PECL makes it easy to create shared PHP extensions. Using the » pecl command, do the following:

$ pecl install extname

This will download the source for extname, compile, and install extname.so into the extension_dir. extname.so may then be loaded via php.ini.

By default, the pecl command will not install packages that are marked with the alpha or beta state. If no stable packages are available, a beta package may be installed using the following command:

$ pecl install extname-beta

A specific version may also be installed using this variant:

$ pecl install extname-0.1

Note:

After enabling the extension in php.ini, restarting the web service is required for the changes to be picked up.