Directadmin is pretty good, lightweight, control panel for providing web hosting service or to host your own websites/projects, managing mail … Through the years, I recompiled PHP with custombuild countless times. Problem is, that every time that you want to install some new PHP extension – exif, in this example – you’ll have to rebuild whole PHP with Directadmin’s custombuild also. That can be very annoying and time-consuming. Expesialy when things go wrong. So, there is simple way on how to quickly install PHP extensions without using custombuild. I used this way many times. In this case, installation was done on CentOS 7.2 server with Directadmin and PHP version 5.6.23.

I hope this was helpful to you in any way.

1. Navigate to your Directadmin’s custombuild directory. Don’t worry, we won’t use custombuild.

   [root@webserver ~]# cd /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild
   [root@webserver custombuild]#

2. Search for PHP package and unarchive it.

   [root@webserver custombuild]# ls -l | grep php
   -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18428932 Jun 23 18:40 php-5.6.23.tar.gz
   [root@webserver custombuild]# tar -xvzf php-5.6.23.tar.gz

3. Go to php directory that was created when you unarchive package.

   [root@webserver custombuild]# cd php-5.6.23
   [root@webserver php-5.6.23]#

4. Navigate to ext directory where extensions are. Go to directory of extension that you want to install. In this case exif.

   [root@webserver php-5.6.23]# cd ext/exif/
   [root@webserver exif]#

5. Run phpize. Be shure to run the right one! In my case, phpize path is /usr/local/php56/bin/phpize. I’m using php version 5.6 on CentOS server. Change this accordingly to your installation.

   [root@webserver exif]# /usr/local/php56/bin/phpize
   Configuring for:
   PHP Api Version: 20131106
   Zend Module Api No: 20131226
   Zend Extension Api No: 220131226

6. Run configure. Again, be shure to include right php-config file!

   [root@webserver exif]# ./configure --with-php-config=/usr/local/php56/bin/php-config
   checking for grep that handles long lines and -e_. /usr/bin/grep
   checking for egrep_. /usr/bin/grep -E
   checking for a sed that does not truncate output_. /usr/bin/sed
   checking for cc_. cc
   checking whether the C compiler works_. yes
   checking for C compiler default output file name_. a.out
   _.

7. Then run make. You should see part that says “Libraries have been installed in” and “Build complete”.

   [root@webserver exif]# make
   _.
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Libraries have been installed in:
   /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild/php-5.6.23/ext/exif/modules
   Build complete.
   _.

8. Install extension by run make install. You’ll also see in which directory extension was installed.

   [root@webserver exif]# make install
   Installing shared extensions: /usr/local/php56/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20131226/
   [root@webserver exif]# cd /usr/local/php56/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20131226/
   [root@webserver no-debug-non-zts-20131226]# ls
   exif.so opcache.a opcache.so

9. Open your php.ini file and find part where it says extension_dir. Add this line below commented “; extension_dir = ext” part. In my case is exif extension. Change this according to your install.

   ; extension_dir = "ext"
   extension=exif.so
   

10. Restart apache and check if extension is installed. In my case, there is.

    [root@webserver exif]# php -m | grep exif
    exif

That’s it. I hope that it works for you also. Have a good one!