diff --git a/Dockerfile-alpine.template b/Dockerfile-alpine.template
index 4a97edb4..82361bf2 100644
--- a/Dockerfile-alpine.template
+++ b/Dockerfile-alpine.template
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ ENV PHPIZE_DEPS \
 		re2c
 RUN apk add --no-cache --virtual .persistent-deps \
 		ca-certificates \
-		curl
+		curl \
+		tar \
+		xz
 
 # ensure www-data user exists
 RUN set -x \
@@ -36,27 +38,32 @@ ENV PHP_FILENAME %%PHP_FILENAME%%
 ENV PHP_SHA256 %%PHP_SHA256%%
 
 RUN set -xe \
-	&& apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps \
-		$PHPIZE_DEPS \
-		curl-dev \
+	&& apk add --no-cache --virtual .fetch-deps \
 		gnupg \
-		libedit-dev \
-		libxml2-dev \
-		openssl-dev \
-		sqlite-dev \
-	&& curl -fSL "http://php.net/get/$PHP_FILENAME/from/this/mirror" -o "$PHP_FILENAME" \
-	&& echo "$PHP_SHA256 *$PHP_FILENAME" | sha256sum -c - \
-	&& curl -fSL "http://php.net/get/$PHP_FILENAME.asc/from/this/mirror" -o "$PHP_FILENAME.asc" \
+	&& mkdir -p /usr/src \
+	&& cd /usr/src/ \
+	&& curl -fSL "http://php.net/get/$PHP_FILENAME/from/this/mirror" -o php.tar.xz \
+	&& echo "$PHP_SHA256 *php.tar.xz" | sha256sum -c - \
+	&& curl -fSL "http://php.net/get/$PHP_FILENAME.asc/from/this/mirror" -o php.tar.xz.asc \
 	&& export GNUPGHOME="$(mktemp -d)" \
 	&& for key in $GPG_KEYS; do \
 		gpg --keyserver ha.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys "$key"; \
 	done \
-	&& gpg --batch --verify "$PHP_FILENAME.asc" "$PHP_FILENAME" \
-	&& rm -r "$GNUPGHOME" "$PHP_FILENAME.asc" \
-	&& mkdir -p /usr/src \
-	&& tar -Jxf "$PHP_FILENAME" -C /usr/src \
-	&& mv "/usr/src/php-$PHP_VERSION" /usr/src/php \
-	&& rm "$PHP_FILENAME" \
+	&& gpg --batch --verify php.tar.xz.asc php.tar.xz \
+	&& rm -r "$GNUPGHOME" \
+	&& apk del .fetch-deps
+
+COPY docker-php-source /usr/local/bin/
+
+RUN set -xe \
+	&& apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps \
+		$PHPIZE_DEPS \
+		curl-dev \
+		libedit-dev \
+		libxml2-dev \
+		openssl-dev \
+		sqlite-dev \
+	&& docker-php-source extract \
 	&& cd /usr/src/php \
 	&& ./configure \
 		--with-config-file-path="$PHP_INI_DIR" \
@@ -83,7 +90,8 @@ RUN set -xe \
 			| sort -u \
 	)" \
 	&& apk add --no-cache --virtual .php-rundeps $runDeps \
-	&& apk del .build-deps
+	&& apk del .build-deps \
+	&& docker-php-source delete
 
 COPY docker-php-ext-* /usr/local/bin/
 
diff --git a/Dockerfile-debian.template b/Dockerfile-debian.template
index 397eee5f..f341c93f 100644
--- a/Dockerfile-debian.template
+++ b/Dockerfile-debian.template
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
 		libedit2 \
 		libsqlite3-0 \
 		libxml2 \
+		xz-utils \
 	--no-install-recommends && rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 ENV PHP_INI_DIR /usr/local/etc/php
@@ -31,6 +32,20 @@ ENV PHP_VERSION %%PHP_VERSION%%
 ENV PHP_FILENAME %%PHP_FILENAME%%
 ENV PHP_SHA256 %%PHP_SHA256%%
 
