php http wrapper

I'm using lighttpd & php, I have a user that has a php script of the form:

$lines = file( 'http://www.example.com');

In my /etc/php/php.ini, I have the following default value unchanged:
allow_url_fopen = On

Php is working in general other than this. And this works by default on other distros.

But php gives this error:
>>> Warning: file(): Unable to find the wrapper "http" - did you forget to enable it when you configured PHP? in /var/www/html/test1.php on line 21 Warning: file(http://www.example.com): failed to open stream:

Is there a php add-on package that enables this? Or is this compiled out of the php on alpinelinux on purpose and I need to recompile?

Any help appreciated.