LinuxQuestions.org - Compiling PHP on Debian

I have encountered something confusing. If I install apache + php onto Debian 3.1 using:

Code:

'apt-get install -y apache2 apache2-common apache2-mpm-prefork libapache2-mod-php4'

and then upload a phpinfo.php script to the server I can observe the following output:

Quote:

'../configure' '--prefix=/usr' '--with-apxs2=/usr/bin/apxs2' '--with-config-file-path=/etc/php4/apache2' '--enable-memory-limit' '--disable-debug' '--with-regex=php' '--disable-rpath' '--disable-static' '--with-pic' '--with-layout=GNU' '--with-pear=/usr/share/php' '--enable-calendar' '--enable-sysvsem' '--enable-sysvshm' '--enable-sysvmsg' '--enable-track-vars' '--enable-trans-sid' '--enable-bcmath' '--with-bz2' '--enable-ctype' '--with-db4' '--with-iconv' '--enable-exif' '--enable-filepro' '--enable-ftp' '--with-gettext' '--enable-mbstring' '--with-pcre-regex=/usr' '--enable-shmop' '--enable-sockets' '--enable-wddx' '--disable-xml' '--with-expat-dir=/usr' '--with-xmlrpc' '--enable-yp' '--with-zlib' '--without-pgsql' '--with-kerberos=/usr' '--with-openssl=/usr' '--with-zip=/usr' '--enable-dbx' '--with-mime-magic=/usr/share/misc/file/magic.mime' '--with-exec-dir=/usr/lib/php4/libexec' '--without-mm' '--without-mysql' '--without-sybase-ct'

note the php compile option that reads '--without-mysql' !

However I know that the apache mod does actually run mysql succesfully since I run a discussion board with it. My understanding then is that the stuff thats disabled is available as modules (php4-mysql, php4-xml etc...), so the configure script line only defines what will be hardlinked into the main php4 apache module.

Forgive the ignorance here as I have only scratched the surface of php programming but does this mean that php itself is modular in a similar manner to the way that Apache is modular? Is it intended to be this way or does Debian mangle it to suit its own purposes? Basically I am trying to compile/build a minimal hosting system that mimics the Debian installation style but this whole situation is making it very difficult.