Here's the point where PHP compile crashed with segfault.

Generating phar.php
/bin/sh: line 1: 11538 Segmentation fault      ` if test -x "/home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/sapi/cli/php"; then /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/build/shtool echo -n -- "/home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/sapi/cli/php -n"; if test "x/home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/openssl.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/sqlite3.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/zlib.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/bz2.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/curl.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/gd.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/imap.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/mbstring.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/mcrypt.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/mysql.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/pdo.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/pdo_mysql.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/pdo_pgsql.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/pdo_sqlite.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/pgsql.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/soap.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/sqlite.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/xmlrpc.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/xsl.la /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/zip.la" != "x"; then /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/build/shtool echo -n -- " -d extension_dir=/home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules"; for i in bz2 zlib phar; do if test -f "/home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/$i.la"; then . /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/modules/$i.la; /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/build/shtool echo -n -- " -d extension=$dlname"; fi; done; fi; else /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/build/shtool echo -n -- ""; fi;` -d 'open_basedir=' -d 'output_buffering=0' -d 'memory_limit=-1' -d phar.readonly=0 -d 'safe_mode=0' /home/testbuild/php-5.3.0RC3/ext/phar/build_precommand.php > ext/phar/phar.php
make: *** [ext/phar/phar.php] Error 139

BTW it compile with the same configuration for PHP5.3RC2

Please try using this CVS snapshot:

  http://snaps.php.net/php5.3-latest.tar.gz
 
For Windows:

  http://windows.php.net/snapshots/

I'm sorry, I was trying to test RC3 RELEASE (since you ARE calling for testers)! I didn't know I have to go test the snapshot too....

I took the time to test it. At least you can take the time to confirm (or not-confirm) the bug.

Works for me.

Thank you Jani for confirming. I tried the snapshot, and it worked.

I've exactly the same problem with stable PHP 5.3.2.
When i use snapshot, it takes loooong time with just "Generating phar.php" and nothing else happened.

I am compiling PHP 5.3.2 on RHEL 2.6.9 and notice the following:

It compiles fine with a non-MPM version of Apache 2.2.9 on a standard kernel.

On an otherwise identical system running a SMP kernel and a MPM-worker build of Apache, PHP fails to compile with the same error.

Some other online forum suggests that this error goes back to a problem with the php-cli build.

I can confirm that this problem exists.

Compiled with apache MPM-prefork, everything went fine.
Switched to MPM-worker, breaks at the same point as mentioned in this report.
(Debian, Linux KPI 2.6.26-2-686 #1 SMP Tue Mar 9 17:35:51 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux)

Configure used for apache:
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache2 --enable-so --enable-auth-digest --enable-cache --enable-deflate --enable-expires --enable-headers --enable-info --enable-logio --enable-mime-magic --enable-proxy --enable-rewrite --enable-speling --enable-ssl --enable-unique-id --with-mpm=worker

Configure used for PHP:
 './configure' '--prefix=/usr/lib/php5' '--host=x86-pc-linux-gnu' '--mandir=/usr/lib/php5/man' '--infodir=/usr/lib/php5/info' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--cache-file=./config.cache' '--with-libdir=lib' '--with-pcre-regex=/usr' '--enable-cli' '--with-apxs2=/usr/bin/apxs2' '--with-config-file-path=/etc/php/apache2-php5' '--with-config-file-scan-dir=/etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active' '--with-pear' '--enable-bcmath' '--with-bz2' '--enable-calendar' '--with-curl' '--with-curlwrappers' '--enable-exif' '--enable-ftp' '--with-gettext' '--without-gmp' '--with-kerberos' '--enable-mbstring' '--with-mcrypt' '--with-mhash' '--with-mssql' '--with-openssl' '--with-openssl-dir=/usr' '--disable-pcntl' '--without-pgsql' '--without-pspell' '--without-recode' '--disable-shmop' '--with-snmp' '--enable-soap' '--enable-sockets' '--without-sybase-ct' '--disable-sysvmsg' '--disable-sysvsem' '--disable-sysvshm' '--without-tidy' '--disable-wddx' '--with-xmlrpc' '--with-xsl' '--enable-zip' '--with-zlib' '--disable-debug' '--without-enchant' '--disable-intl' '--enable-phar' '--enable-dba' '--without-cdb' '--without-db4' '--disable-flatfile' '--with-gdbm' '--disable-inifile' '--without-qdbm' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' '--with-t1lib=/usr' '--disable-gd-jis-conv' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr' '--with-png-dir=/usr' '--with-xpm-dir=/usr' '--with-gd' '--with-imap' '--with-imap-ssl' '--with-ldap' '--without-ldap-sasl' '--with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql' '--with-mysql-sock=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' '--with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config' '--with-unixODBC=/usr' '--without-adabas' '--without-birdstep' '--without-dbmaker' '--without-empress' '--without-esoob' '--without-ibm-db2' '--without-iodbc' '--without-sapdb' '--without-solid' '--with-pdo-dblib' '--with-pdo-mysql=/usr' '--with-pdo-odbc=unixODBC,/usr' '--without-pdo-pgsql' '--with-readline' '--without-libedit' '--without-mm' '--without-sqlite'

Building without phar works, but then 'make install' fails with a segmentation fault as well.

Using the 2010-08-02-1230 snapshot produced the same error for me. Compiling on 
ARMv5TE, gcc 4.4.3.