apache/php4 installtion problems

Hi,

I am one of those people who learned linux with Corel linux (Debian) and still using it
I installed Mysql successfully but when I tried to install PHP4 I ran into some problems!

I went to e-gineer.com and follow their instructions. I ran into a problem when I execute the following command:

./configure --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-config-file-path=/www/conf --with-apache=../httpd --enable-track-vars

"configure:error.... unable to find httpd.h....."

I also went to webmonkey.com and read Julie Meloni's instructions which is a bit differ from e-gineer.com's:

./configure --with-mysql=/[path to mysql] --with-apxs=/[path to apxs]


My questions:
1) error message says "error.... unable to find httpd.h" where is this file and where it locates?? I tried looking in /etc/apache/conf and using whereis command but still can't find httpd.h

2) with e-gineer.com's instruction ....--with-config-file-path=/www/conf ..... what kind of config is this??? Apache's?? or PHP's?

3)with Julie Meloni's instruction ....--with-apxs=/[path to apxs].... what is apxs??

I am installing PHP and MYSQL as root and Aapache is preinstalled. http.conf is located at /ect/apache/conf but log files are in /var/log/apache

Sorry for the long message and I hope I didn't post in the wrong place!

'./configure' '--with-apxs=/usr/local/sbin/apxs' '--with-config-file-path=/usr/local/etc' '--enable-versioning' '--with-system-regex' '--disable-debug' '--enable-track-vars' '--with-zlib' '--with-mcrypt=/usr/local' '--with-mhash=/usr/local' '--with-mysql=/usr/local' '--with-pgsql=/usr/local' '--with-openssl=/usr' '--with-xml' '--with-expat-dir=/usr/local' '--enable-xslt' '--with-xslt-sablot' '--with-expat-dir=/usr/local' '--with-dom=/usr/local' '--enable-ftp' '--with-curl=/usr/local' '--with-gettext=/usr/local' '--with-iconv=/usr/local' '--with-pspell=/usr/local' '--enable-mbregex' '--enable-mbstring' '--enable-yp' '--enable-bcmath' '--with-hyperwave=yes' '--with-ming=/usr/local' '--with-mcal=/usr/local' '--enable-sockets' '--enable-trans-sid' '--with-iconv=/usr/local' '--prefix=/usr/local'

on my machine /usr/local/include/apache/httpd.h

there is alot of stuff involved with apache do a search for apxs. from the above config take what you want what you need also do yourself a favour install slackware

Unfortunately, it'd be tough for a Linux newbie to follow the standard (specifying /usr/local as the PREFIX at all time), maybe it's time to ditch Linux and give BSD a try.

1) httpd.h is in the Apache's src. Say you extracted apache_1.3.23.tar.gz to /usr/local/src/ then httpd.h would be at: /usr/local/src/apache_1.3.23/src/include/httpd.h
That said, --with-apache=../httpd is probably incorrect because that should be the path to your Apache src at /usr/local/src/apache_1.3.23

2) That's to tell PHP where to install/locate php.ini. For example, /usr/local/etc.

3) apxs is so-called the DSO method. When adding modules to Apache, you do not have to recompile. Instead, you tell Apache your module will be installed as share module so you can load it dynamically. BTW this is the right approach to build any module these days.
So how to enable apxs?
When Apache is configured with at least one module as shared then mod_so will be automatically enabled.
For example:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-module=most --enable-shared=max

>> http.conf is located at /ect/apache/conf

You are trying to build Apache manually so that's local stuffs. /etc is for system-wide. You need to install local stuffs to /usr/local. So the appropriate location should be /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf. Currently you are putting files all over the places.

Thank you Bob and freebsd for all your helps! Thanks for such of detailed descriptions and explanation! I will give it a tried tonight and soon it will be time for me to learn FreeBSD!

thxs!!