Index: Makefile.pre.in
===================================================================
--- Makefile.pre.in	(revision 77202)
+++ Makefile.pre.in	(working copy)
@@ -205,6 +205,8 @@
 GRAMMAR_INPUT=	$(srcdir)/Grammar/Grammar
 
 
+LIBFFI_INCLUDEDIR=	@LIBFFI_INCLUDEDIR@
+
 ##########################################################################
 # Parser
 PGEN=		Parser/pgen$(EXE)
Index: configure.in
===================================================================
--- configure.in	(revision 77202)
+++ configure.in	(working copy)
@@ -1980,6 +1980,14 @@
 AC_ARG_WITH(system_ffi,
             AC_HELP_STRING(--with-system-ffi, build _ctypes module using an installed ffi library))
 
+if test "$with_system_ffi" = "yes"; then
+    AC_PATH_TOOL([PKG_CONFIG], [pkg-config])
+    LIBFFI_INCLUDEDIR="`"$PKG_CONFIG" libffi --cflags-only-I 2>/dev/null | sed -e 's/^-I//;s/ *$//'`"
+else
+    LIBFFI_INCLUDEDIR=""
+fi
+AC_SUBST(LIBFFI_INCLUDEDIR)
+
 AC_MSG_RESULT($with_system_ffi)
 
 # Check for --with-dbmliborder
Index: setup.py
===================================================================
--- setup.py	(revision 77202)
+++ setup.py	(working copy)
@@ -1790,7 +1790,9 @@
             # in /usr/include/ffi
             inc_dirs.append('/usr/include/ffi')
 
-        ffi_inc = find_file('ffi.h', [], inc_dirs)
+        ffi_inc = [sysconfig.get_config_var("LIBFFI_INCLUDEDIR")]
+        if not ffi_inc:
+            ffi_inc = find_file('ffi.h', [], inc_dirs)
         if ffi_inc is not None:
             ffi_h = ffi_inc[0] + '/ffi.h'
             fp = open(ffi_h)