diff --git a/ext/session/php_session.h b/ext/session/php_session.h
index dbb78998915..279a923b32f 100644
--- a/ext/session/php_session.h
+++ b/ext/session/php_session.h
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ PHPAPI int php_session_register_serializer(const char *name,
 	        int (*decode)(PS_SERIALIZER_DECODE_ARGS));
 
 PHPAPI void php_session_set_id(char *id TSRMLS_DC);
+PHPAPI void php_session_start(TSRMLS_D);
 
 #define PS_ADD_VARL(name,namelen) \
 	zend_hash_add_empty_element(&PS(vars), name, namelen + 1)
diff --git a/ext/session/session.c b/ext/session/session.c
index 69836bff530..59d5a4abb48 100644
--- a/ext/session/session.c
+++ b/ext/session/session.c
@@ -825,7 +825,7 @@ static const ps_serializer *_php_find_ps_serializer(char *name TSRMLS_DC)
 		convert_to_string((*ppid)); \
 		PS(id) = estrndup(Z_STRVAL_PP(ppid), Z_STRLEN_PP(ppid))
 
-static void php_session_start(TSRMLS_D)
+PHPAPI void php_session_start(TSRMLS_D)
 {
 	pval **ppid;
 	pval **data;