+RUN set -xe \
+	&& cd /usr/src/ \
+	&& curl -fSL "http://php.net/get/$PHP_FILENAME/from/this/mirror" -o php.tar.xz \
+	&& echo "$PHP_SHA256 *php.tar.xz" | sha256sum -c - \
+	&& curl -fSL "http://php.net/get/$PHP_FILENAME.asc/from/this/mirror" -o php.tar.xz.asc \
+	&& export GNUPGHOME="$(mktemp -d)" \
+	&& for key in $GPG_KEYS; do \
+		gpg --keyserver ha.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys "$key"; \
+	done \
+	&& gpg --batch --verify php.tar.xz.asc php.tar.xz \
+	&& rm -r "$GNUPGHOME"
+
+COPY docker-php-source /usr/local/bin/
+
 RUN set -xe \
 	&& buildDeps=" \
 		$PHP_EXTRA_BUILD_DEPS \
@@ -39,21 +54,9 @@ RUN set -xe \
 		libsqlite3-dev \
 		libssl-dev \
 		libxml2-dev \
-		xz-utils \
 	" \
 	&& apt-get update && apt-get install -y $buildDeps --no-install-recommends && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
-	&& curl -fSL "http://php.net/get/$PHP_FILENAME/from/this/mirror" -o "$PHP_FILENAME" \
-	&& echo "$PHP_SHA256 *$PHP_FILENAME" | sha256sum -c - \
-	&& curl -fSL "http://php.net/get/$PHP_FILENAME.asc/from/this/mirror" -o "$PHP_FILENAME.asc" \
-	&& export GNUPGHOME="$(mktemp -d)" \
-	&& for key in $GPG_KEYS; do \
-		gpg --keyserver ha.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys "$key"; \
-	done \
-	&& gpg --batch --verify "$PHP_FILENAME.asc" "$PHP_FILENAME" \
-	&& rm -r "$GNUPGHOME" "$PHP_FILENAME.asc" \
-	&& mkdir -p /usr/src/php \
-	&& tar -xf "$PHP_FILENAME" -C /usr/src/php --strip-components=1 \
-	&& rm "$PHP_FILENAME" \
+	&& docker-php-source extract \
 	&& cd /usr/src/php \
 	&& ./configure \
 		--with-config-file-path="$PHP_INI_DIR" \
@@ -72,7 +75,8 @@ RUN set -xe \
 	&& make install \
 	&& { find /usr/local/bin /usr/local/sbin -type f -executable -exec strip --strip-all '{}' + || true; } \
 	&& make clean \
-	&& apt-get purge -y --auto-remove -o APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant=false -o APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant=false $buildDeps
+	&& apt-get purge -y --auto-remove -o APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant=false $buildDeps \
+	&& docker-php-source delete
 
 COPY docker-php-ext-* /usr/local/bin/
 
diff --git a/docker-php-ext-configure b/docker-php-ext-configure
index dd56be14..ac3e8990 100755
--- a/docker-php-ext-configure
+++ b/docker-php-ext-configure
@@ -2,13 +2,12 @@
 set -e
 
 ext="$1"
-extDir="/usr/src/php/ext/$ext"
-if [ -z "$ext" ] || ! [ -d "$extDir" ]; then
+if [ -z "$ext" ] || ! grep -qE "^$ext$" /usr/src/php-available-exts; then
 	echo >&2 "usage: $0 ext-name [configure flags]"
 	echo >&2 "   ie: $0 gd --with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local/something"
 	echo >&2
 	echo >&2 'Possible values for ext-name:'
-	echo >&2 $(find /usr/src/php/ext -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -type f -name 'config.m4' | cut -d/ -f6 | sort)
+	echo $(cat /usr/src/php-available-exts)
 	exit 1
 fi
 shift
@@ -28,7 +27,9 @@ if [ "$pm" = 'apk' ]; then
 	fi
 fi
 
+docker-php-source extract
+
 set -x
-cd "$extDir"
+cd "/usr/src/php/ext/$ext"
 phpize
 ./configure "$@"
diff --git a/docker-php-ext-install b/docker-php-ext-install
index 43927b41..f7fc78dd 100755
--- a/docker-php-ext-install
+++ b/docker-php-ext-install
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 set -e
 
