diff --git a/CHANGES.current b/CHANGES.current
index 6a372cb56..998d519a0 100644
--- a/CHANGES.current
+++ b/CHANGES.current
@@ -7,8 +7,10 @@ Version 3.0.11 (in progress)
 
 2016-11-30: olly
 	    [PHP] Add support for PHP7.  PHP5's C extension API has changed substantially
-	    so you need to use -php7 to specify you want PHP7 compatible wrappers.
-	    Fixes https://github.com/swig/swig/issues/571
+	    so you need to use -php7 to specify you want PHP7 compatible wrappers.  The
+	    default extension for generated wrappers is now .cxx (to match SWIG's default
+	    for every other language - to generate foo_wrap.cpp you can run SWIG with
+	    -cppext cpp).  Fixes https://github.com/swig/swig/issues/571
 
 2016-11-28: wsfulton
             Fix %rename override of wildcard %rename for templates. For example:
diff --git a/Doc/Manual/Php.html b/Doc/Manual/Php.html
index 1ba950c27..0019968cc 100644
--- a/Doc/Manual/Php.html
+++ b/Doc/Manual/Php.html
@@ -106,7 +106,12 @@ also contain PHP class wrappers.
 <p>
 SWIG can generate PHP extensions from C++ libraries as well when
 given the <tt>-c++</tt> option.  The support for C++ is discussed in
-more detail in <a href="#Php_nn2_6">section 27.2.6</a>.
+more detail in <a href="#Php_nn2_6">section 27.2.6</a>.  The generated
+C++ wrapper will be called example_wrap.cpp (for PHP5) or
+example_wrap.cxx (for PHP7 where the default has been changed to align
+with SWIG's default for every other language).  You can specify a
+different extension for the C++ wrapper using <tt>-cppext</tt> -
+e.g. if you want example_wrap.cc use <tt>-cppext cc</tt>.
 </p>
 
 <p>
diff --git a/Doc/Manual/SWIG.html b/Doc/Manual/SWIG.html
index 77481f279..0e392a918 100644
--- a/Doc/Manual/SWIG.html
+++ b/Doc/Manual/SWIG.html
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ can be obtained by typing <tt>swig -help</tt> or <tt>swig
 
 -c++                  Enable C++ parsing
 -cppext <em>ext</em>           Change file extension of C++ generated files to <em>ext</em>
-                      (default is cxx, except for PHP which uses cpp)
+                      (default is cxx, except for PHP5 which uses cpp)
 -D<em>symbol</em>              Define a preprocessor symbol
 -Fstandard            Display error/warning messages in commonly used format
 -Fmicrosoft           Display error/warning messages in Microsoft format
diff --git a/Examples/Makefile.in b/Examples/Makefile.in
index d10f0f9a2..d43b2c55d 100644
--- a/Examples/Makefile.in
+++ b/Examples/Makefile.in
@@ -1188,7 +1188,7 @@ php: $(SRCDIR_SRCS)
 # --------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 php_cpp: $(SRCDIR_SRCS)
-	$(SWIG) -php7 -cppext cxx -c++ $(SWIGOPT) -o $(ICXXSRCS) $(INTERFACEPATH)
+	$(SWIG) -php7 -c++ $(SWIGOPT) -o $(ICXXSRCS) $(INTERFACEPATH)
 	$(CXX) -c $(CCSHARED) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CXXFLAGS) $(SRCDIR_SRCS) $(SRCDIR_CXXSRCS) $(ICXXSRCS) $(INCLUDES) $(PHP_INCLUDE)
 	$(CXXSHARED) $(CXXFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) $(OBJS) $(IOBJS) $(LIBS) $(CPP_DLLIBS) -o $(LIBPREFIX)$(TARGET)$(PHP_SO)
 
diff --git a/Source/Modules/main.cxx b/Source/Modules/main.cxx
index 632a001ac..12b83b2e4 100644
--- a/Source/Modules/main.cxx
+++ b/Source/Modules/main.cxx
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ static const char *usage1 = (const char *) "\
      -copyctor       - Automatically generate copy constructors wherever possible\n\
      -cpperraswarn   - Treat the preprocessor #error statement as #warning (default)\n\
      -cppext <ext>   - Change file extension of generated C++ files to <ext>\n\
-                       (default is cxx, except for PHP which uses cpp)\n\
+                       (default is cxx, except for PHP5 which uses cpp)\n\
      -copyright      - Display copyright notices\n\
      -debug-classes  - Display information about the classes found in the interface\n\
      -debug-module <n>- Display module parse tree at stages 1-4, <n> is a csv list of stages\n\
diff --git a/Source/Modules/php.cxx b/Source/Modules/php.cxx
index f86a0755d..74329fa4f 100644
--- a/Source/Modules/php.cxx
+++ b/Source/Modules/php.cxx
@@ -191,7 +191,6 @@ public:
 
   virtual void main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
     SWIG_library_directory("php");
-    SWIG_config_cppext("cpp");
 
     for (int i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
       if (strcmp(argv[i], "-prefix") == 0) {