WP Engine Syntax Error Composer autoload_static.php

While working with a client recently, I found that deploying to WP Engine with Git had stopped working.

The Symptom

The following appeared on the command line when I ran git push production

remote:   - warning: syntax Error Found in wp-content/vendor/composer/autoload_static.php ...
remote:   - failed: we detected a PHP syntax failure.

The Problem

The file autoload_static.php is only executed if the website is running PHP 5.6 or above because it uses things that break in older versions of PHP. WP Engine checks all the PHP files when they are deployed using git push for code that could break the site in version PHP 5.3. Since we are uploading code that would break the site (if it ever ran, which it won’t but WP Engine can’t tell that), WP Engine stops the upload.

The specific code in question is generated by Composer version 1.1.0 or above where optimizations were made for PHP 5.6 and above in autoload_static.php. These optimizations include using concatenation when declaring default class properties in PHP, which was not available until 5.6. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5847905/cannot-use-concatenation-when-declaring-default-class-properties-in-php

The Solution

As Taylor McCaslin from WP Engine commented below, in December 2016 WP Engine added support for the Git flag
–push-option=nolint
(alternative syntax -o nolint).

So instead of

git push production master

you would run

git push -o nolint production master

Minimum Required Git Client Version

The support for -push-option was added to the Git client in version 2.10.0. If you are running an earlier version of Git, this fix will not work (see alternative solution).

You can determine what version of the Git client you are using by running

git --version

from the command line.

Alternative Solution

If using -push-option=nolint flag is not an option (e.g. you’re stuck using an earlier version of Git), you can also solve this issue by not deploying the offending file with Git push. This is done by deleting the file

$ git remove wp-content/vendor/composer/autoload_static.php

and adding it to your .gitignore file.

wp-content/vendor/composer/autoload_static.php

Why am I Deploying the Vendor Directory with Git?

Generally, the Composer vendor directory should not be included in the Git repo but since I can not run Composer on the WP Engine server, it is included on this project. Another option would be manually SFTPing the vendor directory while excluding it entirely from the Git repo, which may be a better solution in this case but does create an odd requirement for deployment.

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.