require(vendor/autoload.php): failed to open stream

173
votes

I know that this issue has been posted many times, but for me it seems to be a different problem.

Indeed, this error

Warning: require(vendor/autoload.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampp\htdocs\site_web\send_mail.php on line 3

Fatal error: require(): Failed opening required 'vendor/autoload.php' (include_path='C:\xampp\php\PEAR') in C:\xampp\htdocs\site_web\send_mail.php on line 3

appears at the begining of my code from this line:

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

So, I guess there must be a /vendor/autoload.php file somewhere in my computer (I have installed composer and ran composer require phpmailer/phpmailer).

So, I looked for this file using: dir /s autoload.php in the Windows command line, and found one here: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\vendor\autoload.php,

but for me, syswow64 folder has nothing to see with autoload.php, I don't see what I am missing here.

17
phpemailcomposer-phpphpmailer
This can also occur if you have php artisan up or down in your composer.json file in the scripts section on pre-install. It seems to need files in the vendor folder to execute the maintenance mode, which isn't available as yet. – Thomas

17 Answers

326
votes

What you're missing is running composer install, which will import your packages and create the vendor folder, along with the autoload script.

Make sure your relative path is correct. For example the example scripts in PHPMailer are in examples/, below the project root, so the correct relative path to load the composer autoloader from there would be ../vendor/autoload.php.

The autoload.php you found in C:\Windows\SysWOW64\vendor\autoload.php is probably a global composer installation – where you'll usually put things like phpcs, phpunit, phpmd etc.

composer update is not the same thing, and probably not what you want to use. If your code is tested with your current package versions then running update may cause breakages which may require further work and testing, so don't run update unless you have a specific reason to and understand exactly what it means. To clarify further – you should probably only ever run composer update locally, never on your server as it is reasonably likely to break apps in production.

I often see complaints that people can't use composer because they can't run it on their server (e.g. because it's shared and they have no shell access). In that case, you can still use composer: run it locally (an environment that has no such restrictions), and upload the local vendor folder it generates along with all your other PHP scripts.

Running composer update also performs a composer install, and if you do not currently have a vendor folder (normal if you have a fresh checkout of a project), then it will create one, and also overwrite any composer.lock file you already have, updating package versions tagged in it, and this is what is potentially dangerous.

Similarly, if you do not currently have a composer.lock file (e.g. if it was not committed to the project), then composer install also effectively performs a composer update. It's thus vital to understand the difference between the two as they are definitely not interchangeable.

It is also possible to update a single package by naming it, for example:

composer update ramsey/uuid

This will re-resolve the version specified in your composer.json and install it in your vendor folder, and update your composer.lock file to match. This is far less likely to cause problems than a general composer update if you just need a specific update to one package.

It is normal for libraries to not include a composer.lock file of their own; it's up to apps to fix versions, not the libraries they use. As a result, library developers are expected to maintain compatibility with a wider range of host environments than app developers need to. For example, a library might be compatible with Laravel 5, 6, 7, and 8, but an app using it might require Laravel 8 for other reasons.

Composer 2.0 removed any remaining inconsistencies between install and update results; if you're running composer 1.x you should definitely upgrade.

57
votes

If you get the error also when you run 

composer install

Just run this command first

composer dump-autoload

This command will clean up all compiled files and their paths.

9
votes

Proper autoload.php configuration:

A) Quick answer:

Your autoload.php path is wrong. ie. C:\Windows\SysWOW64\vendor\autoload.php To date: you need to change it to: C:\Users\<Windows User Name>\vendor\autoload.php

B) Steps with example: We will take facebook/php-graph-sdk as an example; change to Package Name as needed.

  1. Install composer.exe
  2. Open CMD Prompt. + R + type CMD
  3. Run This command: composer require facebook/graph-sdk
  4. Include path in your PHP page: require_once 'C:\Users\<Windows User Name>\vendor\autoload.php';
  5. Define configuration Secrets and Access Token for your package...etc.
  6. Happy codinig.

C) Further details:

Installing composer on windows will set this default path for your pacakges; you can find them there and include the autoloader path:

C:\Users\<Windows User Name>\vendor

For the same question you asked; the answer was this path for WAMP Server 64 BIT for Windows.

