Resolving ‘APR not found’ Errors and Installing Apache from Source on CentOS

This article addresses the common configure: error: APR not found problem when building Apache from source and provides a step‑by‑step solution.

1. Remove existing packages

rpm -e httpd

rpm -e mysql

rpm -e php

yum -y remove httpd

yum -y remove mysql

yum -y remove php

rpm -qa http*

rpm -e --nodeps <package_name>

rpm -qa | grep http*

Check for leftover Apache files.

2. Disable SELinux (if it interferes with compilation)

Permanent (requires reboot):

sed -i 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g' /etc/selinux/config

Temporary (no reboot needed):

setenforce 0

3. Install required development tools

yum -y install make gcc gcc-c++ gcc-g77 flex bison file libtool libtool-libs autoconf kernel-devel libjpeg libjpeg-devel libpng libpng-devel libpng10 libpng10-devel gd gd-devel freetype freetype-devel libxml2 libxml2-devel zlib zlib-devel glib2 glib2-devel bzip2 bzip2-devel libevent libevent-devel ncurses ncurses-devel curl curl-devel e2fsprogs e2fsprogs-devel krb5 krb5-devel libidn libidn-devel openssl openssl-devel gettext gettext-devel gmp-devel pspell-devel unzip libcap lsof

Installing these ensures all dependencies are satisfied.

4. Download source packages

wget http://archive.apache.org/dist/apr/apr-1.4.5.tar.gz

wget http://archive.apache.org/dist/apr/apr-util-1.3.12.tar.gz

wget http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/project/pcre/pcre/8.10/pcre-8.10.zip

5. Compile and install APR

tar -zxf apr-1.4.5.tar.gz

cd apr-1.4.5

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apr

make && make install

6. Compile and install APR‑util

tar -zxf apr-util-1.3.12.tar.gz

cd apr-util-1.3.12

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apr-util --with-apr=/usr/local/apr/bin/apr-1-config --enable-utf8

make && make install

7. Compile and install PCRE

unzip -o pcre-8.10.zip

cd pcre-8.10

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/pcre

make && make install

8. Bash script to automate Apache installation

#!/bin/bash

# Install Apache
H_URL=http://mirrors.sohu.com/apache/
H_FILES=httpd-2.4.29.tar.bz2
H_PREFIX=/usr/local/apache
H_FILES_DIR=httpd-2.4.29

if [[ $1 -eq 1 ]]; then
  wget -c $H_URL/$H_FILES && tar -jxvf $H_FILES && cd $H_FILES_DIR \
    && ./configure --prefix=$H_PREFIX \
       --with-apr=/usr/local/apr \
       --with-apr-util=/usr/local/apr-util \
       --with-pcre=/usr/local/pcre
  if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    make && make install
    echo -e "\033[32m---Apache install successful---\033[0m"
  else
    echo -e "\033[32m---Apache install failed---\033[0m"
    exit 0
  fi
fi

After the script finishes, start Apache with:

/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start

Images in the original article illustrate the script output and final verification.