First, you need to login as the root user. This can be done by using this command :

su -

Install of needed packages

The first step is to install a GLDAP environment (GNU / Linux Debian - Apache 2 - PHP). In order to achieve this, run this command line :

apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php-pear php5-mysql php5-cli php5-xsl

Don't forget to enable the Apache 2 rewrite module :

a2enmod rewrite

To install Symfony, you need to rise the memory limit for the PHP command line interpreter :

sed -i -e 's/memory_limit = .*/memory_limit = 32M/' /etc/php5/cli/php.ini

You also need to rise the memory limit for the PHP module of Apache 2 :

sed -i -e 's/memory_limit = .*/memory_limit = 128M/' /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Then you need to disable the PHP magic quotes option :

sed -i -e 's/magic_quotes_gpc = .*/magic_quotes_gpc = Off/' /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Installing Symfony

Before installing Symfony, you need to upgrade PEAR. This can be done by running these command lines :

pear channel-update pear.php.net
pear upgrade PEAR

You can now install Symfony. In order to do this, register the Symfony chanel into your PEAR configuration :

pear channel-discover pear.symfony-project.com

Now, we download and install Symfony :

pear install symfony/symfony

Then, we install phing (I don't know if it is really needed) :

pear channel-discover pear.phing.info
pear config-set preferred_state beta
pear install --alldeps phing/phing

Note : If you want to be able to generate automatic documentation, you need to install PhpDocumentor :

pear install PhpDocumentor XML_Beautifier

Now, check that Symfony is installed :

symfony -V

If this command line work, you have now a working installation of the Symfony framework. The last thing to do is to create a place where coding your projects :

mkdir /home/sfprojects
chgrp users /home/sfprojects
chmod ugo+w /home/sfprojects

Symfony project creation

For the example, we create a new Symfony project. You can do this with your usual user. First, choose a name for your project :

SYMFONY_PROJECT=askeet

Then create it :

mkdir /home/sfprojects/$SYMFONY_PROJECT
cd /home/sfprojects/$SYMFONY_PROJECT
symfony init-project $SYMFONY_PROJECT

Once the project created, we can create applications, In order to achieve this, choose the name of your application :

SYMFONY_APP=frontend

And create it :

cd /home/sfprojects/$SYMFONY_PROJECT
symfony init-app $SYMFONY_APP

Now, we create a associated Apache 2 web site :

su -c "echo '<VirtualHost *>
  ServerName $SYMFONY_PROJECT
  DocumentRoot \"/home/sfprojects/$SYMFONY_PROJECT/web\"

  Alias /sf /usr/share/php/data/symfony/web/sf

  <Directory \"/home/sfprojects/$SYMFONY_PROJECT/web\">
    AllowOverride All
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>' \
      > /etc/apache2/sites-available/$SYMFONY_PROJECT"

Don't forget to enable it :

su -c "a2ensite $SYMFONY_PROJECT"

Check you Apache 2 configuration :

su -c "apache2ctl -t"

If it is allright, reload the Apache 2 configuration :

su -c "/etc/init.d/apache2 reload"

Now, we add a line to our hosts file in order to access easily to our project :

su -c "echo '127.0.0.1 $SYMFONY_PROJECT' >> /etc/hosts"

You can now start to work on your Symfony project. Use this command line to open it in your browser :

firefox http://$SYMFONY_PROJECT

What's next

Now that you have installed it, i encourage you to follow this 24 tutorials to learn the use of Symfony.

Upgrading Symfony

If you want to upgrade Symfony, use these command lines as a super user :

pear channel-update pear.php.net
pear upgrade --alldeps PEAR
pear channel-update pear.symfony-project.com
pear upgrade symfony/symfony

You can also upgrade all PEAR packages :

pear update-channels
pear upgrade-all

Now, for each Symfony project available on your computer, run (if necessary) :

symfony upgrade version.de.symfony

Generating documentation

If you have installed PhpDocumentor, you can generate your project documentation by using the command line :

phpdoc -d /home/sfprojects/$SYMFONY_PROJECT -t /home/sfprojects/$SYMFONY_PROJECT/doc

Thanks

• Thanks to Niko for his article Installer le framework PHP Symfony sur Ubuntu Dapper Drake.