automake and python

[colliera]

hello,

i have a problem with the way that automake defines the "pyexecdir" (and 
"pkgpyexecdir") substitutions. they are derived from PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX. now, 
by default, PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX is defined as /usr/local. now this is fine on a 
system where python is installed under /usr/local, but many systems have it 
installed under /usr, with the result that new python packages are installed in 
a newly created directory /usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages. now python is 
looking under /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages so it doesn't find these 
packages and nothing works.

now, an obvious solution is to configure the package with --prefix=/usr but 
this means that all the executables/libraries in this package will land up 
under /usr (and not /usr/local).

would it not be better to define:

        PYTHON_PREFIX=`$PYTHON -c "import sys; print sys.prefix"`
        PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX=`$PYTHON -c "import sys; print sys.exec_prefix"`

best regards,
andrew collier.

-- 
Andrew B. Collier

Antarctic Research Fellow                                   tel: +27 31 2601157
Space Physics Research Institute                            fax: +27 31 2616550
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 4041, South Africa