PEAR makes it easy to create shared PHP extensions. Using the 
   pear command, do the following:
  
   
  
   This will download the source for extname, 
   compile, and install extname.so into your extension_dir.  
   extname.so may then be loaded via php.ini
  
   By default, the pear command will not install
   packages that are marked with the alpha or
   beta state.  If no stable packages
   are available, you may install a beta package using the
   following command:
  
   
$ pear install extname-beta  | 
  
   You may also install a specific version using this variant:
  
   
$ pear install extname-0.1  |