diff -r 475bb98ae813 Lib/packaging/install.py
--- a/Lib/packaging/install.py	Thu Jun 02 16:43:25 2011 +0200
+++ b/Lib/packaging/install.py	Thu Jun 02 22:02:13 2011 +0200
@@ -492,6 +492,8 @@
     purelib_path = get_path('purelib')
     # trying to write a file there
     try:
+        if not os.path.exists(purelib_path):
+            os.makedirs(purelib_path)
         with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix=project,
                                          dir=purelib_path) as testfile:
             testfile.write(b'test')