What's the Difference Between Extension and zend_extension in php.ini?

Question

When I installed Xdebug through pecl, it added the following line to my php.ini file.

extension=\"xdebug.so\"

and everything I

Answer 1

At the core of the PHP language (more like the interpreter, because a language is just a specification) is a software (interpreter, bytecode compiler) called "Zend Engine" developed by Zend.

Every module which messes with this core should be installed as a "zend_extension".

And yet, to solve your problem, ignore this attempt at explanation and consult the docs of the extension you're configuring - http://www.xdebug.org/docs/install.