[Python-Dev] backporting the _sysconfigdata.py module to 2.7

[Matthias Klose]

I'd like to backport issue13150, the _sysconfigdata.py module to 2.7. My
motivation is not the improved startup time, but the ability to cross-build
extension modules using distutils/setuptools.  The basic idea is to use the
python interpreter of the build machine (the machine you build on), and the
_sysconfigdata.py for the host machine (the machine you build for).  This kind
of setup works fine as long as the setup.py for a third party package gets all
build related information from the sysconfig.py module, and not directly from os
or sys (e.g. sys.platform).

The patch for issue13150 doesn't change any API's, but only moves the
computation of the config vars from runtime to build time.  I'd like to avoid
backporting this to 3.2 as well, because the cross-build support is currently
only found in 2.7, 3.3 and the trunk.

  Matthias