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Sometimes a single feature requires installing several packages and bundles. Instead of installing them individually, Symfony provides packs, which are Composer metapackages that include several dependencies.
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For example, to add debugging features in your application, you can run the
composer require --dev debug
command. This installs thesymfony/debug-pack
, which in turn installs several packages likesymfony/debug-bundle
,symfony/monolog-bundle
,symfony/var-dumper
, etc. -
You won't see the
symfony/debug-pack
dependency in yourcomposer.json
, as Flex automatically unpacks the pack. This means that it only adds the real packages as dependencies (e.g. you will see a newsymfony/var-dumper
inrequire-dev
). While it is not recommended, you can use the `composer require --no-unpack ...`` option to disable unpacking.