You don't have to guess; the configure script tells you: ``` shell checking for readline in -lreadline... no checking for readline.h usability... no ``` ...and so on. It's telling you it didn't find the GNU Readline library headers and library, so you don't get line editing support. This is called out at the end of [step 2 in the compilation instructions][1]. The SQLite `configure` script can also look for BSD editline, sometimes called libedit, which has a similar API under a more liberal license. On Ubuntu, the solution is `sudo apt install libreadline-dev`. [1]: https://www.sqlite.org/howtocompile.html#compiling_the_command_line_interface