./configure failing -- pgsql 7.3.3 install on solaris 8

this is probably something stupid, but i don't normally install postgresql
from source (rpms or openbsd packages have been my norm.) the ./configure
step is failing thusly:

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.

the tail of configure.log shows nothing of any diagnostic help whatsoever:

# tail config.log
#define HAVE_RL_FILENAME_COMPLETION_FUNCTION 1
#define HAVE_FINITE 1
#define HAVE_SIGSETJMP 1
#define HAVE_SYSLOG 1
#define HAVE_STRTOLL 1
#define HAVE_STRTOULL 1
#define HAVE_ATEXIT 1
#define HAVE_FSEEKO 1

configure: exit 1

the message appears to have been generated by the following code from
configure.in; i'm no expert on configure internals and don't really know
how to chase this down:

# This test makes sure that run tests work at all.  Sometimes a shared
# library is found by the linker, but the runtime linker can't find it.
# This check should come after all modifications of compiler or linker
# variables, and before any other run tests.
AC_MSG_CHECKING([test program])
AC_TRY_RUN([int main() { return 0; }],
[AC_MSG_RESULT(ok)],
[AC_MSG_RESULT(failed)
AC_MSG_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.]])],
[AC_MSG_RESULT([cross-compiling])])


here is the context:

  Solaris 8 on a Sunblade 100
  gcc 2.95.2
  readline, gmake, perl 5.8.0, and all that stuff installed
  from sunfreeware.com

# echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/ccs/bin
# echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib:/lib:/usr/X/lib

can anyone tell me what i've overlooked, what environment variable i
haven't set properly?

thanks,
  richard
--
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@averillpark.net
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
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