The development guide(http://docs.python.org/devguide/setup.html) suggested that one can build with "--prefix=/dev/null" in order to avoid accidentally install it. But in the Modules/Setup.dist the zlib module is defined as:

zlib zlibmodule.c -I$(prefix)/include -L$(exec_prefix)/lib -lz

So configure with "--prefix=/dev/null " and enable zlib in Module/Setup and then make results in such error: (debian 5)

cc1: error: /dev/null/include: Not a directory


Not sure if this is really a problem. But I need to modify the Module/Setup zlib line to
"""
zlib zlibmodule.c -L$(exec_prefix)/lib -lz
"""
instead of just uncomment it to make my build process success. I think it's better to be improved.