dir structure problem

[Jeroen Lankheet <admin1 lankheet com>]

Dear all, 

Here I am struggling with the battle of Linux basics. Behold of the
problems I encounter as I travel along the RH7.3 war fields.  
PHP with Apache doesn't work. I figured out that the PHP module was
compiled with the wrong api. So i downloaded the latest stuff: apache,
php, the mods etc. 

Now I'm being presented with a rather strange phenomenon (for me it is):
The original web server installation is integrated with the /usr
structure. With this I mean there is a /usr/lib, usr/include /usr/bin
all containing apache stuff, mysql stuff and other things. In my default
installation i included apache and mysql. The apache and php folks on
the other hand are being given the meaning that the software should
reside in one location including libs, includes and all the good stuff.

I cannot wait for Redhat updating the RPMs. So how should i update
apache, php and mysql on my RH7.3 system? 

I know how to compile the stuff, but where should it be put once it is
compiled regarding the current structure? I've seen different
recommendations in howto's.

Regards, 
Jeroen.