PHP PECL module install fix Warning: mkdir(): File exists in System.php

Created: 29 August, 2024 by Yoan Arnaudov • Category: PHP

PHP PECL module install fix Warning: mkdir(): File exists in System.php banner

I wanted to install imagick (Image Magick) pecl module on my local machine.

I've tried with

$ pecl install imagick

but I got the following error

Build process completed successfully
Installing '/opt/homebrew/Cellar/[email protected]/8.1.29/include/php/ext/imagick/php_imagick_shared.h'
Installing '/opt/homebrew/Cellar/[email protected]/8.1.29/pecl/20210902/imagick.so'

Warning: mkdir(): File exists in System.php on line 294
PHP Warning:  mkdir(): File exists in /opt/homebrew/Cellar/[email protected]/8.1.29/share/[email protected]/pear/System.php on line 294

Warning: mkdir(): File exists in /opt/homebrew/Cellar/[email protected]/8.1.29/share/[email protected]/pear/System.php on line 294
ERROR: failed to mkdir /opt/homebrew/Cellar/[email protected]/8.1.29/pecl/20210902

The solution

The issue was that /opt/homebrew/Cellar/[email protected]/8.1.29/pecl is a symlink to a non-existent directory - /opt/homebrew/lib/php/pecl

To fix it, create the directory 

$ mkdir /opt/homebrew/lib/php/pecl/

This is on Mac but I'm assuming Windows and Linux solutions are the same.