gcc version egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2 release)

added "exit" to configure script on line 1494. Output stopped with...
checking if compiler supports -Wl,-rpath,... yes

line 1472 of the script is
if { (eval echo configure:1473: \"$ac_link\") 1>&5; (eval $ac_link) 2>&5; } && test -s conftest${ac_exeext}; then

I don't understand what's going on with that, but I think we're getting the wrong answer here.

I tried...

$gcc -rpath /usr/lib hello.c 
gcc: unrecognized option `-rpath'
/usr/lib: file not recognized: Is a directory

This problem manifested itself when I tried to configure --with-pgsql. I got the 'unrecognized option' error on the very last line of compilation. 

gcc -shared -o libphp3.so ./mod_php3.o libmodphp3-so.a -L/usr/local/lib -lgd -L/usr/local/pgsql/lib -lpq -lexpat -L/usr/local/easysoft/oob/client/lib -lesoobclient -lgdbm pcrelib/libpcre.a -lpam -lm -ldl -lcrypt -lresolv -Lpcrelib -lpcre -rpath /usr/local/pgsql/lib
gcc: unrecognized option `-rpath'
/usr/local/pgsql/lib: file not recognized: Is a directory
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
apxs:Break: Command failed with rc=65536
make: *** [libphp3.so] Error 1

By replacing the "-rpath "/usr/local/pgsql/lib with -L/usr/local/pgsql/lib successful compilation occured.