Then simply in your PHP Application change this:

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

To:

require_once 'C:\Users\<Windows User Name>\vendor\autoload.php';

Find your windows username under C:\Users\

Before all this, as pointed before in B) , you need to run this command:

composer require <package name>

for facebook php SDK for example:

composer require facebook/graph-sdk

Thank you for asking this question; appreciated as it helped me fix similar issue and ended writing this simple tutorial.

8
votes

First make sure you have installed the composer.

composer install

If you already have installed then update the composer.

composer update
8
votes

If you have cloned your project from Github or got it from somewhere else, you will encounter this error. That's because you are missing the vendor folder and other files. The vendor folder contains packages which are dependent to your project. The package dependencies are stored in composer.json file and the folder was excluded while pushing to Github.

Fix this error by simply running:

composer install

Then you will get all the assets needed for your project.

5
votes

First, review route inside index.php

require __DIR__.'/../vendor/autoload.php';

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

in my case the route did not work, I had to review the directories.

3
votes

run composer update. That's it

2
votes

I had this path in my machine:

C:/xampp5.0/htdocs/project-recordando-symfony/project-recordando-symfony

Then I ran composer install or/and composer update and it returned this error:

ErrorException ZipArchive::extractTo...

That error is because your path is too much long, I changed to:

C:/xampp5.0/htdocs/p-symfony/*

and worked!

2
votes

For me Just run this command first

composer dump-autoload

to add vendor folder.

then run this command 

composer update --no-scripts

to update composer.

1
votes

I was able to resolve by removing composer and reinstalling the proper way. Here is what I did:

I was then able to get composer install to work again. Found my answer at the bottom of this issue: https://github.com/composer/composer/issues/5510

1
votes

In your project folder, the vendor folder is missing so you got this error:

Warning: require(vendor/autoload.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in

When you download the project through git, the project is downloaded without the vendor folder

You need /vendor because all your packages are there, including all the classes Laravel uses. The vendor directory contains your Composer dependencies.

The solution is simple, Just run this command:

composer update --no-scripts 
composer update
  • composer update --no-scripts It will Skips execution of scripts defined in composer.json file.
  • composer update It will update your depencencies as they are specified in composer.json file.

With this command, you will re-create the vendor folder in your project and after that your project will start working normally.

1
votes

Create composer.json file with requisite library for ex:

{
    "require": {
        "mpdf/mpdf": "^6.1"
    }
}

Execute the below command where composer.json exists:

composer install

In case of Drupal :

Use the web root folder of drupal to include autoload for ex:

define('DRUPAL_ROOT', getcwd());
require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/vendor/autoload.php';

In case of other systems: Use the root folder variable or location to include the autoload.php

1
votes

This error occurs because of missing some files and the main reason is "Composer"

enter image description here

First Run these commands in CMD

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === 'e0012edf3e80b6978849f5eff0d4b4e4c79ff1609dd1e613307e16318854d24ae64f26d17af3ef0bf7cfb710ca74755a') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"

Then Create a New project
Example:

D:/Laravel_Projects/New_Project
laravel new New_Project

After that start the server using

php artisan serve
0
votes

There will be a directory called "vendor" that needs to be in your root directory if you have a cloned repository and trying to set up that time this type of error occurring.

".gitingore" file has written code to not include vendor directory on GIT so after cloning GIT your project facing the issue of missing vendor directory.

Once you add vendor directory your project will start working again.

-1
votes

In linux first add github Personal access tokens

  1. Navigate to GitHub's Personal Access Tokens page.
  2. Hit "Generate new token" button.
  3. Type something meaningful "Note", select "repo" as scope and hit "Generate token" button.
  4. Take a note of the token.

5 type in terminal with you new "personal access token"

export COMPOSER_AUTH='{"github-oauth":{"github.com":"AB8cd4cab23a9d5399934a7d7698d3fa74e9cfAB"}}'

Run in terminal composer install

-2
votes

Change the auto_prepend_file property on php.ini 

; Automatically add files before PHP document. 
;http://php.net/auto-prepend-file 
auto_prepend_file =