In the context of space-constrained embedded Linux systems, installing the entire set of Python modules and extensions is not necessarily desirable. For example, all the test modules, as well as certain extensions requiring third-parties libraries are often unnecessary, and uselessly consume precious storage on the embedded Linux system.

While we could certainly remove these undesired modules and extensions manually, it is much more convenient to have configuration options to selectively enable and disable them. Another very strong benefit of having configuration options is that we can actually *disable* the build of these unneeded modules and extensions, therefore saving a lot of build time, which is very nice when you're repeatedly cross-compiling an entire embedded Linux system.

The proposed set of patches add several --enable-<foo>/--disable-<foo> options to enable/disable certain Python modules and extensions. These patches have been part of Buildroot, an embedded Linux build system (used for example by Google, and many embedded processor vendors, as well as a huge number of embedded system makers) for a while, and are useful to all our users using Python on their embedded Linux systems. Instead of carrying them around, we would like to have them merged in upstream Python.

Of course, we are definitely open to discussion on the approach to take to implement this configurability, and I'm ready to rework the patches according to the comments received here.

Thanks!