Laravel Artisan Generator Command: The make:migration Command

The make:migration command is used to generate a new migration class. Generated migrations are (by default) stored in the database/migrations directory. The make:migration defines a few parameters and options that can be used to customize the generated migration. The following table details these options:

The --create and --table options generally will not be used together. Using the --create option the new migration will be structured to create a new database table while using the --table will generate a migration for modifying an existing table with the value set. The behavior of the --create option will take precedence if both options are supplied.

The following examples demonstrate how to call the make:migration command and the example files that are produced.

The following example will simply generate an empty migration implementation:

1php artisan make:migration create_drinks_table

the resulting PHP file would look similar to the following:

 1<?php
 2 
 3use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
 4use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
 5 
 6class CreateDrinksTable extends Migration
 7{
 8    /**
 9     * Run the migrations.
10     *
11     * @return void
12     */
13    public function up()
14    {
15        //
16    }
17 
18    /**
19     * Reverse the migrations.
20     *
21     * @return void
22     */
23    public function down()
24    {
25        //
26    }
27}

The following example will generate a migration to create a new database table named drinks:

1php artisan make:migration create_drinks_table --create=drinks

the resulting PHP file would look similar to the following:

 1<?php
 2 
 3use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
 4use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
 5 
 6class CreateDrinksTable extends Migration
 7{
 8    /**
 9     * Run the migrations.
10     *
11     * @return void
12     */
13    public function up()
14    {
15        Schema::create('drinks', function (Blueprint $table) {
16            $table->increments('id');
17            $table->timestamps();
18        });
19    }
20 
21    /**
22     * Reverse the migrations.
23     *
24     * @return void
25     */
26    public function down()
27    {
28        Schema::drop('tacos');
29    }
30}

The following example will generate a migration to alter a database table named drinks:

1php artisan make:migration add_name_to_drinks_table --table=drinks

the resulting PHP file would look similar to the following:

 1<?php
 2 
 3use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
 4use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
 5 
 6class AddNameToDrinksTable extends Migration
 7{
 8    /**
 9     * Run the migrations.
10     *
11     * @return void
12     */
13    public function up()
14    {
15        Schema::table('drinks', function (Blueprint $table) {
16            //
17        });
18    }
19 
20    /**
21     * Reverse the migrations.
22     *
23     * @return void
24     */
25    public function down()
26    {
27        Schema::table('drinks', function (Blueprint $table) {
28            //
29        });
30    }
31}

The following example would generate an empty migration implementation in a different directory than the configured default:

1php artisan make:migration create_drinks_table --path=database/setup_migrations

the resulting PHP file would look similar to the first example, but just in a different directory.

Running the make:migration command multiple times will not generate an error when the command is ran. A new migration file (with a different timestamp prefix) will be generated each time. Be aware that with most database engines migrations will fail when attempting to create a table that already exists.

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