configure bug with static openssl 1.1.1?

Please don't bite my head off for posting to the internals list, but I think it is a bug in configure. If it is not, I'm more than happy to post it in the users group. I run into an error when trying to configure PHP 7.2.13 with a static openssl 1.1.1. The strange thing however is that using a static openssl 1.0.2 works. The error is as follows: checking for OpenSSL version... >= 1.0.1 checking for CRYPTO_free in -lcrypto... yes checking for SSL_CTX_set_ssl_version in -lssl... no configure: error: libssl not found! I've also tried to set: export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/ssl-1.1.1/lib/pkgconfig/ But it did not help. Here's my config.log: https://evermeet.cx/pub/logs/config.log (I've compiled Apache httpd successfully against this static openssl 1.1.1 version, so I know that it works.) Has someone seen this issue before? Any ideas why this is happening? Cheers, K. C. -- regards Helmut K. C. Tessarek KeyID 0x172380A011EF4944 Key fingerprint = 8A55 70C1 BD85 D34E ADBC 386C 1723 80A0 11EF 4944 /* Thou shalt not follow the NULL pointer for chaos and madness await thee at its end. */