Composer.phar difference between | and ||

Question

What is the difference between pipe and douoble pipe in composer.json file? For example:

"^1.0.0 || ^2.0.0"

and

'^1.0.0|^2.0.0'

From what I found, they're the same. May not be right though — Antony, Feb 01 '17 at 12:46
@Shanukk ok, so what is the difference between logical or and single pipe? — Roman678, Feb 01 '17 at 14:36

score 22 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 26 '17 at 12:16

22

They're the same.

$orConstraints = preg_split('{\s*\|\|?\s*}', trim($constraints));

As we can see in the regex, they're is a ? after the second pipe, making it optional.

It seems that only the double pipe is documented though. (https://getcomposer.org/doc/articles/versions.md#range)

answered Apr 26 '17 at 12:16

Pierre-Yves

The single pipe is deprecated but retained for backwards compatibility. Your preg_split reference is spot on. – Scriptonomy Oct 31 '17 at 18:21
2

This is also discussed in this issue [here](https://github.com/composer/composer/issues/6755). They removed the documentation for a single pipe but it still remains functional for backwards compatibility. – Mike Harrison Sep 08 '19 at 20:07

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 28 '17 at 12:46

I thinks it´s the old syntax of the composer OR logical operator. I found this reference: http://qpleple.com/understand-composer-versions (search for the pipe character)

In the introduction it says:

Here are some extracts from Composer's documentation reorganized to better understand how package versions and stability work

but I couldn't found any reference in current composer documentation, then I assume this is from an old version of the docs

2 Answers2