How to Split Test Monorepo with Composer 2

Monorepo split testing is made easier by symplify/monorepo-builder package. This is how it "works" for Composer 1. Why "works"? There are 2 problems, that we fix during upgrade to Composer 2.

Let's say we have a symplify/symplify monorepo, where we develop all symplify package. We need to test all packages together with their local version, even in pull-request.

1. Installing Packages that needs Local version Package

We want to test symplify/coding-standard package:

• the symplify/coding-standard package needs symplify/autowire-array-parameter package
  • the symplify/autowire-array-parameter needs the symplify/package-builder package

In short:

• we're testing a
• a needs b
  • b needs c

This the result of localized package composer install on GitHub Action with Composer 1:

• Package a and b and used in local version ✅
• Package c is used from packagist ❌

What happens with changes of symplify/package-builder in this pull-request? They're ignored, and last stable version is used instead. ❌

This is the same process, with Composer 2:

• Package a and b and used in local version ✅
• Package c is used in local version ✅

2. State Local packages as dev-master

So we upgrade to Composer 2 with Symplify 9 and that's it? No.

Local and GitHub Action development are different. Locally, Composer can see them as dev-master branch, which works with using branch-alias. But on GitHub Actoin (or your any favorite CI, the pull-request branch is dev-<commit-hash>).

The composer install will lead to a conflict with these 2 version:

What now?

I asked on Composer repository and after less than hour of work got a working solution with proper explanation. Thank you Jordi!

Trick is using COMPOSER_ROOT_VERSION=dev-master env, that will explicitly make version dev-master for all environments.

This is the final working GitHub Action (here you can see it the action):

name: Split Tests

on:
    pull_request: null

jobs:
    split_testing:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest

        strategy:
            fail-fast: false
            matrix:
                package_name:
                    - coding-standard
                    # and all the other packages...

        name: Split Tests of ${{ matrix.package_name }}

        steps:
            -   uses: actions/checkout@v2

            -   uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v1
                with:
                    php-version: 7.4
                    coverage: none
                    tools: composer:v2

            -   run: composer install --no-progress --ansi

            # tell composer to use local package version
            -   run: vendor/bin/monorepo-builder localize-composer-paths packages/${{ matrix.package_name }}/composer.json --ansi

            -
                working-directory: packages/${{ matrix.package_name }}
                run: composer update --no-progress --ansi
                env:
                    # see https://github.com/composer/composer/issues/9368#issuecomment-718112361
                    COMPOSER_ROOT_VERSION: "dev-master"

            -
                working-directory: packages/${{ matrix.package_name }}
                run: vendor/bin/phpunit

Do you want to know more about this topic?

• Issue on Composer
• Canonical Repositories and their change in Composer 2

Happy coding!