This is a simple guide on how to configure Apache from source in Centos 6.7 + installing APR, APR-UTIL and PCRE to make it work.

Step 1. Install gcc:

Open up your terminal window and type the following command:

yum install gcc gcc-c++

Now, change to following directory:

cd /usr/src/

Step 2: Download and configure APR :

To download the APR file, use the below command:

wget http://a.mbbsindia.com//apr/apr-1.5.2.tar.gz

Now extract the downloaded file:

tar -zxvf apr-1.5.2.tar.gz

Change to the extracted folder and run the following commands to configure apr:

cd apr-1.5.2
./configure –prefix=/usr/src/apr
make
make install

Step 3. Download and configure apr-utils:

Change to following /usr/src/ directory:

cd /usr/src/

To download the APR-UTIL file, use the below command:

wget http://mirror.fibergrid.in/apache//apr/apr-util-1.5.4.tar.gz

To extract file, change to extracted folder and to configure apr, run the following commands:

tar -zxvf apr-util-1.5.4.tar.gz

cd apr-util-1.5.4
./configure –prefix=/usr/src/apr-util –with-apr=/usr/src/apr/
make
make install

Step 4. Download and config PCRE:

Change to /usr/src/ directory:

cd /usr/src/

To download pcre2-10.21.tar.gz type the following your terminal:

wget ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre2-10.21.tar.gz

To extract file, change to extracted folder and to configure pcre2-10.21, run the following commands:

tar -zxvf pcre2-10.21.tar.gz

cd pcre2-10.21
./configure –prefix=/usr/src/pcre2
make
make install

Step 5. Download Apache / httpd:

Now, change to following directory:

cd /usr/src/

To download httpd tar ball type the following your terminal:

wget http://a.mbbsindia.com//httpd/httpd-2.4.18.tar.gz

To extract file, change to extracted folder and to configure httpd, run the following commands:

tar -zxvf httpd-2.4.18.tar.gz

cd httpd-2.4.18
./configure –prefix=/usr/local/apache2 –with-apr=/usr/src/apr –with-apr-util=/usr/src/apr-util –with-pcre=/usr/src/pcre2/bin/pcre2-config
make
make install

Step 6. Start and test your apache server 

service httpd start
httpd -v

You can also open your browser and go to:

http://localhost/

And it should give you the Apache Welcome page.

And Voila! You have successfully configured apache from source. Hope this helps!

[DISCLAIMER: This guide is strictly for the purpose of learning how to configure apache from source for beginners. This should not to be used in a real production server as no security measures has been discussed or implemented in this tutorial.]

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Source: Apache, Troubleshooting source: APR troubleshooting