diff -r 4b1b4a4afd6a -r c86381d2c50f Lib/distutils/sysconfig.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/sysconfig.py	Thu May 07 03:43:57 2009 +0200
+++ b/Lib/distutils/sysconfig.py	Thu May 07 19:57:04 2009 +0900
@@ -165,9 +165,9 @@
     varies across Unices and is stored in Python's Makefile.
     """
     if compiler.compiler_type == "unix":
-        (cc, cxx, opt, cflags, ccshared, ldshared, so_ext, ar) = \
+        (cc, cxx, opt, cflags, ccshared, ldshared, so_ext, ar, ar_flags) = \
             get_config_vars('CC', 'CXX', 'OPT', 'CFLAGS',
-                            'CCSHARED', 'LDSHARED', 'SO', 'AR')
+                            'CCSHARED', 'LDSHARED', 'SO', 'AR', 'ARFLAGS')
 
         if 'CC' in os.environ:
             cc = os.environ['CC']
@@ -190,6 +190,10 @@
             ldshared = ldshared + ' ' + os.environ['CPPFLAGS']
         if 'AR' in os.environ:
             ar = os.environ['AR']
+        if 'ARFLAGS' in os.environ:
+            archiver = ar + ' ' + os.environ['ARFLAGS']
+        else:
+            archiver = ar + ' ' + ar_flags
 
         cc_cmd = cc + ' ' + cflags
         compiler.set_executables(
@@ -199,7 +203,7 @@
             compiler_cxx=cxx,
             linker_so=ldshared,
             linker_exe=cc,
-            archiver=ar)
+            archiver=archiver)
 
         compiler.shared_lib_extension = so_ext
 
diff -r 4b1b4a4afd6a -r c86381d2c50f Makefile.pre.in
--- a/Makefile.pre.in	Thu May 07 03:43:57 2009 +0200
+++ b/Makefile.pre.in	Thu May 07 19:57:04 2009 +0900
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
 SGI_ABI=	@SGI_ABI@
 CCSHARED=	@CCSHARED@
 LINKFORSHARED=	@LINKFORSHARED@
+ARFLAGS=	@ARFLAGS@
 # Extra C flags added for building the interpreter object files.
 CFLAGSFORSHARED=@CFLAGSFORSHARED@
 # C flags used for building the interpreter object files
@@ -403,12 +404,12 @@
 # avoid long command lines, same as LIBRARY_OBJS
 $(LIBRARY): $(LIBRARY_OBJS)
 	-rm -f $@
-	$(AR) cr $@ Modules/getbuildinfo.o
-	$(AR) cr $@ $(PARSER_OBJS)
-	$(AR) cr $@ $(OBJECT_OBJS)
-	$(AR) cr $@ $(PYTHON_OBJS)
-	$(AR) cr $@ $(MODULE_OBJS) $(SIGNAL_OBJS)
-	$(AR) cr $@ $(MODOBJS)
+	$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ Modules/getbuildinfo.o
+	$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ $(PARSER_OBJS)
+	$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ $(OBJECT_OBJS)
+	$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ $(PYTHON_OBJS)
+	$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ $(MODULE_OBJS) $(SIGNAL_OBJS)
+	$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ $(MODOBJS)
 	$(RANLIB) $@
 
 libpython$(VERSION).so: $(LIBRARY_OBJS)
diff -r 4b1b4a4afd6a -r c86381d2c50f configure.in
--- a/configure.in	Thu May 07 03:43:57 2009 +0200
+++ b/configure.in	Thu May 07 19:57:04 2009 +0900
@@ -769,6 +769,13 @@
 AC_PROG_RANLIB
 AC_SUBST(AR)
 AC_CHECK_PROGS(AR, ar aal, ar)
+
+# tweak ARFLAGS only if the user didn't set it on the command line
+AC_SUBST(ARFLAGS)
+if test -z "$ARFLAGS"
+then
+        ARFLAGS="rc"
+fi
 
 AC_SUBST(SVNVERSION)
 AC_CHECK_PROG(SVNVERSION, svnversion, found, not-found)