Skip to main content

How to install PHP extensions using PECL

Sean Bailey
  • Updated

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

WHM

To install a PHP PECL module from WHM, navigate to "Module Installers" then click "Manage" next to "PHP PECL"

Next, select the PHP version you'd like to install a module for.

You can use the search functions to view available modules, or, if you know the exact name of a module, you can enter it in the "Install a PHP PECL" field and click "Install"

If you get an error, you can review the Unable to Install a Module Using PECL  article

For more information on this interface, please see the documentation

Command-Line

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. If you get an error, you can review the Unable to Install a Module Using PECL  article

[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

Related articles