Laravel throws 'The bootstrap/cache directory must be present and writable' error after update

Question

I used 'composer update', which updated a few packages. During the updating process the website still functions. However, after it says 'The compiled services file has been removed', the website doesn't load and instead says:

Exception in ProviderRepository.php line 190:
The bootstrap/cache directory must be present and writable.

The weirdest thing is, when I run 'composer update' again, the website starts to work again, until the compiled services file is removed, at which point it throws the same error again. I have already tried the usual things that should be done when this error appears (chown -R everything to the right user/group and chmod all the files and folders 664 and 775 respectively).

I don't know what to do anymore, as the error doesn't seem 'correct'..

Answer 1

Try this after you have run the composer update:

php artisan cache:clear

Answer 2

On your Laravel directory file, run:

sudo chmod -R 777 bootstrap/cache/

Answer 3

The best way to resolve this error is : 1. Open your project folder 2. Move to the bootstrap directory 3. Create an empty folder named as "cache" 4. Then do php artisan cache: clear This will work for sure

Answer 4

Short version: If uploading using something like AWS eb cli Verify if bootstrap/cache folder (not talking about its contents) is being deployed.

Some background behind my answer

I am using Amazon Web Services' Elastic Beanstalk to host my Laravel project. As I just started using Laravel I do not have much idea about its functioning. Two days back My new deployments were all crashing midway with OP's error message.

Earlier that day, I realised that I was not using

 php artisan config:cache

to cache configurations to make things faster. And I added the same in composer.json's "post-install-cmd" and "post-update-cmd" clauses.
And I also added statement in .ebignore file to not upload the content of /bootstrap/cache (as its content is environment dependent a.k.a my localhost configurations have no meaning on my production server)

And facepalm I did not realise that this will stop the bootstrap/cache folder from being uploaded (as Like git, eb cli ignores empty folders).
So, when I started to deploy at night The deployments were meant to crash.

So, now I have just placed empty-placeholder (say) .gitkeep file in bootstrap/cache. And deployments are working once again :)
(Though the problem was so simple I realised the reason after ssh-ing and digging an EBS EC2 instance for some sweet sleep hours ~.~ )