How do I use and install PEAR packages?
PEAR packages are files that contain prewritten PHP code. Some scripts use PEAR packages to perform tasks such as connecting to a database.
Our Web hosting service supports PEAR, and we have the following "stable" packages installed:
Archive_Tar HTML_Template_IT Net_Ident Auth HTTP Net_LMTP Auth_SASL HTTP_Client Net_NNTP Benchmark HTTP_Request Net_POP3 Cache Log Net_Ping Cache_Lite MDB2 Net_Portscan Console_Getopt MDB2_Driver_mysql Net_SMTP Crypt_CBC Mail Net_Sieve Crypt_CHAP Mail_Mime Net_SmartIRC Crypt_HMAC Math_Integer Net_Socket Crypt_RC4 Net_CheckIP Net_URL DB Net_Curl Net_UserAgent_Detect DB_NestedSet Net_DNS Net_Whois Date Net_DNSBL Numbers_Roman File Net_Dict PEAR File_Find Net_Dig Pager File_Passwd Net_FTP Structures_Graph File_SearchReplace Net_Finger Text_Password HTML_Common Net_Geo XML_Parser HTML_Form Net_IMAP XML_RPC HTML_QuickForm Net_IPv4 XML_Serializer HTML_Table Net_IPv6 XML_Util
Other stable packages can usually be installed on request.
Installing other PEAR packages
If you want to install a PEAR package that is not "stable" (that is, a package marked "alpha" or "beta" on the PEAR Web site), you can do so by creating your own PEAR directory.
To do this, you should be comfortable with the command line. Just make a command line connection, then type the following two lines after logging in (you can copy and paste them from here):
pear config-create ~ .pearrc pear install -o PEAR
This creates a custom PEAR directory located in your home directory.
You can then install your own PEAR modules at any time by typing this:
pear install --alldeps PACKAGE
... where "PACKAGE" is the name of the package, followed by "-alpha" or "-beta".
For example, to install the beta version of the Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer package, you would type:
pear install --alldeps Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer-beta
Using custom PEAR packages you install
Once you've installed a package, you'll need to tell your PHP script where to find it. Enter your domain name in the box at the top of this page to see how to do this.
What if I have more questions about PEAR?
The instructions above are based on the PEAR documentation, which has more details and resources for answering questions. You should read the PEAR documentation if you have further questions about PEAR.