The error “a non-empty psr-4 prefix must end with a namespace separator” occurs when defining the PSR-4 autoloading in PHP and the namespace prefix is not properly formatted. In PSR-4, the namespace prefix should end with a namespace separator, which is a backslash (\).
For example, let’s say you have a project with the namespace prefix “MyProject” and you want to autoload classes from the “src” directory. The correct PSR-4 configuration would look something like this:
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {
"MyProject\\": "src/"
}
}
Notice how the namespace prefix “MyProject” ends with a backslash (\) in the PSR-4 configuration. This is necessary to comply with the PSR-4 autoloading standard.
On the other hand, if you omit the backslash at the end of the namespace prefix, you will encounter the mentioned error. For instance:
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {
"MyProject": "src/" // Missing the backslash (\) at the end of the namespace prefix
}
}
In this case, you will receive the error “a non-empty psr-4 prefix must end with a namespace separator” because the namespace prefix “MyProject” does not end with a backslash (\), violating the PSR-4 specification.
Always make sure to include the backslash (\) at the end of the namespace prefix when defining PSR-4 autoloading in PHP to avoid this error.