Installing the PECL/PEAR mailparse module for PHP on CentOS

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Mattias Geniar, July 19, 2011

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This turned out to have quite a few tricky bits to it. Here’s how you can get it up-and-running on a CentOS/RHEL box.

First, install the php-devel package as you’ll need the headers and phpize tool.

# yum install php-devel php-mbstring

Second, install the mailparse extension.

# pecl install mailparse 
pecl/mailparse requires PHP extension "mbstring"
No valid packages found
install failed

Oops, that turned out not to work, even though mbstring was configured and working.

# php -i | grep mbstring
mbstring
mbstring extension makes use of "streamable kanji pre filter and converter", which is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1.
mbstring.detect_order => no value => no value
mbstring.encoding_translation => Off => Off
mbstring.func_overload => 0 => 0
...

You can use the workaround via PEAR:

# pear install pecl/mailparse

If you’re getting safe_mode warnings like the following:

# pear install pecl/mailparse
WARNING: running in safe mode requires that all files created be the same uid as the current script.  PHP reports this script is uid: 0, and current user is: root
downloading mailparse-2.1.5.tgz ...
Starting to download mailparse-2.1.5.tgz (37,332 bytes)
..........done: 37,332 bytes
9 source files, building

Warning: putenv(): Safe Mode warning: Cannot set environment variable 'PATH' - it's not in the allowed list in PEAR/Builder.php on line 297
PHP Warning:  putenv(): Safe Mode warning: Cannot set environment variable 'PATH' - it's not in the allowed list in /usr/share/pear/PEAR/Builder.php on line 297
running: phpize
sh: /phpize: No such file or directory
ERROR: `phpize' failed

Disable PHP’s safe_mode in the php.ini temporarily, as PEAR will call several PHP scripts with get their settings from the general PHP.INI file. After disabling it there, the “pear install pecl/mailparse” should work.

So, you add the extension in the php-configuration (either in php.ini or in another configuration file that is included there).

extension=mailparse.so

And if you’re still struggling with the following message:

# php -i | grep mailparse
PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library '/usr/lib64/php/modules/mailparse.so' - /usr/lib64/php/modules/mailparse.so: undefined symbol: mbfl_name2no_encoding in Unknown on line 0
/etc/php.d/mailparse.ini,

It’s because you are loading the “mailparse.so” module before the mbstring module. Change the order in your php.ini file or in the /etc/php.d ini-files. Those are loaded alphabetically, meaning “mailparse.so” will be loaded before “mbstring”. If that doesn’t work, make sure the mbstring module is loaded correctly by using “php -i | grep mbstring”.

If you’ve done it all correctly, that should give you better results now.

# php -i| grep mailparse 
/etc/php.d/z-mailparse.ini,
mailparse
mailparse support => enabled
mailparse.def_charset => us-ascii => us-ascii

Hooray for PECL vs PEAR troubles and alphabetically loading linked modules in the wrong order!



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