How to fix a manually deleted plugin directory

To uninstall a plugin you normally use the “symfony plugin-uninstall” command but not everyone knows that, and just deleting the directory from the plugins directory is a often mistake.

After deleting the directory PEAR still thinks that the plugin is installed (try executing “symfony plugin-list“).

Installing the plugin again to uninstall it properly won’t work either. It will skip the package and say that it is aleady installed.

>> pear      Skipping package "symfony/sfThumbnailPlugin", already
>> pear      installed as version 1.3.0
>> pear      No valid packages found

But there is an easy fix for this problem:

Each plugin stores a .reg file in the PEAR registry, this registry is hidden in the plugins directory – you just need to delete the file from the registry.
For example, if you have accidentally deleted the sfThumbnailPlugin directory, just remove the registry file too:

rm plugins/.registry/.channel.pear.symfony-project.com/sfthumbnailplugin.reg

PEAR will not think that the plugin is installed anymore (check with “symfony plugin-list“).