Upgrading PCRE for Snort install from source

[esolutions]

Hi, I'm trying to install snort on a cPanel server that I manage. When I first ran ./configure for the snort install, it bailed with the error:

checking for pcap_datalink in -lpcap... yes
checking for libpcap version >= 0.9... no
./configure: line 25139: pcre-config: command not found
./configure: line 25145: pcre-config: command not found
checking pcre.h usability... no
checking pcre.h presence... no
checking for pcre.h... no

   ERROR!  Libpcre header not found.
   Get it from http://www.pcre.org

I used WHM to install the pcre-devel package and ran the configure script again. This time it failed because the pcre version was less than 6.0.

I checked the RPMs with rpm -qa | grep pcre and found that indeed version 4.3 is installed on my server. I upgraded cPanel to the most recent release version but that didn't update PCRE.


My question: How can I upgrade PCRE on my cPanel server? I see the current release is 8.0, so I'm actually a little surprised that cPanel is using such an old version. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[cPanelDon]

Hi, I'm trying to install snort on a cPanel server that I manage. When I first ran ./configure for the snort install, it bailed with the error:

checking for pcap_datalink in -lpcap... yes
checking for libpcap version >= 0.9... no
./configure: line 25139: pcre-config: command not found
./configure: line 25145: pcre-config: command not found
checking pcre.h usability... no
checking pcre.h presence... no
checking for pcre.h... no

   ERROR!  Libpcre header not found.
   Get it from http://www.pcre.org

I used WHM to install the pcre-devel package and ran the configure script again. This time it failed because the pcre version was less than 6.0.

I checked the RPMs with rpm -qa | grep pcre and found that indeed version 4.3 is installed on my server. I upgraded cPanel to the most recent release version but that didn't update PCRE.

My question: How can I upgrade PCRE on my cPanel server? I see the current release is 8.0, so I'm actually a little surprised that cPanel is using such an old version. Any help would be much appreciated.

The PCRE packaged binary (RPM) is provided by your Operating System distribution, not by cPanel.

When checking a test system running CentOS 5.4 there is PCRE version 6.6 that would meet the minimum requirement; at the very least I would check to ensure your OS is up-to-date and optionally consider upgrading if necessary.

 

[esolutions]

Thanks for your response. That makes sense that it is the OS vendor.

I'm currently running Redhat Enterprise 4. What is the best way to upgrade the OS with cPanel installed?

 

[cPanelDon]

Thanks for your response. That makes sense that it is the OS vendor.

I'm currently running Redhat Enterprise 4. What is the best way to upgrade the OS with cPanel installed?

It may be possible to upgrade using original OS install media for the latest version, but I would be cautious about upgrading between major releases if not via a fresh, clean installation. I would consider migrating to a new system that has the latest OS version provisioned via a fresh, clean installation.

There are other possibilities but I am hesitant to recommend alternatives.

With regard to RHEL, I would check with the OS license vendor and or data center to see if they have a recommended upgrade path.