Is php extension required for URL routing?

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Is the php extension required for URL routing, i.e.

http://localhost/welcome.php/index

How can I eliminate the php extension to create the following url instead?

http://localhost/welcome/index

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
On Apache, you use a module called mod_rewrite. See "Removing the index.php file" at http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-gui.../urls.html

Also see a more robust solution at http://codeigniter.com/wiki/mod_rewrite/