dl is awkward because the filename format is OS-dependent and because it can complain if the extension is already loaded. This wrapper function fixes that:

<?php

function load_lib($n, $f = null) {
    return extension_loaded($n) or dl(((PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX === 'dll') ? 'php_' : '') . ($f ? $f : $n) . '.' . PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX);
}

?>

Examples:

<?php

// ensure we have SSL and MySQL support
load_lib('openssl');
load_lib('mysql');

// a rare few extensions have a different filename to their extension name, such as the image (gd) library, so we specify them like this:
load_lib('gd', 'gd2');

?>

<?php

function dl_local( $extensionFile ) {
   //make sure that we are ABLE to load libraries
   if( !(bool)ini_get( "enable_dl" ) || (bool)ini_get( "safe_mode" ) ) {
     die( "dh_local(): Loading extensions is not permitted.\n" );
   }

     //check to make sure the file exists
   if( !file_exists( $extensionFile ) ) {
     die( "dl_local(): File '$extensionFile' does not exist.\n" );
   }
   
   //check the file permissions
   if( !is_executable( $extensionFile ) ) {
     die( "dl_local(): File '$extensionFile' is not executable.\n" );
   }

 //we figure out the path
 $currentDir = getcwd() . "/";
 $currentExtPath = ini_get( "extension_dir" );
 $subDirs = preg_match_all( "/\//" , $currentExtPath , $matches );
 unset( $matches );
 
     //lets make sure we extracted a valid extension path
   if( !(bool)$subDirs ) {
     die( "dl_local(): Could not determine a valid extension path [extension_dir].\n" );
   }
 
 $extPathLastChar = strlen( $currentExtPath ) - 1;
 
   if( $extPathLastChar == strrpos( $currentExtPath , "/" ) ) {
     $subDirs--;
   }

 $backDirStr = ""; 
     for( $i = 1; $i <= $subDirs; $i++ ) {
     $backDirStr .= "..";
       if( $i != $subDirs ) {
         $backDirStr .= "/";
       }
   }

 //construct the final path to load
 $finalExtPath = $backDirStr . $currentDir . $extensionFile;
 
   //now we execute dl() to actually load the module
     if( !dl( $finalExtPath ) ) {
     die();
   }

 //if the module was loaded correctly, we must bow grab the module name
 $loadedExtensions = get_loaded_extensions();
 $thisExtName = $loadedExtensions[ sizeof( $loadedExtensions ) - 1 ];
  
 //lastly, we return the extension name
  return $thisExtName;

}//end dl_local()

?>