Compiling Python 3.6.1 on macOS 10.12.5

[Nigel Palmer]

Hi

I am trying to compile Python 3.6.1  on macOS 10.12.5 with xcode 8.8.3 using the instructions at https://docs.python.org/devguide/setup.html#build-dependencies but I am getting the error

./python.exe -E -S -m sysconfig --generate-posix-vars ;\
        if test $? -ne 0 ; then \
                echo "generate-posix-vars failed" ; \
                rm -f ./pybuilddir.txt ; \
                exit 1 ; \
        fi
/bin/sh: line 1: 96973 Killed: 9               ./python.exe -E -S -m sysconfig --generate-posix-vars
generate-posix-vars failed
make: *** [pybuilddir.txt] Error 1

When I manually run that command using dbll I get:

lldb ./python.exe -- -E -S -m sysconfig --generate-posix-vars
(lldb) target create "./python.exe"
Current executable set to './python.exe' (x86_64).
(lldb) settings set -- target.run-args  "-E" "-S" "-m" "sysconfig" "--generate-posix-vars"
(lldb) r
Process 96978 launched: './python.exe' (x86_64)
Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
Process 96978 exited with status = 0 (0x00000000)
(lldb)


The commands I ran to configure and build python are:
brew install openssl xz
CPPFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix openssl)/include" LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix openssl)/lib" ./configure --prefix=`pwd`/../build
make

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

Many Thanks
Nigel