php installation issues - red hat linux

Hello. I am trying to install php on my linux box and when I go to configure it, I get the error below:

[sifactor@test105 php-4.3.1]$ sudo ./configure --with-mysql --with-apxs
loading cache ./config.cache
checking for Cygwin environment... no
checking for mingw32 environment... no
checking for working sed... sed
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc ) works... yes
checking whether the C compiler (gcc ) is a cross-compiler... no
checking whether we are using GNU C... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking whether gcc and cc understand -c and -o together... yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for AIX... no
checking if compiler supports -R... no
checking if compiler supports -Wl,-rpath,... yes
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking for bison... no
checking for byacc... no
configure: warning: You will need bison if you want to regenerate the PHP parsers.
checking for flex... lex
checking for yywrap in -ll... no
checking lex output file root... ./configure: lex: command not found
configure: error: cannot find output from lex; giving up
[sifactor@test105 php-4.3.1]$

sudo is a program that gives me root access when needed (it's really a friend's server that he's letting me experiment on until i get mine). I've looked through all the documentation i could find on php and no where did i find anything to address this problem...so i'm hoping that maybe someone here can help me out.

Thanks in advance!

You need to install lex (or flex) - this comes in the form of an RPM for RedHat, and it should be on the install CD. Or you can get it from here - choose the correct RPM for your version of Redhat.


Hope this helps.

ya, that was it. Thanks man!

You don't need to root access to configure or make PHP. You only need to switch to root to do the 'make install' step.