How to Build and Install a PHP Extension from Scratch

Today we share a series of articles on writing PHP extensions, covering environment setup to extension development, introducing relevant PHP core data structures and APIs.

The extension framework can be compiled without any modifications. The first phpize command is part of the PHP build created in step one (it should already be in your PATH).

<code>$ phpize
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install</code>

These commands build the shared extension test.so and copy it to the PHP installation directory. To load it, add a line to a custom php.ini file.

<code>$ vi ~/php-bin/DEBUG/etc/php.ini</code>

Add the following line:

<code>extension=test.so</code>

Verify that the extension is loaded and working; the php -m command lists loaded extensions:

<code>$ php -m | grep test
test</code>

You can also run functions defined in the test extension:

<code>$ php -r 'test_test1();'
The extension test is loaded and working!
$ php -r 'echo test_test2("world\n");'
Hello world</code>

This completes the build and installation of the extension; the next step will prepare it for a production environment.