We've discussed Composer best practices before, and I've always advocated using composer global require when installing packages that can be used across several projects - particularly command line tools. Then, the other day, I ran into this discussion.
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The short of it is - the majority of people now seem to feel like global require is bad practice, unless the globally installed package has zero dependencies. Technically, this makes sense when one is using a single environment for all their projects, but as I commented in that discussion, when using a VM per project or a properly isolated environment like Docker or the like, then this problem is moot and global literally cannot do harm.
The OP's suggested solution to this problem is:
As an alternative, users should use composer require to install each commandline tool to its own local project, and manage their
$PATHor binaries manually (e.g. by creating symlinks from a bin directory already in the$PATH).
Continue reading %Composer Global Require Considered Harmful?%