How to tell and force Composer to use a specific PHP version such as 7.x or 8.x

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You can tell Composer to use a specific PHP version by specifying the version in the composer command. For example, to use PHP version 7. (simpleeverydaymom.com) 4:

php7.4 /usr/local/bin/composer <composer command>

You can also configure Composer to use a specific PHP version by creating a composer.json file in the root of your project and add the following in it:

{
"config": {
"platform": {
"php": "7.4"
}
}
}

You can also use environment variables to specify the PHP version for composer.

COMPOSER_MEMORY_LIMIT=-1 composer install --ignore-platform-reqs

You can also use .bashrc file to set the environment variable.

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.config/composer/vendor/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

You can check the version of PHP that Composer is using by running the command:

composer diagnose

It will show you the version of PHP that Composer is currently using.

Please note that specifying a specific version of PHP may cause issues if the version is not compatible with the packages you are trying to install. It’s always a good idea to check the package’s compatibility before specifying a specific version of PHP.

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