php-pear.eclass does not depend on PEAR-PEAR, which makes many packages fail if it is not installed. Here is an example failure: >>> Install PEAR-DB-1.7.6 into /var/tmp/portage/PEAR-DB-1.7.6/image/ category dev-php /usr/portage/eclass/php-pear.eclass: line 49: pear: command not found !!! ERROR: dev-php/PEAR-DB-1.7.6 failed. !!! Function php-pear_src_install, Line 49, Exitcode 127 !!! (no error message) !!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status message. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3.
Bug related to this issue: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=95253
Which php version are you using?
Only package.masked versions of PHP (php, php-cgi, and mod_php packages) do not install PEAR. If you use PHP 5.1 and want to emerge PEAR-* packages you have to unmask and install PEAR-PEAR-1.3.5-r1. If you use PHP 5.1 and want to emerge PECL-* packages you have to unmask and install phpconfig.