dl
Loads the PHP extension given by the parameter extension_filename.
Use extension_loaded to test whether a given extension is already available or not. This works on both built-in extensions and dynamically loaded ones (either through php.ini or dl).
Warning:
This function was removed from most SAPIs in PHP 5.3.0, and was removed from PHP-FPM in PHP 7.0.0.
Parameters
- extension_filename
-
This parameter is only the filename of the extension to load which also depends on your platform. For example, the sockets extension (if compiled as a shared module, not the default!) would be called sockets.so on Unix platforms whereas it is called php_sockets.dll on the Windows platform.
The directory where the extension is loaded from depends on your platform:
Windows - If not explicitly set in the php.ini, the extension is loaded from C:\php5\ by default.
Unix - If not explicitly set in the php.ini, the default extension directory depends on
-
whether PHP has been built with --enable-debug or not
-
whether PHP has been built with (experimental) ZTS (Zend Thread Safety) support or not
-
the current internal ZEND_MODULE_API_NO (Zend internal module API number, which is basically the date on which a major module API change happened, e.g. 20010901)
Taking into account the above, the directory then defaults to
<install-dir>/lib/php/extensions/ <debug-or-not>-<zts-or-not>-ZEND_MODULE_API_NO,
e.g.
/usr/local/php/lib/php/extensions/debug-non-zts-20010901
or
/usr/local/php/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-zts-20010901.
Return Values
Returns true on success or false on failure. If the functionality of loading modules is not available or has been disabled (by setting enable_dl off in php.ini) an E_ERROR is emitted and execution is stopped. If dl fails because the specified library couldn't be loaded, in addition to false an E_WARNING message is emitted.
Notes
Note:
dl is case sensitive on Unix platforms.