drupal/core-recipe-unpack

A Composer project unpacker for Drupal recipes.

11.2.5 2025-07-22 05:40 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.3
• composer-plugin-api: ^2

Requires (Dev)

• composer/composer: ^2.7

GPL-2.0-or-later

• drupal

README

Thanks for using this Drupal component.

You can participate in its development on Drupal.org, through our issue system: https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/drupal

You can get the full Drupal repo here: https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/git-instructions

You can browse the full Drupal repo here: https://git.drupalcode.org/project/drupal

Overview

The Recipe Unpacking system is a Composer plugin that manages "drupal-recipe" packages. Recipes are special Composer packages designed to bootstrap Drupal projects with necessary dependencies. When a recipe is installed, this plugin "unpacks" it by moving the recipe's dependencies directly into your project's root composer.json, and removes the recipe as a project dependency.

Key Concepts

What is a Recipe?

A recipe is a Composer package with type drupal-recipe that contains a curated set of dependencies, configuration and content but no code of its own. Recipes are meant to be "unpacked" and "applied" rather than remain as runtime dependencies.

What is Unpacking?

Unpacking is the process where:

1. A recipe's dependencies are added to your project's root composer.json
2. The recipe itself is removed from your dependencies
3. The composer.lock and vendor installation files are updated accordingly
4. The recipe will remain in the project's recipes folder so it can be applied

Commands

drupal:recipe-unpack

Unpack a recipe package that's already required in your project.

composer drupal:recipe-unpack drupal/example_recipe

Unpack all recipes that are required in your project.

composer drupal:recipe-unpack

Options

This command doesn't take additional options.

Automatic Unpacking

After composer require

By default, recipes are automatically unpacked after running composer require for a recipe package:

composer require drupal/example_recipe

This will:

1. Download the recipe and its dependencies
2. Add the recipe's dependencies to your project's root composer.json
3. Remove the recipe itself from your dependencies
4. Update your composer.lock file

After composer create-project

Recipes are always automatically unpacked when creating a new project from a template that requires this plugin:

composer create-project drupal/recommended-project my-project

Any recipes included in the project template will be unpacked during installation, as long as the plugin is enabled.

Configuration

Configuration options are set in the extra section of your composer.json file:

{
  "extra": {
    "drupal-recipe-unpack": {
      "ignore": ["drupal/recipe_to_ignore"],
      "on-require": true
    }
  }
}

Available Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
ignore	array	[]	List of recipe packages to exclude from unpacking
on-require	boolean	true	Automatically unpack recipes when required by composer require

How Recipe Unpacking Works

1. The system identifies packages of type drupal-recipe during installation
2. For each recipe not in the ignore list, it:
   • Extracts its dependencies
   • Adds them to the root composer.json
   • Recursively processes any dependencies that are also recipes
   • Removes the recipe and any dependencies that are also recipes from the root composer.json
3. Updates all necessary Composer files:
   • composer.json
   • composer.lock
   • vendor/composer/installed.json
   • vendor/composer/installed.php

Cases Where Recipes Will Not Be Unpacked

Recipes will not be unpacked in the following scenarios:

1. Explicit Ignore List: If the recipe is listed in the ignore array in your extra.drupal-recipe-unpack configuration

   {
     "extra": {
       "drupal-recipe-unpack": {
         "ignore": ["drupal/recipe_name"]
       }
     }
   }

2. Disabled Automatic Unpacking: If on-require is set to false in your extra.drupal-recipe-unpack configuration

   {
     "extra": {
       "drupal-recipe-unpack": {
         "on-require": false
       }
     }
   }

3. Development Dependencies: Recipes in the require-dev section are not automatically unpacked

   {
     "require-dev": {
       "drupal/dev_recipe": "^1.0"
     }
   }

   You will need to manually unpack these using the drupal:recipe-unpack command if desired.

4. With --no-install Option: When using composer require with the --no-install flag

   composer require drupal/example_recipe --no-install

   In this case, you'll need to run composer install afterward and then manually unpack using the drupal:recipe-unpack command.

Example Usage Scenarios

Basic Recipe Installation

# This will automatically install and unpack the recipe
composer require drupal/example_recipe

The result:

• Dependencies from drupal/example_recipe are added to your root composer.json
• drupal/example_recipe itself is removed from your dependencies
• You'll see a message: "drupal/example_recipe unpacked successfully."
• The recipe files will be present in the drupal-recipe installer path

Manual Recipe Unpacking

# First require the recipe without unpacking
composer require drupal/example_recipe --no-install
composer install

# Then manually unpack it
composer drupal:recipe-unpack drupal/example_recipe

Working with Dev Recipes

# This won't automatically unpack (dev dependencies aren't auto-unpacked)
composer require --dev drupal/dev_recipe

# You'll need to manually unpack if desired (with confirmation prompt)
composer drupal:recipe-unpack drupal/dev_recipe

Creating a New Project with Recipes

composer create-project drupal/recipe-based-project my-project

Any recipes included in the project template will be automatically unpacked during installation.

Best Practices

1. Review Recipe Contents: Before requiring a recipe, review its dependencies to understand what will be added to your project.

2. Consider Versioning: When a recipe is unpacked, its version constraints for dependencies are merged with your existing constraints, which may result in complex version requirements.

3. Dev Dependencies: Be cautious when unpacking development recipes, as their dependencies will be moved to the main require section, not require-dev.

4. Custom Recipes: When creating custom recipes, ensure they have the correct package type drupal-recipe and include appropriate dependencies.

Troubleshooting

Recipe Not Unpacking

• Check if the package type is drupal-recipe
• Verify it's not in your ignore list
• Confirm it's not in require-dev (which requires manual unpacking)
• Ensure you haven't used the --no-install flag without following up with installation and manual unpacking

Unpacking Errors

If you encounter issues during unpacking:

1. Check Composer's error output for specific issues and run commands with the --verbose flag
2. Verify that version constraints between your existing dependencies and the recipe's dependencies are compatible
3. For manual troubleshooting, consider temporarily setting on-require to false and unpacking recipes one by one