How to install PHP extensions using PECL

Introduction

Sometimes PHP scripts require additional modules that need installing that are not included in Easy Apache 4. In these cases, PECL needs to be used.

Procedure

To install a PHP module you use the pecl command, EasyApache 4 includes multiple versions of PHP, so there is a different command for each PHP version as an example here is the PECL location for PHP 7.2 and PHP 7.3:

/opt/cpanel/ea-php72/root/usr/bin/pecl
/opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/usr/bin/pecl

To install a module, you would use the pecl install command:

/opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/usr/bin/pecl install xmldiff

In the above example, I installed the PECL package xmldiff. At the end of the installation process the extension is added to the /opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/etc/php.d/zzzzzzz-pecl.ini file:

[root@source ~]# cat /opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/etc/php.d/zzzzzzz-pecl.ini
extension="xmldiff.so"
[root@source ~]#

You can confirm the PHP extension was installed using the PHP command through the command line:

[root@source ~]# /opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/usr/bin/php -m | grep xmldiff
xmldiff

If you're using CloudLinux you will need to update the CageFS filesystem so users will be able to see the extensions:

cagefsctl --update

You can also install PECL modules using the Module installer interface inside WHM:

https://docs.cpanel.net/whm/software/php-pecl/