How to Override Symfony's default Directory Structure ¶

Override the Environment (DotEnv) Files Directory ¶

By default, the .env configuration file is located at the root directory of the project. If you store it in a different location, define the runtime.dotenv_path option in the composer.json file:

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{
    "...": "...",
    "extra": {
        "...": "...",
        "runtime": {
            "dotenv_path": "my/custom/path/to/.env"
        }
    }
}

Then, update your Composer files (running composer dump-autoload, for instance), so that the vendor/autoload_runtime.php files gets regenerated with the new .env path.

You can also set up different .env paths for your console and web server calls. Edit the public/index.php and/or bin/console files to define the new file path.

Console script:

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// bin/console

// ...
$_SERVER['APP_RUNTIME_OPTIONS']['dotenv_path'] = 'some/custom/path/to/.env';

require_once dirname(__DIR__).'/vendor/autoload_runtime.php';
// ...

Web front-controller:

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// public/index.php

// ...
$_SERVER['APP_RUNTIME_OPTIONS']['dotenv_path'] = 'another/custom/path/to/.env';

require_once dirname(__DIR__).'/vendor/autoload_runtime.php';
// ...

Override the Configuration Directory ¶

The configuration directory is the only one which cannot be overridden in a Symfony application. Its location is hardcoded as the config/ directory at your project root directory.

Override the Cache Directory ¶

Changing the cache directory can be achieved by overriding the getCacheDir() method in the Kernel class of your application:

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// src/Kernel.php

// ...
class Kernel extends BaseKernel
{
    // ...

    public function getCacheDir(): string
    {
        return dirname(__DIR__).'/var/'.$this->environment.'/cache';
    }
}

In this code, $this->environment is the current environment (i.e. dev). In this case you have changed the location of the cache directory to var/{environment}/cache/.

You can also change the cache directory defining an environment variable named APP_CACHE_DIR whose value is the full path of the cache folder.

Override the Log Directory ¶

Overriding the var/log/ directory is almost the same as overriding the var/cache/ directory.

You can do it overriding the getLogDir() method in the Kernel class of your application:

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// src/Kernel.php

// ...
class Kernel extends BaseKernel
{
    // ...

    public function getLogDir(): string
    {
        return dirname(__DIR__).'/var/'.$this->environment.'/log';
    }
}

Here you have changed the location of the directory to var/{environment}/log/.

You can also change the log directory defining an environment variable named APP_LOG_DIR whose value is the full path of the log folder.

Override the Templates Directory ¶

If your templates are not stored in the default templates/ directory, use the twig.default_path configuration option to define your own templates directory (use twig.paths for multiple directories):

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# config/packages/twig.yaml
twig:
    # ...
    default_path: "%kernel.project_dir%/resources/views"

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<!-- config/packages/twig.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:twig="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/twig"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
        https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd
        http://symfony.com/schema/dic/twig
        https://symfony.com/schema/dic/twig/twig-1.0.xsd">

    <twig:config>
        <twig:default-path>%kernel.project_dir%/resources/views</twig:default-path>
    </twig:config>

</container>

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// config/packages/twig.php
use Symfony\Config\TwigConfig;

return static function (TwigConfig $twig) {
    $twig->defaultPath('%kernel.project_dir%/resources/views');
};

Override the Translations Directory ¶

If your translation files are not stored in the default translations/ directory, use the framework.translator.default_path configuration option to define your own translations directory (use framework.translator.paths for multiple directories):

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# config/packages/translation.yaml
framework:
    translator:
        # ...
        default_path: "%kernel.project_dir%/i18n"

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<!-- config/packages/translation.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:twig="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/twig"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
        https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd
        http://symfony.com/schema/dic/twig
        https://symfony.com/schema/dic/twig/twig-1.0.xsd">

    <framework:config>
        <framework:translator>
            <framework:default-path>%kernel.project_dir%/i18n</framework:default-path>
        </framework:translator>
    </framework:config>

</container>

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// config/packages/translation.php
use Symfony\Config\FrameworkConfig;

return static function (FrameworkConfig $framework) {
    $framework->translator()
        ->defaultPath('%kernel.project_dir%/i18n')
    ;
};

Override the Public Directory ¶

If you need to rename or move your public/ directory, the only thing you need to guarantee is that the path to the vendor/ directory is still correct in your index.php front controller. If you renamed the directory, you're fine. But if you moved it in some way, you may need to modify these paths inside those files:

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require_once __DIR__.'/../path/to/vendor/autoload.php';

You also need to change the extra.public-dir option in the composer.json file:

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{
    "...": "...",
    "extra": {
        "...": "...",
        "public-dir": "my_new_public_dir"
    }
}

Override the Vendor Directory ¶

To override the vendor/ directory, you need to define the vendor-dir option in your composer.json file like this:

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{
    "config": {
        "bin-dir": "bin",
        "vendor-dir": "/some/dir/vendor"
    }
}