How to Install and Use an Unstable Symfony Version

Symfony releases two new minor versions (2.5, 2.6, 2.7, etc.) per year, one in

May and one in November (:doc:`see releases detail</contributing/community/releases>`).

Testing the new Symfony versions in your projects as soon as possible is important

to ensure that they will keep working after upgrading to the new version.

How to Install or Upgrade to the Latest, Unreleased Symfony Version

In this article, you'll learn how to install and use new Symfony versions before

they are released as stable versions.

Suppose that Symfony 2.7 version hasn't been released yet and you want to create

a new project to test its features. First,:doc:`install the Composer</cookbook/composer>`

package manager. Then, open a command console, enter yourprojects directory and

package manager. Then, open a command console, enter yourproject's directory and

execute the following command:

..code-block::bash

Upgrading your Project to an Unstable Symfony Version

Instead of creating a new empty project, in this section you'll update an existing

Symfony application to an unstable framework version. Suppose again that Symfony

2.7 version hasn't been released yet and you want to test it in your project.

Suppose again that Symfony 2.7 hasn't been released yet and you want to upgrade

an existing application to test that your project works with it.

First, open the ``composer.json`` file located in the root directory of your

project. Then, edit the value of the version defined for the ``symfony/symfony``

Then, open a command console, enter your project directory and execute the following

command to update your project dependencies:

Finally, open a command console, enter your project directory and execute the

followingcommand to update your project dependencies:

..code-block::bash