Writing PHP Extensions

3. Building and Installing a PHP Extension

This extension skeleton can be compiled without any changes. The first “phpize” command is a part of the PHP build we created in the first step. (It should still be in the PATH.) 

$ phpize
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install

These commands should build our shared extension “test.so” and copy it into appropriate directory of our PHP installation. To load it, we need to add a line into our custom php.ini 

$ vi ~/php-bin/DEBUG/etc/php.ini

Add the following line:

extension=test.so

 Check that extension is loaded and works. “php -m” command prints the list of loaded extensions: 

$ php -m | grep test
test

We may also run the functions defined in our “test” extension: 

$ php -r ‘test_test1();’
The extension test is loaded and working!
$ php -r ‘echo test_test2(“world\n”);’
Hello world

Now it makes sense to start tracking our source changes using version control system. (I prefer GIT.) 

$ git init
$ git add config.m4 config.w32 test.c php_test.h tests
$ git commit -m “Initial Extension Skeleton”

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