Cloned repo, entered command for the "impatient". Got error.

[Bullk9ng]

$ meson setup builddir && cd builddir && meson compile && meson install

The Meson build system
Version: 1.0.1
Source dir: /home/joe/Downloads/git/elinks
Build dir: /home/joe/Downloads/git/elinks/builddir
Build type: native build
Project name: elinks
Project version: 0.18.GIT
C compiler for the host machine: cc (gcc 12.2.0 "cc (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0")
C linker for the host machine: cc ld.bfd 2.40
C++ compiler for the host machine: c++ (gcc 12.2.0 "c++ (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0")
C++ linker for the host machine: c++ ld.bfd 2.40
Host machine cpu family: x86_64
Host machine cpu: x86_64
Program git found: YES (/usr/bin/git)
Has header "argz.h" : YES
Has header "sys/wait.h" : YES
Has header "wchar.h" : YES
Has header "wctype.h" : YES
Has header "fcntl.h" : YES
Has header "libgen.h" : YES
Has header "unistd.h" : YES
Has header "arpa/inet.h" : YES
Has header "netinet/in_systm.h" : YES
Has header "netinet/in_system.h" : NO
Has header "netinet/ip.h" : YES
Has header "netdb.h" : YES
Has header "netinet/in.h" : YES
Has header "netinet/in6_var.h" : NO
Has header "ifaddrs.h" : YES
Has header "sys/cygwin.h" : NO
Has header "io.h" : NO
Has header "sys/fmutex.h" : NO
Has header "sys/ioctl.h" : YES
Has header "sys/kd.h" : YES
Has header "sys/sockio.h" : NO
Has header "sys/resource.h" : YES
Has header "sys/select.h" : YES
Has header "sys/socket.h" : YES
Has header "sys/utsname.h" : YES
Has header "net/if.h" : YES
Has header "stdint.h" : YES
Has header "inttypes.h" : YES
Has header "pwd.h" : YES
Has header "termios.h" : YES
Has header "poll.h" : YES
Has header "sys/types.h" : YES
Has header "gpm.h" : NO
Has header "idn2.h" : NO
Has header "event2/event.h" : NO
Has header "event.h" : NO
Has header "ev-event.h" : NO
Has header "alloca.h" : YES
Has header "lauxlib.h" : NO
Has header "machine/console.h" : NO
Has header "malloc.h" : YES
Has header "stdalign.h" : YES
Has header "sys/consio.h" : NO
Has header "sys/param.h" : YES
Has header "term.h" : NO
Has header "execinfo.h" : YES
Did not find pkg-config by name 'pkg-config'
Found Pkg-config: NO
Did not find CMake 'cmake'
Found CMake: NO
Run-time dependency zlib found: YES 1.2.13
Run-time dependency tre found: NO

meson.build:413:4: ERROR: Dependency lookup for tre with method 'pkgconfig' failed: Pkg-config binary for machine 1 not found. Giving up.

A full log can be found at /home/joe/Downloads/git/elinks/builddir/meson-logs/meson-log.txt

[smemsh]

and is pkg-config installed?

[aukkawut]

Have similar issue, resolved by installing tre.

On debian it should be libtre-dev