The readline extension seemed to be built without problems, but afterwards, this line appears:

/usr/lib/hpux32/dld.so: Unsatisfied code symbol 'tgetent' in load module 'build/lib.hp-ux-B.11.23-ia64-2.5/readline.so'.

I have fixed this by manually rebuilding the above file with -lcurses.

I can't believe that a build issue raised almost 4 years ago against 2.5 is still an issue today.

It could still exist since we don't seem to have many people building python on hpux.  That said, unless the op confirms the problem still exists in 2.7 or later this can stay closed.

I confirm that there's still a build issue.

I've tried to compile python 2.7.2 on HP-UX 11.31. And it crashes with : 

ld -b build/temp.hp-ux-B.11.31-ia64-2.7/images/Python-2.7.2/Modules/readline.o -L/usr/lib/termcap -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib/hpux32 -lreadline -o build/lib.hp-ux-B.11.31-ia64-2.7/readline.so
/usr/lib/hpux32/dld.so: Unsatisfied code symbol 'tgetent' in load module '/usr/local/lib/hpux32/libreadline.so'.
sh[3]: 11780 Killed
*** Error exit code 137

adding "-lcurses" to the command resolves the problem.

OK, reopening.  I've added 3.2 and 3.3 as I imagine the same problem will exist there.

Now we need someone to propose a patch to fix it.

I cannot reproduce this with master and 3.7 on HP-UX.

readline is linked and works with interactive python(1). curses module isn't buld because I don't have curses installed.

I opt to close this one.