Generally the extension-wide global variables are actually configuration options set in the %php.ini% file, or perhaps in the Apache %httpd.conf% file. Adding such configuration options for your extension is easy. To add a %test.my_ini_setting% configuration variable, first follow the instructions for creating a global variable from the last slide. Then in your .c file add: The arguments to STD_PHP_INI_ENTRY here are: entry name entry value change permissions pointer to change notification handler corresponding global variable globals struct type globals struct You can implement your own change notification handlers using %PHP_INI_MH()%, but here we will just use the default %OnUpdateInt% which basically just takes the string in the .ini file and does an atoi() on it. The other built-in handlers are %OnUpdateReal()%, %OnUpdateBool()%, %OnUpdateString()%, and %OnUpdateStringUnempty()%. After adding your STD_PHP_INI_ENTRY block to your .c file, in your MINIT function after the %ZEND_INIT_MODULE_GLOBALS()% add this: REGISTER_INI_ENTRIES(); And likewise, in your MSHUTDOWN function add: UNREGISTER_INI_ENTRIES(); And finally, you can optionally add this to your MINFO function: DISPLAY_INI_ENTRIES();