diff --git a/acinclude.m4 b/acinclude.m4
index d4b6361728e..9d5435266cd 100644
--- a/acinclude.m4
+++ b/acinclude.m4
@@ -1077,7 +1077,7 @@ AC_DEFUN(PHP_SELECT_SAPI,[
 
 dnl deprecated
 AC_DEFUN(PHP_EXTENSION,[
-  sources=`awk -f $abs_srcdir/scan_makefile_in.awk < $abs_srcdir/ext/$1/Makefile.in`
+  sources=`awk -f $abs_srcdir/scan_makefile_in.awk < []PHP_EXT_SRCDIR($1)[]/Makefile.in`
 
   PHP_NEW_EXTENSION($1, $sources, $2, $3)
 
@@ -1111,15 +1111,8 @@ dnl be set to "cli" to mark extension build only with CLI or CGI sapi's.
 dnl extra-cflags are passed to the compiler, with @ext_srcdir@ being
 dnl substituted.
 AC_DEFUN(PHP_NEW_EXTENSION,[
-  if test -d "$abs_srcdir/ext/$1"; then
-dnl ---------------------------------------------- Internal Module
-    ext_builddir=ext/$1
-    ext_srcdir=$abs_srcdir/ext/$1
-  else
-dnl ---------------------------------------------- External Module
-    ext_builddir=.
-    ext_srcdir=$abs_srcdir
-  fi
+  ext_builddir=[]PHP_EXT_BUILDDIR($1)
+  ext_srcdir=[]PHP_EXT_SRCDIR($1)
 
   ifelse($5,,,[ac_extra=`echo $ac_n "$5$ac_c"|sed s#@ext_srcdir@#$ext_srcdir#g`])
 
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 09e5467102f..1d040929061 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ dnl ## All of these are normally in the extension directories.
 dnl ## Diversion 5 is the last one.  Here we generate files and clean up.
 
 
-
 dnl Basic autoconf + automake initialization, generation of config.nice.
 dnl -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
@@ -40,6 +39,10 @@ AC_CONFIG_HEADER(main/php_config.h)
 
 VERSION=4.3.0-dev
 
+dnl Define where extension directories are located in the configure context
+AC_DEFUN(PHP_EXT_BUILDDIR,[ext/$1])
+AC_DEFUN(PHP_EXT_SRCDIR,[$abs_srcdir/ext/$1])
+
 
 dnl Setting up the PHP version based on the information above.
 dnl -------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/pear/pear.m4 b/pear/pear.m4
index 879e34ee113..44e1f3ab659 100644
--- a/pear/pear.m4
+++ b/pear/pear.m4
@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@ AC_DEFUN(PHP_WITH_PHP_CONFIG,[
   AC_MSG_CHECKING(for PHP extension directory)
   AC_MSG_RESULT($EXTENSION_DIR)
 ])
-
+dnl
+AC_DEFUN(PHP_EXT_BUILDDIR,[.])dnl
+AC_DEFUN(PHP_EXT_SRCDIR,[$abs_srcdir])dnl
+dnl
 abs_srcdir=`(cd $srcdir && pwd)`
 abs_builddir=`pwd`