I have installed both apache2 and php5 using the source code. everything works great.
my question how would I know that the options I selected to configure both apache & php with are the most common/optimum/best setup - I have read the docs on apache.org and php.net still I think you need to be a software/programmer to know or understand if you need to include an options/switch in your ./configure line.

My PHP configuration:
'./configure' '--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs' '--with-mysql' '--prefix=/usr/local/apache2/php' '--with-jpeg' '--with-gd' '--with-zlib' '--with-gettext' '--with-gdbm'

My apache configuration:
core mod_authn_file mod_authn_default mod_authz_host mod_authz_groupfile mod_authz_user mod_authz_default mod_auth_basic mod_include mod_filter mod_deflate mod_log_config mod_env mod_mime_magic mod_usertrack mod_setenvif mod_ssl prefork http_core mod_mime mod_status mod_autoindex mod_asis mod_info mod_cgi mod_negotiation mod_dir mod_actions mod_speling mod_userdir mod_alias mod_rewrite mod_so mod_php5


Thanks in advance

The beauty of manual compilation is that you can customize the configure switches you need and leave out the ones you don't need. So selecting the options that defines/suits your environment is the best/optimum setup for you. The other reason to manually strip down unnecessary dependencies is to eliminate an attack vector if say package X gets compromised. Since you didn't compile php or apache against package X, you are relatively safe.

I don't think you need to be software programmer to decipher the configure options. Some options may be arguably harder to understand but the official documentation or a google search will give you good hints.

Apache documentation, especially, is good at documenting what each module does. Alternatively, you can compile all apache modules and then only use the one you need in httpd.conf.

If you want to check out php options, good place to look is the slackbuild script for php in Slackware. Check the url below.

http://slackware.mirrors.tds.net/pub...urce/php-5.2.0

That should give you a nice set of configure switches.

Tux,