Safest upgrade path?

[Robert Oschler]

"Gerhard Häring" <gerhard.haering at opus-gmbh.net> wrote in message
news:slrnamvhfj.2ec.gerhard.haering at haering.opus-gmbh.net...
> Robert Oschler wrote:
> I'd recommend to compile Python yourself to install it in /usr/local. Then
> compile and install all the third-party packages you need with your Python
> in /usr/local/bin. In a word: don't use RPM for Python stuff.
>

Gerhard,

Ok.  I saw a document:

http://hints.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/python.txt

on installing python from sources.  In it there are several libraries being
shown (e.g. curses).  I installed 2.1.1 from RPM's so how can I find out
what libraries I need to include?

thx