Submitting a package to packagist causing "composer_home env variable" error - composer-php

Question

Whenever I submit a git package to my packagist installation, I get the following error:
Uncaught Exception: [RuntimeException] The HOME or COMPOSER_HOME environment variable must be set for composer to run correctly
I've tried exporting the variable manually, but that doesn't seem to resolve the error.

Answer 1

The php user didn't have HOME or COMPOSER_HOME set, so I created a php.ini file in my web root with the following contents:
auto_prepend_file = /home/yourusername/directory/set_environment.php
I then created a set_environment.php file in the same directory, and set my COMPOSER_HOME directory.
<?php putenv("COMPOSER_HOME=/home/etc/webapps/novuspackagist/.composer"); ?>
Now, whenever the app is run, the COMPOSER_HOME environment variable will be set.

Answer 2

A much easier way is to add the environment variable into the apache configuration within the virtual host block, e.g.:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName myhost.home
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/packagist/web
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
<Directory /var/www/packagist/web>
AllowOverride All
SetEnv COMPOSER_HOME /home/<user>
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
As you can see the SetEnv COMPOSER_HOME /home/<user> directive makes it possible.
This should solve that kind of problems.