configure: error: freetype-config not found

Compiling php-7.3.21 from source

checking for the location of libwebp... no
checking for the location of libjpeg... yes
checking for the location of libpng... yes
checking for the location of libXpm... no
checking for FreeType 2... yes
checking whether to enable JIS-mapped Japanese font support in GD... no
If configure fails try --with-webp-dir=<DIR>
checking for jpeg_read_header in -ljpeg... yes
checking for png_write_image in -lpng... yes
If configure fails try --with-xpm-dir=<DIR>
configure: error: freetype-config not found.
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
make: *** No rule to make target 'install'. Stop.
ln: failed to create symbolic link '/usr/local/php-7.3.21/sbin/php-7.3.21-fpm': No such file or directory

Solution

Install PHP 7.4.X instead (such as 7.4.12 at the time of writing), which uses pkg-config instead and goes around that error.

But then you might run into

configure: error: re2c 0.13.4 is required to generate PHP lexers.

Which can be fixed with

apt-get install re2c

Then you might run into
checking for sqlite3 > 3.7.4... no
configure: error: Package requirements (sqlite3 > 3.7.4) were not met:

No package 'sqlite3' found

apt-get install  libsqlite3-dev sqlite3

Then you might run into

checking for oniguruma... no
configure: error: Package requirements (oniguruma) were not met:

No package 'oniguruma' found

apt-get install libonig-dev

Finally success !!

Generating files
configure: patching main/php_config.h.in
configure: creating ./config.status
creating main/internal_functions.c
creating main/internal_functions_cli.c
config.status: creating main/build-defs.h
config.status: creating scripts/phpize
config.status: creating scripts/man1/phpize.1
config.status: creating scripts/php-config
config.status: creating scripts/man1/php-config.1
config.status: creating sapi/cli/php.1
config.status: creating sapi/fpm/php-fpm.conf
config.status: creating sapi/fpm/www.conf
config.status: creating sapi/fpm/init.d.php-fpm
config.status: creating sapi/fpm/php-fpm.service
config.status: creating sapi/fpm/php-fpm.8
config.status: creating sapi/fpm/status.html
config.status: creating sapi/phpdbg/phpdbg.1
config.status: creating sapi/cgi/php-cgi.1
config.status: creating ext/phar/phar.1
config.status: creating ext/phar/phar.phar.1
config.status: creating main/php_config.h
config.status: executing default commands

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| License: |
| This software is subject to the PHP License, available in this |
| distribution in the file LICENSE. By continuing this installation |
| process, you are bound by the terms of this license agreement. |
| If you do not agree with the terms of this license, you must abort |
| the installation process at this point. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

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