Installing a Pecl-extension for PHP on Directadmin server

*** last modified on 12 January, 2018 ***

Installation of PECL extensions on a server with Directadmin is rather simple, but at the same time many users are confused with it. Here is a guide on how to make it in a easy way. 

Using command pecl might fail due to /tmp mounted with noexec, and still you can use it, if you are familiar with it. Here will I describe how I do it myself.

Pre-install requirements

Most of PECL extensions will require that you install a devel package of a corresponding library from an OS repository. Use yum/rpm on CentOS and apt/apt-get on Debian/Ubuntu for this.

UPDATE, December 18, 2018: Here you can find a script: https://help.poralix.com/articles/install-pecl-extension-for-php-directadmin-server which will automate some processes.

Which PHP extension we want to install?

In the following example we will install a PECL extension ssh2 for PHP 5.6. As a requirement you should install libssh2-devel on CentOS, on Debian/Ubuntu its name might differ, find it with apt-cache and install it.

export PHP_VER=56
export PECL_EXT=ssh2

Replace 56 with the desired PHP version without dots, example: 53 for PHP 5.3, 54 for PHP 5.4, 55 for PHP 5.5.

set it to 70 for PHP 7.0:

export PHP_VER=70

set it to 71 for PHP 7.1:

export PHP_VER=71

set it to 72 for PHP 7.2:

export PHP_VER=72

Replace ssh2 with a name of the desired PECL extension, example: apc

export PECL_EXT=apc

redis:

export PECL_EXT=redis

memcached:

export PECL_EXT=memcached

imagick:

export PECL_EXT=imagick

and so on.

Download and unpack a source file

The most simple way would be to run the following commands:

cd /usr/local/src
/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/pecl channel-update pecl.php.net
/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/pecl download ${PECL_EXT}

You can download an extension by any other suitable mean. Unpack it and change directory to it:

tar -zxvf ${PECL_EXT}-*.tgz && cd ${PECL_EXT}-*/

Build the extension:

/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/phpize

If "phpize" fails you should stop following the guide and fix the error before going further.

./configure --with-php-config=/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/php-config

If "configure" fails you should stop following the guide and fix the error before going further.

make && make install

If "make" fails you should stop following the guide and fix the error before going further.

Update php.ini 

echo "extension=${PECL_EXT}.so" >> /usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/lib/php.conf.d/90-custom.ini

Restart Apache, PHP-FPM for changes to take effect.

Test it:

Now test whether or not the extension gets loaded into PHP, run the following command and see what it outputs:

/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/php -m | grep ${PECL_EXT} -c

1 as a result is a signal that the extension was successfully installed and initiated in PHP.

And unset the vars:

unset PHP_VER
unset PECL_EXT

Wanna more? GeoIP?

Another short example of installing PECL extension geoip (both for CentOS and Debian/Ubuntu):

[ -x "/usr/bin/yum" ] && yum -y install GeoIP-devel
[ -x "/usr/bin/apt-get" ] && apt-get -y install libgeoip-dev
export PHP_VER=56
export PECL_EXT=geoip
cd /usr/local/src
/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/pecl channel-update pecl.php.net
/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/pecl download ${PECL_EXT}
tar -zxvf ${PECL_EXT}-*.tgz && cd ${PECL_EXT}-*/
/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/phpize
./configure --with-php-config=/usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/bin/php-config
make && make install
echo "extension=${PECL_EXT}.so" >> /usr/local/php${PHP_VER}/lib/php.conf.d/90-custom.ini
unset PHP_VER
unset PECL_EXT

Restart Apache, PHP-FPM for changes to take effect.

That's it!