How to fix error Cannot find pspell in PHP Configuration?

Updated: 11 October 2026 · Applies to: Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 12, AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9 and cPanel & WHM 138

configure: error: Cannot find pspell appears when you compile PHP (or the pspell extension) without the Aspell development files. Note that pspell was moved out of PHP itself in PHP 8.4 and is now a separate PECL extension.

Install the missing development files

dnf install aspell-devel       # AlmaLinux / Rocky (CRB/EPEL may be needed)
apt install libpspell-dev     # Ubuntu / Debian

Then run configure again.

You probably do not need to compile

• cPanel: install ea-php83-php-pspell from Software › EasyApache 4 (PHP 8.3 and older).
• Ubuntu: apt install php8.3-pspell.
• PHP 8.4 and newer: install the PECL extension pspell (see the PHP PECL steps in "How to install GMP Math on cPanel"), or use another spell-checking library.

Check

php -m | grep -i pspell
php -r 'var_dump(function_exists("pspell_new"));'

The second command prints bool(true) when the extension works. pspell also needs a dictionary, for example aspell-en.