getting php readline extension to work in php 8 xampp installation

i have a fresh install of linux mint 21.1 as well as the latest version of xampp which comes with php 8.2.4. i added

PATH=$PATH:/opt/lampp/bin

to .bashrc to access php from the terminal. it works and recoginzes the

command. the problem is that i cannot use php interactively with option

-a

. i get this error instead: **Interactive shell (-a) requires the readline extension.** i have only found this discussing the issue and i tried to follow the advice. i installed what i think is the extension with:

apt install php8.1-readline

which made this config file: **/etc/php/8.1/mods-available/readline.ini** i added

'--with-readline'

in **opt/lampp/bin/php-config** to configure_options. (i also tried adding

--with-readline=/etc/php/8.1/mods-available

) but no luck. i also installed libreadline-dev with

apt install libreadline-dev

as the tutorial i read suggested. but no luck. is it because php was installed as xampp? (btw, i restarted apache and opened a new terminal with each try). UPDATE: found this in an answer on an old apache forum -- >You cannot add extensions to Xampp. Either it is already included >(what i dont know), or it is not included. You cannot add it, because >you have to recompile the whole thing. As far as it looks, readline is >not part of Xampp. >If you need readline, you should not use Xampp, instead use the >Packages from Ubuntu (Apache, MySQL, PHP etc.). i guess i will give up and install them all separate unless someone here knows something... but that was from 2008, so i was hoping something has changed.