If libreadline-dev was installed after configure was run, and the latter is not re-run, test_readline fails with:

[1/1] test_readline
test test_readline failed -- Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/nessita/pycon/sprint/cpython/Lib/test/test_readline.py", line 16, in testHistoryUpdates
    readline.clear_history()
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'clear_history'

1 test failed:
    test_readline

I'm working on a patch.

Trivial patch to skip the test if module 'readline' doesn't have the 'clear_history' attr.

Hmm.  It seems to me that in this case the test *should* fail, since it indicates a broken Python installation.  How about instead catching the error in the test and calling self.fail with the error and an additional message about making sure configure has been run?

MvL explained that there is a configure tests that makes the existence of this routine optional.  So the skip is appropriate, but the message should read something like "the clear history tests cannot be run because the clear_history method is not available.

Martin also points out that this method has been available for a long time, so it may perhaps be appropriate to remove the configure test and turn this back in to a failure.  But that would be a separate issue if someone cares to pursue it.

Attaching patch with improved skip message as per David's comment.

New changeset a89d654adaa2 by R David Murray in branch '3.2':
#11496: skip history test if clear_history is not available.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/a89d654adaa2

New changeset ecc176488349 by R David Murray in branch 'default':
Merge #11496 from 3.2.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/ecc176488349

Thanks.