All PHP and MOD_PHP ebuilds are lacking the configure switch --enable-sockets. Without this switch all socket* functions are disabled. See this page for more info. http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.sockets.php
talk about super shady and super unstable ;)
Uhhh, what?
From PHP's page: WARNING This extension is EXPERIMENTAL. The behaviour of this extension -- including the names of its functions and anything else documented about this extension -- may change without notice in a future release of PHP. Use this extension at your own risk.
the option should probably be added by the user.