1) PHP is great!
2) PHP is quite difficult to install.

Here are several problems I had while installing on an
AlphaServer 400 running Digital UNIX 4.0b:

-"make clean" makes the distribution uncompilable!  After
doing this, make started using flex commands (it didn't the
first time).  However, my copy of flex allows neither the -o
or the -P flags, both of which are used.  If this is not an
oversight and I indeed have an outdated version of flex,
then configure should catch this.

-configure (the way I did it) puts the following lines into
the Makefile

LIBS = $(PHPLIBS)   regex/libregex.a -lgd -lm  -ldb \
         \
         \
         \
         \
       -L/usr/local/lib/mysql -lmysqlclient \
         \
         \
        \
         \
         \

With my copy of make, having a backslash on that last line
causes the compiler to try to find libraries called "all"
and "php" (the next two lines in the makefile).  It chokes.
Turning all the above stuff into one line fixed this problem.

-Not quite a bug but confusing: when setup asks for the
mysql install directory, it should have a smarter default.
The default install directory for mysql is "/usr/local".
This is technically correct, since it is the directory that
mysql used when IT was installed.  However, in order for
the compiler to be able to find the necessary header files,
you must enter "/usr/local/mysql" as the mysql install
directory.  Perhaps there is some way to specify that you
want the directory OF the mysql installation rather than the
directory INTO WHICH mysql was installed.

-"make install" will not work until a "make" has been
successfully completed.  I realize that jumping straight
to "make install" is the lazy way to install software, but
it should still work.  It chokes on an rm command, of all
things.

Fortunately I know enough about this stuff to make it work
right.  But you're doing yourselves a real disservice.  Your
software is too good to be thrown away by a less experienced
user who might give up after the first make error...

Jeff Morrow
jmorrow@alum.mit.edu