Web Development

You have really installed the APR/APRU header files (libaprutil1-dev and libapr1-dev)? They are not related to PHP, but Apache.

And, I think on Debian the apxs file is /usr/bin/apxs2. Are you sure you used the correct apxs?

You must have the package below installed, if you didn't compile install Apache yourself.

Debian -- Filelist of package apache2-prefork-dev/sid/i386

I tried installing the apache2-prefork-dev in Debian Etch. And it shows the following error.

Code:

apt-get install apache2-prefork-dev
....
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  apache2-prefork-dev: Depends: libaprutil1-dev but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

while trying to install that package,

Code:

apt-get install libaprutil1-dev
....
....
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  libaprutil1-dev: Depends: libexpat1-dev but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: libpcre3-dev but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: libapr1-dev (>= 1.2.2-1) but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: libsqlite3-dev but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: libpq-dev but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: libmysqlclient15-dev but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

And it goes ... So what to do ?

It is your responsibility to find out why certain packages may not be installed on your system, as it may be due to conflicts with existing packages on your system that may prevent them from being installed.

The packages I mentioned are required if you need to compile anything related to Apache modules. You do not need them only if you are sure you have compiled and installed Apache from sources, and thus they are present although no binary package installed.

If you have such a broken system that would cost you a lot of time to fix to restore to working state, you may consider installing your self-compiled PHP as a CGI binary. That is not good in terms of performance (so refrain from doing so on a production machine), but you can be off the hassle associated with compiling Apache modules.

PHP: CGI and command line setups - Manual

I suggest you try to follow one of the guides to installing LAMP on Debian Etch, for example:


LAMP on Debian (Etch)

or

Install LAMP server in Debian, Ubuntu, and CentOS

or this older example:

The Perfect Setup - Debian Etch (Debian 4.0)

If you don't like those examples, you can Google for install lamp debian etch and find something that suits your requirements.

Thanks for all your time.

Thanks once again.

Finally, i upgraded my OS version from Debian Etch to Debian Lenny.

And installed php-5.2.9 from source, everything went fine. Following are the steps i followed,

1. Installed apxs2 by installing the package,
apt-get install apache2-prefork-dev

2. configure
./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/bin/apxs2

3. make & install
make
make install

It said simple errors in the fly, as packages missing and so. Solving it straight away made the php-5.2.9 available by both cli & in web front end.

Thanks for all who have helped in solving the issue.