Re: Question about "shared" v "not-shared"?

> Whilst trying to figure something else out, I was trawling through the > php_config.h and config.log files and playing with various ./configure > options. > > It seems like most of the --with-xxx options and some --enable-xxx options > can take "shared" as an argument. > > When I try this with, for example, bcmath. It all seems to compile fine but > it doesn't show up as a module when running phpinfo();. Correct, it would only show up if you added the shared module either directly by calling dl("bcmath.so") before the phpinfo() call, or if you edited your php.ini file and added "extension=bcmath.so". > Is this correct behaviour? (I guess it is as it is dynamically linked in > when you need it rather than built into the code directly). > > If this is O.K. what are the benefits/drawbacks of either approach and is > there a complete list of which options can take "shared" as an argument? The main benefit is really to binary distributions. It is much simpler to generate a base PHP package and then distribute separate packages for each of the add-on features. If you are compiling from source yourself I don't see much of a benefit to going with shared extensions as opposed to just compiling in the ones you want. -Rasmus