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(Contributor) Clone the Magento repository

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Contents

Intended audience

The audience for this topic is anyone who contributes to the Magento codebase. If that isn鈥檛 you, go back and choose another starting point.

Composer and Magento

We now use Composer for dependency management. Composer enables us to manage the Magento components and their dependencies.

Everyone who uses the Magento software must install Composer to update components and Magento. If you install Magento using an archive, you don't need Composer to install Magento, but you do need Composer for updates.

Composer provides you with the following advantages:

  • Enables you to reuse third-party libraries without bundling them with source code
  • Component-based architecture with robust dependency management
  • Manages dependencies to reduce extension conflicts and compatibility issues
  • Versioned dependencies
  • Semantic versioning
  • Supports the PHP Framework Interoperability standard

Install Composer

First, check if Composer is already installed:

In a command prompt, enter any of the following commands:

  • composer --help
  • composer list --help

If command help displays, Composer is already installed; in that case, you can skip the next steps and continue with Clone the Magento repository.

If an error displays, use the following steps to install Composer.

To install Composer:

  1. Change to or create an empty directory on your Magento server.

  2. Enter the following commands:

    curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

    For additional installation options, see the Composer installation documentation.

Clone the Magento repository

This section discusses how to get current code by cloning the Magento GitHub鈥檚 develop branch. You can clone either a release branch or the develop branch:

  • Release branches like 2.0 or .2.0.1 are more stable
  • develop is more recent

Currently, the develop branch is the default but you can clone a release branch like 2.0.1 using the optional -b <branch name> argument.

Creating an authorization file

The Magento 2 GitHub repository requires you to authenticate. The composer install commands fails if you do not. To authenticate, generate authentication keys, after which you create an auth.json file in the home directory of the Magento file system owner.

Generate authentication tokens

To get your authentication keys:

  1. If you haven鈥檛 done so already, create an account on Magento Connect.

    (It鈥檚 the same as an account on magento.com.)

    • Click My Account in the upper right corner of the page.

    • In the New Customer section, click Register.

      If you already have an account, make sure you know your user name and password, then continue with the next step.

  2. At the top of the page, click Connect.

  3. In the Developers section, click Secure Keys.

  4. You have the following options in the right pane:

    • If you already have keys, use the Public key as your user name and the Private key as your password.

    • New key: In the Name field, enter a name to identify the keys and click Generate new.

      You can optionally generate additional keys; for example, to provide access to repo.magento.com to co-workers, contractors, or integrators.

    • Regenerate or rename existing keys: Click Regenerate.

      You can regenerate your keys for security reasons; for example, you believe they have been compromised.

    • Save an existing key if you changed its name: Click Save.
    • Disable keys: Click Disable. You can do this if you want to suspend use of your keys.
    • Delete keys: Click Delete.
  5. Come back to this page anytime to view or change your keys.

Create auth.json

To create auth.json:

  1. Log in to your Magento server as, or switch to, the Magento file system owner.

  2. Edit or create auth.json in the user鈥檚 home directory.

    The following example shows how to add repo.magento.com authentication to an existing file:

    {
   "github-oauth": {
     "github.com": "<your github oauth id>"
   },
   "http-basic": {
      "repo.magento.com": {
         "username": "<public key>",
         "password": "<private key>"
      }
   }
}
    For example, if your user name is magento_user, create or edit /home/magento_user/.composer/auth.json

How to clone the Magento 2 GitHub repository

You can clone the Magento 2 GitHub repository using either SSH or HTTPS protocols:

  • Use SSH for better security (no user name and password are exchanged). This requires you to share a public key with GitHub.
  • Use HTTPS if you don鈥檛 share an SSH key with GitHub (your user name and password are encrypted before being sent to GitHub).

See one of the following section:

Clone with SSH

To clone the Magento GitHub repository using the SSH protocol:

  1. Copy to the clipboard the Magento GitHub repository SSH clone URL.

    a. In a web browser, go to the Magento GitHub repository.

    b. On the right side of the page, under the clone URL field, click SSH.

    c. Click the Copy to clipboard button.

    The following figure shows an example.

    Clone the Magento GitHub repository using SSH

  2. Change to your web server鈥檚 docroot directory. Typically, for Ubuntu, it鈥檚 /var/www and for CentOS it鈥檚 /var/www/html.

    Need help locating the docroot? Click here.

  3. Enter git clone and paste the value you obtained from step 1.

    An example follows:

    git clone [-b <branch-name>] git@github.com:magento/magento2.git

  4. Wait for the repository to clone on your server.

    If the following error displays, make sure you shared your SSH key with GitHub: 

    Cloning into 'magento2'...
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

  5. Continue with Update installation dependencies.

Clone with HTTPS

To clone the Magento GitHub repository using the HTTPS protocol:

  1. Copy to the clipboard the Magento GitHub repository HTTPS clone URL.

    a. In a web browser, go to the Magento GitHub repository.

    b. On the right side of the page, under the clone URL field, click HTTPS.

    c. Click the Copy to clipboard button.

    The following figure shows an example.

    Clone the Magento GitHub repository using HTTPS

  2. Change to your web server鈥檚 docroot directory.

    Typically, for Ubuntu, it鈥檚 /var/www and for CentOS it鈥檚 /var/www/html.

  3. Enter git clone and paste the value you obtained from step 1.

    An example follows

    git clone [-b <branch-name>] https://github.com/magento/magento2.git

    Use -b 2.0 to clone the 2.0 release branch; omit it to clone the develop branch, which is the default.

  4. Wait for the repository to clone on your server.

Next step

After completing the tasks discussed on this page, see Update installation dependencies.