The usual (and recommended) way is to build the extension as a separate dynamically loaded module (which is supported by all modern operating -systems). You can then specify that this be loaded -automatically in php.ini or load it explicitly for any script which -needs it. As of version 5.3 of PHP, the dl() -function cannot be used and your only option is to -add to the php.ini something like - -extension = /usr/lib64/php/modules/mymodule.so +systems).
@@ -147,10 +141,9 @@ least work for Linux though):
-To test the extension from a PHP script, you need to load it first. You -can load it for every script by adding this line to the [PHP] section of +To test the extension from a PHP script, you first need to load tell PHP to +load it. To do this, add a line like this to the [PHP] section of php.ini:
@@ -159,8 +152,14 @@ can load it for every script by adding this line to the [PHP] section o-Alternatively, you can load it explicitly only for scripts which need it -by adding this line to the start of each such PHP script:: +If the module is in PHP's default extension directory, you can omit the path. +
+ ++For some SAPIs (for example, the CLI SAPI) you can instead use the +dl() function to load +an extension at run time, by adding a like like this to the start of each +PHP script which uses your extension:
@@ -168,14 +167,25 @@ by adding this line to the start of each such PHP script::
-SWIG also generates a php module, which -attempts to do the dl() call for you: +But note that this doesn't work when running PHP through a webserver in PHP5.3 +and later - you'll need to use extension in php.ini as +described above. +
+ ++The PHP module which SWIG generates will also attempt to do the dl() +call for you if the extension isn't already loaded:
include("example.php");
+This PHP module also defines the PHP classes for the wrapped API, so you'll +almost certainly want to include it anyway. +
+