Description: ------------ Pecl does not make it clear that it bypasses php.ini's memory limit. The only error it gives if it exceeds 8MB is this: pecl install apc ... "Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 92160 bytes) in /usr/share/pear/PEAR/PackageFile/v2/Validator.php on line 1831" Expected result: ---------------- 1. In the day and age when Firefox freshly launched consumes 47.7MB of memory, keeping an infrequently used installation program limited to 8MB is needless self denial. 2. The error message is not clear what's causing the problem and in fact putting it into $SEARCH_ENGINE will lead to recommendations to increase php.ini's memory limit setting which will not help in this situation. The problems created by this are not uncommon. Witness Greg's post here: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/pear-dev/3168978 If it's that common that he must repeat it for the nth time, it should be addressed. Actual result: -------------- 1. A reexamination of the memory limit should be done. 2. If the reexamination shows that the memory limit should remain as it is, the error code should be changed to clearly tell the user how to resolve the problem: "Fatal error: pecl's memory limit of 8MB exceeded. To install the package, use the command 'pear install pecl/$PACKAGENAME'" By modifying one string, the user is given the solution to the problem.

Since the pecl documentation is not in the pear manual anymore, I added a note to http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.pecl.downloads.php