Can I installing PEAR on UNIX by just adding it to the php include path?

My hosting provider will not repair a pear installation that is not working and I do not have the correct permissions to install pear using the installation scripts. I have read that the windows installation of pear is just simply to put the pear directory into the php includes path. I have downloaded pear and done this on my unix system (using apache php-value in .htaccess and adding it before the box path) and it seems that my pear installation is working. I just wanted to ask if anyone could comment as to weather this is an acceptable installation? My initial tests seem ok but I dont want to use this type of installation in production if someone knows that it is not stable. Thanks for your time, John _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail