CentOS Linux Configure: error: *** neither libexpat not libbsdxml could be found ***

While running a configure script to eventually compile an application during testing on CentOS Linux I received an error stating that libexpat and/or libbsdxml could not be found. On CentOS you will only need to install libexpat-devel as shown in the below example following the output of the configure error and how we located what package installed libexpat via yum.

Configure Error On CentOS Linux:

configure: error: *** neither libexpat not libbsdxml could be found ***

Once the above error was displayed following a failed configure attempt I used “yum whatprovides” to see what package in the installed yum repositories installed libexpat as shown in the below example output.

Locate RPM Packages That Installed libexpat:

[root@dev ~]# yum whatprovides *libexpat*
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.netnitco.net
* epel: mirror.steadfast.net
* extras: mirror.steadfast.net
* rpmforge: ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de
* updates: mirror.rackspace.com
harbour-contrib-3.0.0-11.el6.x86_64 : Contributed tools for Harbour
Repo : atrpms
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/lib64/harbour/libexpat.a
compat-expat1-1.95.8-8.el6.x86_64 : A library for parsing XML documents
Repo : base
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/lib64/libexpat.so.0
Filename : /usr/lib64/libexpat.so.0.5.0
Other : libexpat.so.0()(64bit)
expat-devel-2.0.1-9.1.el6.x86_64 : Libraries and header files to develop applications using expat
Repo : base
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/lib64/libexpat.so
Filename : /usr/lib64/libexpat.a
expat-2.0.1-9.1.el6.x86_64 : An XML parser library
Repo : base
Matched from:
Filename : /lib64/libexpat.so.1
Filename : /lib64/libexpat.so.1.5.2
Other : libexpat.so.1()(64bit)
expat-2.0.1-9.1.el6.x86_64 : An XML parser library
Repo : installed
Matched from:
Filename : /lib64/libexpat.so.1
Filename : /lib64/libexpat.so.1.5.2
Other : libexpat.so.1()(64bit)
[root@dev ~]#

In my case expat was already installed but I needed to install expat-devel since the libraries needed to compile are included in that RPM package. Below is example output from installing expat-devel using YUM on CentOS Linux.

Install expat-devel On CentOS Linux:

[root@dev ~]# yum install expat-devel
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.netnitco.net
* epel: mirror.steadfast.net
* extras: mirror.steadfast.net
* rpmforge: ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de
* updates: mirror.symnds.com
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package expat-devel.x86_64 0:2.0.1-9.1.el6 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
=====================================================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=====================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
expat-devel x86_64 2.0.1-9.1.el6 base 119 k
Transaction Summary
=====================================================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 119 k
Installed size: 475 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
expat-devel-2.0.1-9.1.el6.x86_64.rpm | 119 kB 00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : expat-devel-2.0.1-9.1.el6.x86_64 1/1
Installed:
expat-devel.x86_64 0:2.0.1-9.1.el6
Complete!
[root@dev ~]#

While I did run into other issues when running the cofnigure script I no longer received the error specified at the beginning of the article after installing expat-devel.