diff -r b59f021a71c7 Include/pydebug.h
--- a/Include/pydebug.h	Thu Nov 08 11:19:55 2012 +0100
+++ b/Include/pydebug.h	Thu Nov 08 14:55:41 2012 +0100
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 PyAPI_DATA(int) Py_InspectFlag;
 PyAPI_DATA(int) Py_OptimizeFlag;
 PyAPI_DATA(int) Py_NoSiteFlag;
+PyAPI_DATA(int) Py_InitSigsLate;
 PyAPI_DATA(int) Py_BytesWarningFlag;
 PyAPI_DATA(int) Py_UseClassExceptionsFlag;
 PyAPI_DATA(int) Py_FrozenFlag;
diff -r b59f021a71c7 Modules/main.c
--- a/Modules/main.c	Thu Nov 08 11:19:55 2012 +0100
+++ b/Modules/main.c	Thu Nov 08 14:55:41 2012 +0100
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
 static int  orig_argc;
 
 /* command line options */
-#define BASE_OPTS L"bBc:dEhiJm:OqRsStuvVW:xX:?"
+#define BASE_OPTS L"bBc:dEhiJm:OqRsStuvVW:xX:z?"
 
 #define PROGRAM_OPTS BASE_OPTS
 
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@
 -X opt : set implementation-specific option\n\
 ";
 static char *usage_4 = "\
+-z     : initialise signals after 'import site'\n\
 file   : program read from script file\n\
 -      : program read from stdin (default; interactive mode if a tty)\n\
 arg ...: arguments passed to program in sys.argv[1:]\n\n\
@@ -431,6 +432,10 @@
             skipfirstline = 1;
             break;
 
+        case 'z':
+            Py_InitSigsLate++;
+            break;
+
         case 'h':
         case '?':
             help++;
diff -r b59f021a71c7 Python/pythonrun.c
--- a/Python/pythonrun.c	Thu Nov 08 11:19:55 2012 +0100
+++ b/Python/pythonrun.c	Thu Nov 08 14:55:41 2012 +0100
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@
 int Py_InteractiveFlag; /* Needed by Py_FdIsInteractive() below */
 int Py_InspectFlag; /* Needed to determine whether to exit at SystemExit */
 int Py_NoSiteFlag; /* Suppress 'import site' */
+int Py_InitSigsLate; /* Initialise signal handling after 'import site' */
 int Py_BytesWarningFlag; /* Warn on str(bytes) and str(buffer) */
 int Py_DontWriteBytecodeFlag; /* Suppress writing bytecode files (*.py[co]) */
 int Py_UseClassExceptionsFlag = 1; /* Needed by bltinmodule.c: deprecated */
@@ -373,7 +374,7 @@
     if (initfsencoding(interp) < 0)
         Py_FatalError("Py_Initialize: unable to load the file system codec");
 
-    if (install_sigs)
+    if (install_sigs && !Py_InitSigsLate)
         initsigs(); /* Signal handling stuff, including initintr() */
 
     initmain(interp); /* Module __main__ */
@@ -393,6 +394,9 @@
 
     if (!Py_NoSiteFlag)
         initsite(); /* Module site */
+
+    if (install_sigs && Py_InitSigsLate)
+        initsigs(); /* Signal handling stuff, including initintr() */
 }
 
 void