diff -r a1cd431a71c6 Lib/distutils/command/build_ext.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/command/build_ext.py	Sun Oct 28 11:13:51 2012 -0700
+++ b/Lib/distutils/command/build_ext.py	Tue Oct 30 04:43:44 2012 -0700
@@ -233,7 +233,9 @@
         # for extensions under Cygwin and AtheOS Python's library directory must be
         # appended to library_dirs
         if sys.platform[:6] == 'cygwin' or sys.platform[:6] == 'atheos':
-            if sys.executable.startswith(os.path.join(sys.exec_prefix, "bin")):
+            # executable may be symlinked, resolve all links
+            sys_executable = os.path.realpath(sys.executable)
+            if sys_executable.startswith(os.path.join(sys.exec_prefix, "bin")):
                 # building third party extensions
                 self.library_dirs.append(os.path.join(sys.prefix, "lib",
                                                       "python" + get_python_version(),
@@ -247,7 +249,9 @@
         sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_ENABLE_SHARED')
         if (sys.platform.startswith(('linux', 'gnu', 'sunos'))
             and sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_ENABLE_SHARED')):
-            if sys.executable.startswith(os.path.join(sys.exec_prefix, "bin")):
+            # executable may be symlinked, resolve all links
+            sys_executable = os.path.realpath(sys.executable)
+            if sys_executable.startswith(os.path.join(sys.exec_prefix, "bin")):
                 # building third party extensions
                 self.library_dirs.append(sysconfig.get_config_var('LIBDIR'))
             else: