I had need to use the UploadProgress and SMTP Mail PECL PHP extensions so a brief overview:
Check pear is installed and working:
# which pear
To get a list of help/commands:
# pear help
Run the updates:
# pear channel-update pear.php.net
Show the installed packages:
# pear list
This will install the Mail package to allow sending email via an SMTP server including authentication
# pear install Mail Net_SMTP
Runing pear list should now show the Mail package installed.
# pear list
Show all:
# pear list-all
