This will mean the docs just won't get built. They are available as a tarball, a deb or an rpm, or the individual components from Dave Mason's page . Then it should build. This affects people who install binary rpms or debs. It does not affect people using tarballs, source rpms or debs with the source.
Binary packages come in two sorts.
The second sort are what you need in addition if you want to compile and install new programs that rely on other programs' code. They contain header files which the new programs you want to compile will look for. It fails with a complaint about Berkeley DB lacking DB 1.85 compatibility . You will still need to tinker with configuration scripts after applying this patch, though. You should probably use apt-get because it will automatically figure out dependencies.