-cd /usr/src/php/ext
-
 usage() {
 	echo "usage: $0 [-jN] ext-name [ext-name ...]"
 	echo "   ie: $0 gd mysqli"
@@ -12,7 +10,7 @@ usage() {
 	echo 'if custom ./configure arguments are necessary, see docker-php-ext-configure'
 	echo
 	echo 'Possible values for ext-name:'
-	echo $(find /usr/src/php/ext -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -type f -name 'config.m4' | cut -d/ -f6 | sort)
+	echo $(cat /usr/src/php-available-exts)
 }
 
 opts="$(getopt -o 'h?j:' --long 'help,jobs:' -- "$@" || { usage >&2 && false; })"
@@ -41,8 +39,8 @@ for ext; do
 	if [ -z "$ext" ]; then
 		continue
 	fi
-	if [ ! -d "$ext" ]; then
-		echo >&2 "error: $(pwd -P)/$ext does not exist"
+	if ! grep -qE "^$ext$" /usr/src/php-available-exts; then
+		echo >&2 "error: /usr/src/php/ext/$ext does not exist"
 		echo >&2
 		usage >&2
 		exit 1
@@ -72,6 +70,9 @@ if [ "$pm" = 'apk' ]; then
 	fi
 fi
 
+docker-php-source extract
+cd /usr/src/php/ext
+
 for ext in $exts; do
 	(
 		cd "$ext"
@@ -90,3 +91,4 @@ done
 if [ "$pm" = 'apk' ] && [ -n "$apkDel" ]; then
 	apk del $apkDel
 fi
+docker-php-source delete
diff --git a/docker-php-source b/docker-php-source
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..9020385b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-php-source
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+set -e
+dir=/usr/src/php
+
+usage() {
+	echo "usage: $0 COMMAND"
+	echo
+	echo "Manage php source tarball lifecycle."
+	echo
+	echo "Commands:"
+	echo "   extract  extract php source tarball into directory $dir if not already done."
+	echo "   delete   delete extracted php source located into $dir if not already done."
+	echo
+}
+
+case "$1" in
+	extract)
+		if [ -e "$dir" -a ! -d "$dir" ] ; then
+			echo >&2 "$dir exists and is not a directory"
+			exit 1
+		fi
+		if [ ! -d "$dir" ]; then
+			mkdir -p "$dir"
+			tar -Jxf /usr/src/php.tar.xz -C "$dir" --strip-components=1
+
+			if [ ! -f /usr/src/php-available-exts ]; then
+				find "$dir/ext" \
+						-mindepth 2 \
+						-maxdepth 2 \
+						-type f \
+						-name 'config.m4' \
+					| xargs -n1 dirname | xargs -n1 basename | sort \
+				> /usr/src/php-available-exts
+			fi
+		fi
+		;;
+	delete)
+		rm -rf "$dir"
+		;;
+	*)
+		usage
+		exit 1
+		;;
+esac
diff --git a/update.sh b/update.sh
index 08a6564e..2f747df3 100755
--- a/update.sh
+++ b/update.sh
@@ -68,11 +68,13 @@ for version in "${versions[@]}"; do
 	
 	cp -v Dockerfile-debian.template "$version/Dockerfile"
 	cp -v docker-php-ext-* "$version/"
+	cp -v docker-php-source "$version/"
 	dockerfiles+=( "$version/Dockerfile" )
 	
 	if [ -d "$version/alpine" ]; then
 		cp -v Dockerfile-alpine.template "$version/alpine/Dockerfile"
 		cp -v docker-php-ext-* "$version/alpine/"
+		cp -v docker-php-source "$version/alpine/"
 		dockerfiles+=( "$version/alpine/Dockerfile" )
 	fi
 	
@@ -98,6 +100,7 @@ for version in "${versions[@]}"; do
 			ia && ac == 1 { system("cat '$variant'-Dockerfile-block-" ab) }
 		' "$base" > "$version/$target/Dockerfile"
 		cp -v docker-php-ext-* "$version/$target/"
+		cp -v docker-php-source "$version/$target/"
 		dockerfiles+=( "$version/$target/Dockerfile" )
 	done