[Ifile-discuss] Cannot get ifile to configure: claims gcc cannot create executables; what is -rpath?

[Jonadab the Unsightly One]

Has anyone seen a problem wherein configure borks when checking for
the compiler default output, claiming that gcc "cannot create
executables"?  This is a fairly standard system (Mandrake 8.1), and
I've compiled any number of other things on it (e.g., Emacs) with
little trouble, so I'm pretty sure that gcc can in fact make
executables.  Here's a transcript showing what happens...
  
~/download/ifile/ifile-1.3.0
raptor1# ./configure 
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output... configure: error: C compiler cannot 
create executables
~/download/ifile/ifile-1.3.0
raptor1# cat config.log | grep "warning:"
/usr/bin/ld: warning: ld-linux.so.2, needed by /lib/libc.so.6, not found (try 
using -rpath or -rpath-link)
~/download/ifile/ifile-1.3.0
raptor1# which ld-linux.so.2
/usr/bin/ld-linux.so.2
~/download/ifile/ifile-1.3.0
raptor1# ls -l /usr/bin/ld-linux.so.2 
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 Mar 24 11:57 /usr/bin/ld-linux.so.2 
-> /lib/ld-linux.so.2*
~/download/ifile/ifile-1.3.0
raptor1# ls -l /lib/ld-linux.so.2 
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           11 Dec  7 01:01 /lib/ld-linux.so.2 -> 
ld-2.2.4.so*
~/download/ifile/ifile-1.3.0
raptor1# ls -l /lib/ld-2.2.4.so 
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       147456 Dec  7 01:01 /lib/ld-2.2.4.so*
~/download/ifile/ifile-1.3.0
raptor1# 

(The symlink in /usr/bin I created in a futile attempt to help it find
the thing.  The one in /lib is a standard part of the distro.)

And here's part of config.log (hopefully the relevant part, I think,
but if there's something else in there I should post, just say so):

## ----------- ##
## Core tests. ##
## ----------- ##

configure:1242: checking for gcc
configure:1258: found /usr/bin/gcc
configure:1268: result: gcc
configure:1512: checking for C compiler version
configure:1515: gcc --version </dev/null >&5
2.96
configure:1518: $? = 0
configure:1520: gcc -v </dev/null >&5
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-mandrake-linux-gnu/2.96/specs
gcc version 2.96 20000731 (Mandrake Linux 8.1 2.96-0.62mdk)
configure:1523: $? = 0
configure:1527: gcc </dev/null >&5
gcc: No input files
configure:1530: $? = 1
configure:1556: checking for C compiler default output
configure:1559: gcc -g -O2 -Wall -Wimplicit   conftest.c  >&5
/usr/bin/ld: warning: ld-linux.so.2, needed by /lib/libc.so.6, not found (try 
using -rpath or -rpath-link)
/lib/libc.so.6: undefined reference to address@hidden'
[snip a bunch of other undefined references]
/lib/libc.so.6: undefined reference to address@hidden'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure:1562: $? = 1
configure: failed program was:
#line 1533 "configure"
#include "confdefs.h"

#ifdef F77_DUMMY_MAIN
#  ifdef __cplusplus
     extern "C"
#  endif
   int F77_DUMMY_MAIN() { return 1; }
#endif
int
main ()
{

  ;
  return 0;
}
configure:1589: error: C compiler cannot create executables
[snip the rest]

I'm mostly just a Perl and elisp user, so I don't know enough C (or
make, or whatever) to have any clue what's going on here, really.  I
have no idea what -rpath is; is that an option I would feed to
configure, or should configure be feeding it to gcc, or what? Can
someone point me in the direction I need to go to get past this and
install ifile?

Oh, one other thing:  The config.log initially also had (in addition
to the error I already mentioned and before it in config.log)
something about no argument to -V, which I got around by doing the
following:

# { (eval echo "$as_me:$LINENO: \"$ac_compiler -V </dev/null >&5\"") >&5
#  (eval $ac_compiler -V </dev/null >&5) 2>&5
{ (eval echo "$as_me:$LINENO: \"$ac_compiler </dev/null >&5\"") >&5
  (eval $ac_compiler </dev/null >&5) 2>&5

I assume that's not really the right way to solve that problem, but
configure doesn't seem to have any provision in it for an argument
there.  If it had an environment variable in there I'd figure I should
set it, but...  there's just nothing, so I'm fairly well lost.

TIA for any help.