compiling php with a working PEAR installation

[Keith Roberts <keith@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fedora Linux 8.

I have recently compiled php 5.2.4 with the following 
configure options.

#! /bin/sh
#
# Created by configure

'./configure' \
'--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache-2.2.6/bin/apxs' \
'--prefix=/usr/local/php-5.2.4' \
'--enable-shared=all' \
'--with-pear=/usr/local/PEAR' \
...

/usr/local is on a seperate partition. So anything on that 
partition should in theory survive an OS version upgrade.

My question is this:

When I recompile a newer version of php, eg. php 5.2.5, do I 
need to use '--without-pear' as a configure option, to stop 
the installation overwriting my fully configured PEAR 
installation, in /usr/local/PEAR?

Or do I just leave php to install PEAR into the default 
location:

  --with-pear=DIR         Install PEAR in DIR [PREFIX/lib/php]

and then delete it after the installation has finished?

I know that PEAR can get any updates to installed packages, 
and that it can also update itself once it is set up.

I don't want to have to re-install and configure PEAR each 
time I recompile a newer version of php.

Kind Regards & TIA

Keith Roberts