[mapserver-users] FYI Newbies: when make doesn't work

[Tyler Mitchell]

Hi guys,
I'm just building mapserver right now with as many of the options as I
could feasibly get together.  I ran "./configure" and it appeared to work
correctly.  When I went to run "make" though I get a cryptic error: "no
input files" and it didn't do anything.
Well, turns out, after 20 minutes of confusion (it had always compiled just
fine before!!) I realized what I had done.  I was trying to build in
php/mapscript support so I used the "--with-php" option.
I had to tell it more specifically where to look for pg_config, so I used:
"--with-php=/usr/local/bin" - that wasn't right.  I didn't notice it during
the ./configure process, but it was complaining a dozen or so lines from
the end - saying that I had specified a directory.  So I then had to change
it to "--with-php=/usr/local/bin/pg_config" and now "make" actually does
something :)
So I learned my lesson - sometimes the "--with" options need a directory
(ie. --with-gdal=/usr/src/gdal) and sometimes, like above, they need a path
to a specific file.  I assume this applies to more than just my php
example.

So, for those of you who may come after me and who are just as green,
hopefully you'll find this when you search the mail archive and not give up
on MapServer due to your ignorance....persevere :)

I hope it helps.
Take care,
Tyler