PHP Cookbook

21.5. Installing PECL Packages

Problem

You want to install a PECL package; this builds a PHP extension written in C to use inside PHP.

Solution

Make sure you have all the necessary extension libraries and then use the PEAR package manager install command:

% pear install xmms

To use the extension from PHP, load it using dl( ) :

dl('xmms.so');

Discussion

The frontend process for installing PECL packages is just like installing PEAR packages for code written in PHP. However, the behind-the-scenes tasks are very different. Because PECL extensions are written in C, the package manager needs to compile the extension and configure it to work with the installed version of PHP. As a result, at present, you can build PECL packages on Unix machines and on Windows machines if you use MSDev.

Unlike PHP-based PEAR packages, PECL extensions don’t automatically inform you when you lack a library necessary to compile the extension. Instead, you are responsible for correctly preinstalling these files. If you are having trouble getting a PECL extension to build, check the README file and the other documentation that comes with the package. The package manager installs these files inside the docs directory under your PEAR hierarchy.

When you install a PECL extension, the PEAR package manager downloads the file, extracts it, runs phpize to configure the extension for the version of PHP installed on the machine, and then makes and installs the extension. It may also prompt you for the location of libraries: ...