php readhat 7.3 and pear

[beach_defender]

Hi there,
I'm in the middle of starting with php and I'm at a loss for information at present. I have RH7.3 and php4.1.2 and have recently downloaded an application (phpshop) that requires pear.

I understand that it is on my machine (/usr/share/pear is there!) but I don't know how to test it, configure it, use .....

For starters I would really appreciate finding out :

1. How to confirm that pear is installed and working on my machine.

2. ONce I do that and find out that it's not (pessimism in advance is not always a bad thing) - How do I configure it to work.

I have a feeling that neither of these are very difficult questions.

Thanks in advance.

Barry