diff --git a/build/php.m4 b/build/php.m4
index dd1a4a7b5188..f1945abebf9a 100644
--- a/build/php.m4
+++ b/build/php.m4
@@ -877,7 +877,11 @@ AC_DEFUN([PHP_SELECT_SAPI],[
 ])
 
 dnl
-dnl PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR
+dnl PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR(dirs [, create])
+dnl
+dnl Add build directories and directories required for the out-of-source builds.
+dnl When "create" is given, the provided "dirs" are created immediately upon
+dnl macro invocation, instead of deferring it to the PHP_GEN_BUILD_DIRS.
 dnl
 AC_DEFUN([PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR],[
   ifelse($2,,[
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 1e6e28af798f..1bafbfbc6caa 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1225,6 +1225,7 @@ if test "$PHP_PEAR" != "no"; then
     esac
   fi
 
+  PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR([pear])
   PHP_ADD_MAKEFILE_FRAGMENT($abs_srcdir/pear/Makefile.frag,$abs_srcdir/pear,pear)
 fi
 
@@ -1740,19 +1741,21 @@ PHP_ADD_SOURCES(Zend, \
 	Optimizer/zend_dump.c \
     , -DZEND_ENABLE_STATIC_TSRMLS_CACHE=1)
 
-PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR(main main/streams)
-PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR(TSRM)
-PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR(Zend Zend/asm Zend/Optimizer)
-
 PHP_ADD_MAKEFILE_FRAGMENT($abs_srcdir/scripts/Makefile.frag,$abs_srcdir/scripts,scripts)
 PHP_ADD_MAKEFILE_FRAGMENT($abs_srcdir/Zend/Makefile.frag,$abs_srcdir/Zend,Zend)
 
 AC_DEFINE([HAVE_BUILD_DEFS_H], 1, [ ])
 
-dnl Make directories when building in a separate build directory.
-$php_shtool mkdir -p pear
-$php_shtool mkdir -p scripts
-$php_shtool mkdir -p scripts/man1
+PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR([m4_normalize([
+  main
+  main/streams
+  scripts
+  scripts/man1
+  TSRM
+  Zend
+  Zend/asm
+  Zend/Optimizer
+])])
 
 ALL_OUTPUT_FILES="main/build-defs.h \
 scripts/phpize scripts/man1/phpize.1 \
@@ -1787,8 +1790,6 @@ fi
 
 dnl Create configuration headers.
 dnl ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-test -d Zend || $php_shtool mkdir Zend
-
 cat >Zend/zend_config.h <<FEO
 #include <../main/php_config.h>
 FEO