Can you paste a littel more lines of that error? And which versions of autoconf, automake and libtool do you use?

Derick

I tried to add this comment from the Edit Subbmission area, but it didn't allow me to do so. It just told me:
"You aren't allowed to change a bug to that state.", my pw was ok and so on but here are the lines that Derik wanted me to send.

autoconf --version
Autoconf version 2.13

----
automake --version
automake (GNU automake) 1.4-p5

Copyright (C) 1999, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Written by Tom Tromey <tromey@cygnus.com>
----
libtool:
libtool --version
ltmain.sh (GNU libtool) 1.4.2 (1.922.2.54 2001/09/11 03:33:3

----
And here are some lines before the error:

Making install in xml
make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext/xml'
Making install in expat
make[3]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext/xml/expat'
make[4]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext/xml/expat'
make[4]: Nothing to be done for `install-p'.
make[4]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext/xml/expat'
make[3]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext/xml/expat'
make[3]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext/xml'
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `install-p'.
make[3]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext/xml'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext/xml'
make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-p'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/ext'
Making install in sapi
make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/sapi'
Making install in apache
make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/sapi/apache'
make[3]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/sapi/apache'
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `install-p'.
make[3]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/sapi/apache'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/sapi/apache'
make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/sapi'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-p'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/sapi'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/sapi'
Making install in TSRM
make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/TSRM'
make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/TSRM'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-data-am'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/TSRM'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/TSRM'
Making install in regex
make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/regex'
make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/regex'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-p'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/regex'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1/regex'
Making install in .
make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1'
make[1]: *** [install-sapi] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/php-4.2.1'
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1

- ARi

Did you do 'make ; make install'  or only 'make install' ?

I think it?s my Bug ID 17203, so manually creating the directory "libs"
may be the solution.

Daniel

yes I did configure, make and make install.. 

I also tried to manually add libs dir to php install directory, but it did not work... 

- ARi

yes I did configure, make and make install.. 

I also tried to manually add libs dir to php install directory, but it did not work... 

- ARi

I got same result but adding libs/ dir and then  'make install' fixed it..

Seems like something wierd going on with RH 7.3 since I can't reproduce this on 6.2.

--Jani

Now I can't reproduce it anymore. Did you do this with clean sources? If not, please try again.

You must create "libs" not in the install but in the compile/unpack directory of php-4.2.1

I've got the same issue on RH6.2 system.
automake (GNU automake) 1.4
Autoconf version 2.13
ltmain.sh (GNU libtool) 1.3.4
GNU Make version 3.78.1

Creating libs dir solves the issue.

BTW, funny enough, the issue didn't appear at all on BC6.2 Linux and ASPLinux 7.1 (localized and slightly enhanced RH clones).

Can you try with this snapshot:

http://snaps.php.net/php4-latest.tar.gz

I still can't reproduce this..

I think I have the answer to this bug.  I have experienced the same thing, compiling PHP 4.2.1 under RedHat 7.3, though I couldn't figure out why creating the "libs" directory under $srcdir (see bug #17203) worked *sometimes*, but not always.  

Further investigation has revealed why:

1) Running "configure ..." creates the "libs" directory.

2) Running "make clean" REMOVES the "libs" directory.

3) Running "make install" fails, because the "libs" directory no longer exists, which causes the command:

  /bin/sh /usr/local/src/php-4.2.1/libtool --silent --silent --mode=install cp libphp4.la /usr/local/src/php-4.2.1/libs/libphp4.la >/dev/null 2>&1

to die silently and break the installation with the error:

Making install in .
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/php-4.2.1'
make[1]: *** [install-sapi] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/php-4.2.1'
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1

So the only times it worked for me was when I skipped step 2.  I believe this is because of a change in $srcdir/build/rules.mk in this PHP version. Line 52 in v4.2.1 is:

    rm -rf .libs libs

whereas it used to be the following in v4.1.2:

    rm -rf .libs

Perhaps it should be changed to something like "rm -rf .libs libs/*" ?

Should be fixed in the stable snapshots too.
(that 'make clean' thing)