Using the --record argument with distutils' install command currently assumes that all .py files can be compiled (and optimized) successfully. 

If this is not the case for whatever reason, you end up with invalid entries in the record list. install_lib._bytecode_filenames() should verify, if the file could be created successfully (by e.g. checking for its existence) or the util.byte_compile() function should return a value that indicates, if the byte-compiled (or optimized) file could be created, so that the subsequent call to _bytecode_filenames() receives a list with valid entries.

The issue can be recreated with e.g. http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Products.PasswordResetTool, which will create invalid entries for skins/PasswordReset/pwreset_constructURL.py,
which acts as template/fragment.

setuptools and therefore pip are also affected by this

I've just uploaded patches for head and 2.7, with relevant unit tests.

This needs review, commit, merge.

We've back-ported and committed these patches against all of our FreeBSD Python ports (27,32,33,34,35)

https://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports?view=revision&revision=405569

Distutils is now deprecated (see PEP 632) and all tagged issues are being closed. From now until removal, only release blocking issues will be considered for distutils.

If this issue does not relate to distutils, please remove the component and reopen it. If you believe it still requires a fix, most likely the issue should be re-reported at https://github.com/pypa/setuptools