Composer is a package manager for PHP packages. You use a `composer.json` file to configure the packages for a PHP project, similar to the `package.json` file in NodeJS projects.
### Install Composer
To install Composer, you first have to download it from <ahref='https://getcomposer.org/download/'target='_blank'rel='nofollow'>getcomposer.org</a>.
You can then install Composer locally or globally.
To install only a specific package, use `composer require <package_name>`. This will only download and install the latest version available to the selected package.
If you run this command without a `composer.json` file, composer will automatically create it the before the installation.
```shell
composer require <package_name>
```
### Updating Packages
Update packages with `composer update`, Composer will automatically download and install the latest versions of the packages listed in the `composer.json` file to the vendor/ folder.
```shell
composer update
```
To update a single package, use `composer update <package_name>`.
### Removing Packages
Removing is easy as installing packages with composer. Just enter `composer remove <package_name>` to uninstall the package from your vendor/ folder. This will automatically update your `composer.json` file.
* The popular PHP package repository that Composer uses to search for packages: <ahref='https://packagist.org/'target='_blank'rel='nofollow'>Packagist</a>