what is wrong with pear?

[Per olof Ljungmark]

After a pkg_delete -r pear

I get

/usr/ports/devel/pear# portinstall pear
[Updating the pkgdb <format:bdb_btree> in /var/db/pkg ... - 204 packages
found (-34 +0) (...) done]
[Gathering depends for devel/pear
......................................... done]
--->  Installing 'pear-1.9.0' from a port (devel/pear)
--->  Building '/usr/ports/devel/pear'
===>  Cleaning for pear-1.9.0
===>  Vulnerability check disabled, database not found
===>  Extracting for pear-1.9.0
=> MD5 Checksum OK for pear-1.9.0.tar.bz2.
=> SHA256 Checksum OK for pear-1.9.0.tar.bz2.
===>  Patching for pear-1.9.0
===>  Applying FreeBSD patches for pear-1.9.0
===>  Configuring for pear-1.9.0
--->  Installing the new version via the port
===>  Installing for pear-1.9.0
===>   pear-1.9.0 depends on file: /usr/local/include/php/main/php.h - found
===>   pear-1.9.0 depends on file: /usr/local/lib/php/20060613/pcre.so -
found
===>   pear-1.9.0 depends on file: /usr/local/lib/php/20060613/xml.so -
found
===>   Generating temporary packing list
===>  Checking if devel/pear already installed
*** Error code 254

Stop in /usr/ports/devel/pear.
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/devel/pear.
** Command failed [exit code 1]: /usr/bin/script -qa
/tmp/portinstall20090930-15477-xp5bhw-0 env make reinstall
** Fix the installation problem and try again.
** Listing the failed packages (-:ignored / *:skipped / !:failed)
        ! devel/pear    (install error)