Weirdly enough, the --enable-static trick did not work out for me, but for completeness (and off-site backup :) ), here is what I need to do to build expat and XML::Parser on Solaris x86 with the SUN C compiler:

First build expat:

PATH=/usr/ccs/bin:$PATH     # to add the correct "ar"

# autotools does not seem to know when the configuration was changed, 
+this is just a safety measure
gmake clean 

CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc CFLAGS="-KPIC -O -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_O
+FFSET_BITS=64 -DPERL_USE_SAFE_PUTENV -xarch=generic64" ./configure  -
+-prefix=/home/corion/lib --enable-shared

gmake all

# this one might not compile the C++ checks, if you don't have the SUN
+ C++ compiler installed
gmake check 

gmake install
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After installation, remember to update LD_LIBRARY_PATH in an appropriate location:

# Update LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/home/corion/lib
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Then, the installation of XML::Parser works, although the SUN C compiler did not like having the library directories listed after the -lexpat command. So I had to fudge that by patching the Makefile.PL:

unless (
  check_lib(     # fill in what you prompted the user for here
    #lib => [qw(expat)],
    header => ['expat.h'],
    debug => 1,
    incpath => $expat_incpath,
    # Ugly hack here
    ($expat_libpath?
    (libpath => "$expat_libpath -lexpat"):()),
  )) {
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Then, configuring and testing Just Works:

perl Makefile.PL EXPATLIBPATH=/home/corion/lib/lib EXPATINCPATH=/home/
+corion/lib/include -lexpat
gmake
gmake test
gmake install
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