Add Zend folder to bash_profile - zend-framework

Question

I want to not have to copy the Zend folder into all of my sites, so how can I add it to the bash_profile? And where would I put the Zend folder on my system?
I am running OS X Lion
Thanks

Answer 1

To do what you want to do, you don't actually do anything with the bash files, instead you need to add to PHP's include_path, so scripts will find the Zend files automatically when it needs them.
As an example, I put ZF files in a directory /usr/share/Zend/Framework and then add the appropriate directory to PHP's include_path.
So I have a directory structure like this:
- /usr/share/Zend/Framework/
| - bin/
| -- zf.sh
| -- zf.php
| - library/
| -- Zend/
| All the Zend Framework files are here...
Then in php.ini set the include path so it contains the library folder.
include_path = ".:/usr/share/Zend/Framework/library"
Depending on how many of your sites use Zend, you want the Zend files to be as high up in the include path as possible so they are found quickly.
By doing this, all of your sites will simply be able to include and use files from Zend Framework without having to do anything to the include path before hand. By simply saying require_once Zend/Mail.php PHP will know to look in /usr/share/Zend/Framework/library for Zend/Mail.php if it isn't first found in the current directory.
If you want each user to be able to use zf.sh from their shells without having to specify the full path, then you can add something like the following to each user's .bashrc file at the end:
PATH="${PATH}":/usr/share/Zend/Framework/bin
export PATH
In all cases, replace /usr/share/Zend/Framework with the actual path that you place the Zend Framework library and bin folder.
Also note, the bin folder is optional, you can place just the library folder in the path and add library to your include_path.