[SWLUG] Compiling Apache

[Jonathan Wright]

Terry John wrote:
> Does anyone have experience of compiling apache from source code? I've
> done it but I have a problemette.
> 
> I've used the latest Apache 2.0 but when I try to run some PHP stuff it
> complains about ReGex problems. It appears to be the pcre (Perl
> Compatible Regular Expressions) install. Although it is an very new
> apache the pcre version is very old (version 3) so newer PHP apps start
> to fail.
> 
> The standard RedHat httpd installation is pcre version 4 and that's ok.

I don't think that PHP would be using the pcre library statically 
compiled into Apache unless it was specifically compiled against it (and 
then no command-line version used).

As to the failures, do you have any error messages, or do they just die. 
Can you run the programs from the command line (you may have more error 
messages that way)?

> I'm pretty sure it's not the libphp.so module as that is the same one
> for both installations.

Both installations are pointing to the same libphp.so or have you copied 
the library between them?

> I've tried using different pcre source but it usually fails to compile.
> I managed to hack the compile once but the resulting exe wouldn't run
> :-(

I take it from this you tried working with --use-prce=DIR (or whatever 
the ./configure command option is)?

> I don't want to use the original RedHat install because there are some
> patches that we need to apply here. & I don't want to patch & recompile
> the original RedHat code cos I'm scared :-)

RedHat, et. al., patches tend more to be back-ports of updates to later 
versions. Looking towards stability, not just as a program but for it's 
API's and configuration, later releases which have changes for security 
or stability reasons will be back-ported to the current version rather 
than just releasing the new version.

This minimizes any cosmetic changes or feature enhancements that can 
cause problems.

httpd-2.0.48-27 means Apache 2.0.48 on it's 27th Patch Level.


What's you reason for trying to compile from source rather than use the 
pre-packaged binary?

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  Jonathan Wright                           jonathan at netwrker.co.uk
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