On Feb 10, 2008 8:39 PM, Eric Soli <eric_soli@yahoo.com> wrote:
I am attempting to install pear-base into /usr/bin
instead of /opt/local/bin. My best understanding from
the man page is that I should use:

bash$ sudo port -D /usr/bin install pear-base

but it still ends up in /opt/local. Is there a way
plant this pear tree next to /usr/bin/php?

You don't say why you want to do this or why the source tarball/distribution doesn't work for you. It looks, from reading the INSTALL file, that it is best installed by and within the php process. 

Unix
====
make sure you have enabled default extensions, and if you want faster
downloads, enable the zlib extension.  You must also enable the CLI
SAPI with the --enable-cli extension directive.  After this, simply run:

make install-pear

and PEAR will be automatically configured for you.

go-pear
=======
For users who cannot perform the above steps, or who wish to obtain the
latest PEAR with a slightly higher risk of failure, use go-pear.  go-pear
is obtained by downloading http://go-pear.org and saving it as go-pear.php.
After downloading, simply run "php go-pear.php" or open it in a web browser
(windows only) to download and install PEAR.

Seems like you could use the system php to perform the second operation. 
--
Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/
<paulbeard@gmail.com/paulbeard@gmail.com>