in the official Arch/Manjaro repositories:

sudo pacman -S base-devel
cd /tmp
wget https://xdebug.org/files/xdebug-3.3.2.tgz  # Replace with the latest available version
tar -xzf xdebug-3.3.2.tgz
cd xdebug-3.3.2
phpize
./configure
make
sudo cp modules/xdebug.so /usr/lib/php/modules/

Now configure xdebug:

[xdebug]
zend_extension=/usr/lib/php/modules/xdebug.so
xdebug.mode=develop,debug
xdebug.start_with_request=trigger

Then verify that php -v and php -m display the expected information:

php -v
php -m

Enable PHP-FPM:

sudo systemctl enable php-fpm
sudo systemctl start php-fpm

Composer

Check if Composer is installed:

composer -v

If it’s not installed, you can install it by running:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
# if necessary in bash
source ~/.bashrc
# or in zsh
source ~/.zshrc
composer self-update

OpenSSL

Check if OpenSSL is installed:

openssl version

If it’s not installed, you can install it with:

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openssl

Fedora:

sudo dnf install openssl

Arch/Manjaro:

sudo pacman -S openssl

Nginx

Check if Nginx is installed:

nginx -v

If it’s not installed, you can install it with:

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

Fedora:

sudo dnf install nginx

Arch/Manjaro:

sudo pacman -S nginx

Enable Nginx with systemd:

sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

Installing Symfony

Symfony can be easily installed via Composer.

Creating a Symfony Project

To create a new Symfony project, run the following command:

composer create-project symfony/skeleton project_name

This command will create a new directory called project_name with the basic Symfony structure.

Verifying the Symfony Project

Navigate into the project folder:

cd project_name

Start Symfony’s built-in PHP server to verify that everything was installed correctly:

php -S 127.0.0.1:8000 -t public/

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your browser. You should see Symfony’s welcome page.

Configuring Environment Variables

Ensure that Symfony has access to the required environment variables. Edit the .env file in the project directory and set the necessary variables for your configuration.

nano .env

You can also use your preferred text editor for this operation.

At this point, you have successfully installed Symfony and tested it locally using the built-in PHP server. Next, we will configure Nginx to serve the Symfony application over HTTPS using self-signed certificates.

Configuring Nginx for Symfony with HTTPS

After installing Symfony, we need to configure Nginx to serve the application. Follow these steps to set up Nginx and enable HTTPS with self-signed certificates.

Generating Self-Signed Certificates

To use HTTPS, first generate a self-signed SSL certificate by running:

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/selfsigned.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/selfsigned.crt

During this process, you will be asked to provide some information. You can press Enter to accept the default values or enter your own details.

Configuring Nginx

Now configure Nginx to use the newly created SSL certificate. Create a new configuration file for your site in /etc/nginx/sites-available/:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/my_project_name

Add the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;

    # Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name localhost;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/selfsigned.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/selfsigned.key;

    root /path/to/your/my_project_name/public; # Modify this path accordingly
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php-fpm.sock; # Modify the PHP version if necessary
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Make sure to replace /path/to/your/my_project_name/public with the correct path to your Symfony application.

Enabling the Site and Restarting Nginx

After saving the configuration file, enable the site and restart Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/my_project_name /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t # Test the Nginx configuration
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Verifying HTTPS Accessibility

Now, visit https://my_project_name in your browser. Since you are using a self-signed certificate, your browser may display a security warning. You can ignore it and proceed, as the certificate is self-signed.

At this point, you have configured Nginx to serve the Symfony application over HTTPS using self-signed certificates. Next, we will perform a final test and address any common issues.