OpenShift deploy hook to install composer capable of running against php 5.4 with the zend6.1 cart

deploy

#!/usr/bin/env bash

GIT_DIR_SAVE=$GIT_DIR ; unset GIT_DIR
GIT_WORK_TREE_SAVE=$GIT_WORK_TREE ; unset GIT_WORK_TREE

if [ ! -f "${OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR}composer/bin/composer" ]; then
  export COMPOSER_HOME="${OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR}.composer"
  echo $COMPOSER_HOME > ${OPENSHIFT_HOMEDIR}.env/user_vars/COMPOSER_HOME
  echo "Installing composer"
  curl -s https://getcomposer.org/installer | env - PATH="/usr/bin:$PATH" php -- --install-dir=$OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR >/dev/null
  cd $OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR
  git clone --quiet git://github.com/composer/composer.git composer
  cd $OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR/composer
  env - PATH="/usr/bin:$PATH" COMPOSER_HOME="$COMPOSER_HOME" php ${OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR}composer.phar install >/dev/null
  mkdir -p $OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR/bin
  ln -s $OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR/composer/bin/composer $OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR/bin/composer
else
  echo "Updating composer"
  cd ${OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR}composer
  git pull --quiet
  php ${OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR}composer/bin/composer install >/dev/null
fi

echo "Running composer install"
cd $OPENSHIFT_REPO_DIR
php $OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR/bin/composer install

export GIT_DIR=$GIT_DIR_SAVE ; unset GIT_DIR_SAVE
export GIT_WORK_TREE=$GIT_WORK_TREE_SAVE ; unset GIT_WORK_TREE

After exploring this option I decided the PHP binary compiled for the Zend6 server cartridge had too many features disabled preventing composer from running efficiently.

Essentially you need to use the distro stock php 5.3.3 to do anything.