Extracting, Modifying and Compiling a PHP PECL Extension

If you have downloaded a PHP extension from PECL, and you want to modify it before compiling and installing, you might want to do the following.
First extract and prepare the files for compiling.

# tar xzf extension.tgz
# cd extension 
# phpize
#./configure

Now modify the files to fit your needs. And then compile and install:

# make
# make install

That's it.