PEAR is an older system for sharing and installing PHP packages. This RFC from James Titcumb proposed that PHP officially deprecate PEAR and tell people to use Composer instead. It follows the same approach as the PECL deprecation RFC, which did the same thing for extensions.
What the RFC would have done
It changes the official advice, not the tools. There are two parts:
- PEAR is deprecated as a recommended way to install packages.
- Composer becomes the recommendation for installing packages.
Where possible, PHP would add a deprecation notice to the places people meet PEAR: the PEAR website, the pear command and the PHP manual. The notice would say PEAR is deprecated and point you to the Composer website.
The RFC notes that Composer is already the standard tool for installing packages, while PEAR still sees a little use. The most popular package on pear.php.net gets about 15 installs a day, and the PEAR website takes ongoing work to keep running.
What it would have meant for you
Nothing would have broken. The pear tool and website would keep working as they do today. The RFC doesn't set a shutdown date and leaves that to a future RFC.
It didn't depend on a PHP release, so if accepted, it would have taken effect right away.
Where it stands
The author withdrew the RFC, and it never went to a real vote.
