Checking if PEAR works

Verifying command line tool

Both pear and pecl tools should be available everywhere on command line. For that to work, pear's binary directory should be in your PATH variable.

To verify it works, simply type pear. A list of commands should be shown:

$ pear
Commands:
build                  Build an Extension From C Source
bundle                 Unpacks a Pecl Package
channel-add            Add a Channel
...

You should further test that PEAR is up to date:

$ pear version
PEAR Version: 1.7.2
PHP Version: 5.2.6RC4-pl0-gentoo
Zend Engine Version: 2.2.0
Running on: Linux ...

Verify the include path

To use PEAR and PEAR compatible packages in your applications, you normally include them into your PHP scripts using require_once(). For this to work, PEAR's php_dir must be a part of PHP's include path.

1. First, check where PEAR installs .php files:

   $ pear config-get php_dir /usr/share/lib/php/

2. Now it's time to find which configuration file is used by your PHP installation. On command line, execute:

   $ php --ini Configuration File (php.ini) Path: /etc/php/cli-php5 Loaded Configuration File: /etc/php/cli-php5/php.ini Scan for additional .ini files in: /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active Additional .ini files parsed: /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/php_gtk2.ini, /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/xdebug.ini

   To see which php.ini is used by PHP on your web server, create a file with only <?php phpinfo(); ?> as the contents, and save it in your local web root as check_php.php. Open the file in your browser as http://localhost/check_php.php, to find the path to the php.ini file your web server is using.

3. Now check PHP's include_path setting on command line:

   php -c /path/to/php.ini -r 'echo get_include_path()."\n";'

   To check PHP's include_path in your web server, create a file with only <?php phpinfo(); ?> as the contents, and save it in your local web root as check_php.php. Open the file in your browser as http://localhost/check_php.php, to verify the include_path your web server is using.

   In every case, PEAR's php_dir should be in the include path. If not, add it in your system's php.ini.

4. Now that this is done, try including a file. Create a new .php file with the following contents:

   <?php require_once 'System.php'; ?>

   System.php is shipped with every PEAR installation and thus should be on your computer, too. Open the file with the browser from your web server, and also try it on command line. There should be no output. A message like:

   Warning: require_once(System.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /path/to/test.php on line 2

   means that your include path is not correct.

That's it! Now go on and install some packages.