Why are there 2 version of Laravel?

Question

I just notice that at Github, there are 2 version of Laravel. One is this: https://github.com/laravel/laravel and the other is https://github.com/laravel/framework. One has more frequent update than the other. For example: one has laravel version 4.1.30 and 4.2.1, but the other one has version 4.1.27 and 4.2.0.

I tried to do composer install & update for laravel 4.1.* on 2 different computer. One give me version. 4.1.30, but the other give me 4.1.27.

Why is that there are two of it? What is the difference?

Answer 1

The first repository link in your question (https://github.com/laravel/laravel) is to build an application using Laravel 4 and you should use this (laravel/laravel) repository if you want to build an application using the Laravel framework.

On the other hand, the second one which is https://github.com/laravel/framework; it's the core code of the Laravel framework and there is a note available in that Github page as given below:

Note: This repository contains the core code of the Laravel framework. If you want to build an application using Laravel 4, visit the main Laravel repository.

So, if you want to contribute in the Laravel Framework then clone this repository. This is the core code repository/Laravel Framework (Kernel) and it's laravel/framework not for building an application.

Installation:

For installing the Laravel to build an application you may use:

// Via Composer Create-Project
composer create-project laravel/laravel --prefer-dist

Also you may use this (using Laravel installer and it's faster than composer install):

// Via Laravel Installer
laravel new projectname

For this, you need to download the Laravel installer PHAR archive first. For detail information, check Via Laravel Installer on Laravel website.