I didn't see this mentioned in the INSTALL or doc/ directory, so... I have versions of SSL libraries in my own directories and so used a command line such as: ./configure --prefix=/local/apps/postgres/8.2.rc1.0 \ --exec-prefix=/local/apps/postgres/8.2.rc1.0/linux \ --enable-thread-safety \ --with-openssl \ --with-pam \ --with-includes=/opt/mystuff/include \ --with-libs=/opt/mystuff/lib This fails at checking test program... failed configure: error: Could not execute a simple test program. This may be a problem related to locating shared libraries. Check the file 'config.log' for the exact reason. and the log says: configure:17444: gcc -o conftest -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Winline -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wendif-labels -fno-strict-aliasing -D_GNU_SOURCE -I/opt/mystuff/include -L/opt/mystuff/lib conftest.c -lpam -lssl -lcrypto -lz -lreadline -ltermcap -lcrypt -ldl -lm >&5 configure:17447: $? = 0 configure:17449: ./conftest ./conftest: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.0.9.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory The solution, obviously, is LDFLAGS=-Wl,-R/opt/mystuff/lib ./configure.... and now everything configures and builds cleanly, but it might be nice for that to be automatic. *shrug* -- rgds Stephen