The PEAR package manager (%*pear*%) is the swiss-army tool for: Installing, upgrading and uninstalling packages from PEAR, Horde, etc. Building PECL extensions (e.g.: apd, xmms, etc.) Getting information on local and remote packages. Managing user package list/upgrade preferences. Check for dependencies Validating and creating your own distributable packages. Creating RPM spec files. Managing PEAR CVS releases: tagging, signing, etc. And the cool thing is that it is (most likely) already installed on your system (PHP version 4.3.0 or newer). It is also smart, it groks XML-RPC (like when talking to PEAR's or Horde's site), HTTP (when using a full URL), or even a local tarball on your disk.