Bug #74686 [Nab]: ./configure does not respect --prefix for libxml2 (specifically xml2-config)

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=74686&edit=1 ID: 74686 User updated by: jonas at ogaard dot no Reported by: jonas at ogaard dot no Summary: ./configure does not respect --prefix for libxml2 (specifically xml2-config) Status: Not a bug Type: Bug Package: Compile Failure Operating System: Red Hat 4.4.7-17 PHP Version: 7.1.5 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: I understand. What put me off is that the script calls the binary supplied by libxml2 (xml2-config) which, of course, will not be affected by library paths or include dirs. In other configuration files I've encounter (e.g. ImageMagick) it does check the PATH for the executable, instead of the hardcoded /usr/local/bin and /usr/bin. To me, checking for the hardcoded paths instead of $PATH seemed less intuitive. This is the reason I filed the ticket, but if most build systems benefit from hardcoded paths all is good. Thanks for good responses and all your help! Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2017-06-01 17:53:32] danack@php.net I believe the ENV settings for the locations of libraries like LDFLAGS='-L/home/foo/lib/' are completely separate from users' PATH setting. Closing as not a bug then. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2017-06-01 15:34:13] spam2 at rhsoft dot net because libraries have no business with PATH at all ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2017-06-01 14:54:40] jonas at ogaard dot no I wholeheartedly agree, I was a bit fast when writing the ticket. And of course I agree $PREFIX has nothing to do where the compilation scripts looks for deps - my bad. Is there a reason why it doesn't look in $PATH at all though? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2017-06-01 09:58:41] danack@php.net > but this can't possibly be intended functionality .....why not? PHP uses lots of libraries. Each of them need to have a flag that says which directory they are in, which is why you can specify the library location per extension (i.e. --with-libxml-dir, --with-imagick) I'm pretty sure that prefix is to tell the compilation process where to build files to, not to read them from: "--prefix=PREFIX install architecture-independent files in PREFIX [/usr/local]" Feel free to explain further if you think this is a bug, or just allow it to close if that's enough explanation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2017-06-01 09:48:51] jonas at ogaard dot no Description: ------------ If libxml2 lies in an unconventional prefix-path $PREFIX, running ./configure --prefix=$PREFIX does not make the build script search $PREFIX/usr/local/bin or $PREFIX/usr/bin for xml2-config, but instead it defaults to /usr/local/bin and /usr/bin . Luckily --with-libxml-dir=$PREFIX resolves this, but this can't possibly be intended functionality Test script: --------------- ./configure --prefix=$PREFIX Expected result: ---------------- Configuration halts due to missing xml2-config file ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=74686&edit=1