Compiling PHP Source on Ubuntu 14.04: Common Errors and Solutions

This article documents the process of compiling PHP from source on an Ubuntu 14.04 server that already has a LAMP development environment installed. It starts by ensuring required tools are present, then clones the PHP repository, configures a minimal build, and runs the compilation.

Prerequisites

Install Git: sudo apt-get install git -y Clone the source and install build tools:

git clone https://github.com/php/php-src.git
cd php-src
sudo apt-get install build-essential
./buildconf
./configure --disable-all   # minimal PHP for testing
make
./sapi/cli/php -v   # -v shows version if build succeeded

Common compilation errors and their solutions

Missing libxml2

configure: error: xml2-config not found. Please check your libxml2 installation.

Solution: apt-get install libxml2-dev Missing MySQL client libraries

/usr/bin/mysql_config: No such file or directory

Solution:

apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient-dev

PEAR compatibility warnings

Warning: Declaration of PEAR_Installer::download() should be compatible with & PEAR_Downloader::download($params) ...

These are warnings; they can be ignored or resolved by updating PEAR packages.

Missing OpenSSL headers configure: error: Cannot find OpenSSL's Solution: apt-get install libssl-dev Missing BZip2

checking for BZip2 in default path… not found
configure: error: Please reinstall the BZip2 distribution

Solution: apt-get install libbz2-dev Missing libcurl headers

configure: error: Please reinstall the libcurl distribution – easy.h should be in /include/curl/

Solution: apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev Missing JPEG library configure: error: jpeglib.h not found. Solution: apt-get install libjpeg-dev Missing PNG library configure: error: png.h not found. Solution: apt-get install libpng12-dev Missing FreeType configure: error: freetype-config not found. Solution: apt-get install libfreetype6-dev Missing mcrypt

configure: error: mcrypt.h not found. Please reinstall libmcrypt.

Solution: apt-get install libmcrypt-dev Missing pspell configure: error: Cannot find pspell Solution: apt-get install libpspell-dev Missing PEAR PHP_Archive

PEAR package PHP_Archive not installed: generated phar will require PHP's phar extension be enabled.

Solution: pear install pear/PHP_Archive Missing recode.h

configure: error: Can not find recode.h anywhere under /usr /usr/local /usr /opt.

Solution: apt-get install librecode-dev After addressing each missing dependency, re‑run ./configure and make until the build completes successfully.