README

A Composer plugin that detects patches.lock.json changes and automatically triggers re-patching of affected packages. See cweagans/composer-patches#583

This is relevant for sites that use a git pull && composer install workflow. With composer-patches 2.x this is not sufficient anymore to get any patches.lock.json changes installed. The workaround is git pull && composer install && composer patches-repatch, but has downsides:

• Local development: developers need to remember a much longer command when they update their checkout, composer install is not enough anymore.
• Longer production downtimes than necessary. A full composer patches-repatch triggers all patched dependencies to be patched again, which is slow.

What it does internally

1. On a fresh install (no vendor/ directory), pre-initialises the patches.lock.json cache so the first composer install does not trigger unnecessary reinstalls.
2. On subsequent composer install, compares patches.lock.json against the cached copy in vendor/composer/patches.lock.json.
3. Re-installs only the packages whose patch hashes have changed, so patches are always applied consistently.
4. Supports --no-dev mode: dev-only packages are skipped when running without dev dependencies.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• Composer 2.x
• cweagans/composer-patches ^2.0

Installation

composer require jobiqo/composer-patches-install

Usage

Generate a patches.lock.json file with composer-patches in the root of your project (next to composer.json). The plugin reads the patches key and its sha256 hashes (as written by cweagans/composer-patches v2) to decide which packages need to be reinstalled.

Run composer install and patch changes will be picked up automatically.