============
Installation
============

There are 3 supported methods of installing the AWS SDK for PHP. The
recommended way to install the SDK is through `Composer <http://getcomposer.org>`_.

Installing via Composer
-----------------------

Using `Composer <http://getcomposer.org>`_ is the recommended way to install
the AWS SDK for PHP. Composer is a dependency management tool for PHP that
allows you to declare the dependencies your project needs and installs them
into your project.

1. Install Composer

   ::

       curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php

2. Run the Composer command to install the latest stable version of the SDK:

   ::

       php composer.phar require aws/aws-sdk-php

3. Require Composer's autoloader:

   .. code-block:: php

       <?php
       require 'vendor/autoload.php';

You can find out more on how to install Composer, configure autoloading, and
other best-practices for defining dependencies at
`getcomposer.org <http://getcomposer.org>`_.

Installing via Phar
-------------------

You can `download the packaged phar <http://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-sdk-php/v3/download/aws.phar>`_
and simply include it in your scripts to get started:

.. code-block:: php

    <?php
    require '/path/to/aws.phar';

Each release of the AWS SDK for PHP ships with a pre-packaged
`phar <http://php.net/manual/en/book.phar.php>`_ (PHP archive) file containing
all of the classes and dependencies you need to run the SDK. Additionally, the
phar file automatically registers a class autoloader for the AWS SDK for PHP
and all of its dependencies when included.

.. note::

    If you are using PHP with the Suhosin patch (not recommended, but common on
    Ubuntu and Debian distributions), you may need to enable the use of phars in
    the ``suhosin.ini``. Without this, including a phar file in your code will
    cause it to silently fail. You should modify the ``suhosin.ini`` file by
    adding the line:

    ``suhosin.executor.include.whitelist = phar``

Installing via Zip
------------------

Each release of the AWS SDK for PHP ships with a zip file containing all of the
classes and dependencies you need to run the SDK. Additionally, the zip file
includes a class autoloader for the AWS SDK for PHP and all of its dependencies.

To get started, you must `download the zip file <http://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-sdk-php/v3/download/aws.zip>`_,
unzip it into your project to a location of your choosing, and include the
autoloader::

    require '/path/to/aws-autoloader.php';