Hello,

I am pretty much a Linux newbie, so I appreciate your help.

I am trying to setup Apache on Mandrake 9.1 using the KDE desktop. I have been able to download and extract the files, but I am having a problem compiling. When I use the ./configure command I get an error: "C compiler cannot create executables".

Here is the exact command I used:

$ CC="pgcc" \
./configure --prefix=/sw/pkg/apache

(I got this right off the Apache Project Site)
OK. I know the CC part tells the system which C Compiler to use, so maybe I am using the wrong one.

Any suggestions?

Thanks In Advance!

You are indeed possibly using the wrong compiler. Check whether there is such a beast as 'pgcc' on your system with 'which pgcc'. If that does not return a file path, you don't have pgcc in your path, and configure will not find the compiler.

If 'which gcc' does return a file path (e.g. /usr/bin/gcc), then gcc is your compiler, and things should start rolling with CC=gcc.

If that does not help, have a look in the config.log file, which details the exact commands that led to the error, and the system error message that occured.

Thanks for your response!
I tried checking for compilers using the 'which' command as you suggested. Results:

$ which gcc
which: no gcc in (/usr//bin:/bin:/usr/bin::/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/home/cd_789/bin)

Does this mean I have to C Compiler on the system. If that is true then why do I see this when I use the CC="gcc" option before ./configure:

checking for gcc... gcc

If I do not use the CC="gcc" option, only ./configure --prefix=/sw/pkg/apache2
I get this message:

checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl... no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH

Could you also explain what '$PATH' is...I am guessing it like a Windows Environment variable like %SystemRoot% or something.

Thanks Again!

It does look like you're compiler-less. The configure finds gcc because you told it the compiler is gcc. It would bomb out later when it tries to compile a test program.


$PATH is indeed an environment variable. It lists the directories your shell will look in for executables. You can set it with setenv for a csh like shell or export VARIABLE=... for a ksh/bash like shell.