./configure --with-php7 fails silently

[Olly Betts]

On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 09:23:23AM -0500, Jim wrote:
> Apparently there is a php 7.4 configuration missing.  This is bindings
> 1.4.17 running on a Mint 20 system.
> 
> I see this in the config output:
> 
> cpython-38.opt-1.pyc
> checking for php-config7.3... no
> checking for php-config7.2... no
> checking for php-config7.1... no
> checking for php-config7.0... no
> checking for php-config... no
> 
> It didn't look for 7.4.

Thanks, I'll add the missing entry.

Do you really get a quiet failure though?  If I simulate your situation,
my configure output ends with:

| *** Not found the required tools for building bindings for any
| *** supported language!
| ***
| *** You may need to install -dev or -devel packages for the languages
| *** you want to build bindings for.
| ***
| *** For details of how to point configure at tools not on PATH, see:
| ***     ./configure --help

I suspect (as this suggests) you haven't installed the -dev package.
AIUI Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu or Debian (depending on edition) and
there you should get a /usr/bin/php-config (via the alternatives system)
if you have any php -dev package installed, and your configure output
shows php-config as not found.

If Linux Mint lacks the php-config alternative for some reason, the last
part points you to how to workaround the omission of 7.4 from that list:

./configure PHP_CONFIG7=php-config7.4

Cheers,
    Olly