Symfony - Unable to create new project using installer

Question

I'm trying to learn Symfony but so far just keep getting hung up on installation and things other than the actual development of my app.

I try to create a new Symfony project on my Windows machine using the installer. I'm following the instructions exactly as it says in the book. I can successfully download the symfony.phar but when I run:

php symfony.phar

I get the following error:

PHP Warning:  Phar::mapPhar(symfony.phar): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in symfony.phar on line 9
PHP Stack trace:
PHP   1. {main}() symfony.phar:0
PHP   2. Phar::mapPhar() symfony.phar:9

Warning: Phar::mapPhar(symfony.phar): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in symfony.phar on line 9

Call Stack:
    0.0017     227224   1. {main}() symfony.phar:0
    0.0017     227920   2. Phar::mapPhar() symfony.phar:9

PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught exception 'PharException' with message 'unable to open phar for reading "symfony.phar"' in symfony.phar:9
Stack trace:
#0 symfony.phar(9): Phar::mapPhar('default.phar')
#1 {main}
  thrown in symfony.phar on line 9

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'PharException' with message 'unable to open phar for reading "symfony.phar"' in symfony.phar on line 9

PharException: unable to open phar for reading "symfony.phar" in symfony.phar on line 9

Call Stack:
    0.0017     227224   1. {main}() symfony.phar:0
    0.0017     227920   2. Phar::mapPhar() symfony.phar:9

I can't find anything that helps with this.

Answer 1

The reason appears to be that in my Windows command prompt I was in a sub directory of C:\Users\Me\My Documents. Neither the symfony.phar, nor Composer will work from this directory. It has to be from C:\Users\Me\Documents which is the actual phsyical location, as opposed to My Documents which is just a virtual directory.

I don't know the technicalities of exactly why it doesn't work though.