install a distro of without sqlite3 support. now you should have a /usr/lib/python2.6/sqlite3, which obviously isn't usable.

now if you install sqlite3, and try a 'import sqlite3' it still doesn't work. so you have to compile/install python2.6 again. after which it works fine.


http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/general/python.html

Same behaviour on python 3,
http://pastebin.ca/1907343

This is not a bug in Python.  Your link implies you are building things from scratch, so it is your responsibility to resolve the dependencies.

sqlite3 support is implemented via an extension module (compiled C code).  That extension module must be built against sqlite3.  If you don't have sqlite3 installed, the extension can't be built (which the Python build process tells you in the summary at the end).  If you later install sqlite3, there's no way the extension module to get automatically compiled.  You have to do it, as you discovered.

On systems with a package manager, the sqlite3 dependency would be automatically resolved.  Unless you told the system to build without sqlite, in which case it would again be your responsibility to reinstall python after changing your mind.