I compile python from source:

$ python --version
Python 3.10.1+
$ cat /etc/config.site 
ax_cv_c_float_words_bigendian=no
enable_silent_rules=yes
$ git describe 
v3.10.2-74-ga5451c96a1
$ ./configure --enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions --disable-ipv6 --with-system-expat --with-system-libmpdec --enable-shared
$ make
gcc -c -fPIC -Wno-unused-result -Wsign-compare -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall    -std=c99 -Wextra -Wno-unused-result -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Werror=implicit-function-declaration -fvisibility=hidden  -I./Include/internal  -I. -I./Include   -fPIC -DPy_BUILD_CORE -o Modules/_math.o Modules/_math.c
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/git/cpython CC='gcc' LDSHARED='gcc -shared    ' OPT='-DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall'    _TCLTK_INCLUDES='-I/usr/local/include' _TCLTK_LIBS='-L/usr/local/lib -ltk8.6 -ltkstub8.6 -ltcl8.6 -ltclstub8.6'         ./python -E ./setup.py  build
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/git/cpython/./setup.py", line 50, in <module>
    from distutils.command.install import install
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/command/install.py", line 20, in <module>
    from .. import _collections
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 16, in <module>
    import setuptools.version
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/version.py", line 1, in <module>
    import pkg_resources
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    import zipfile
  File "/git/cpython/Lib/zipfile.py", line 6, in <module>
    import binascii
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'binascii'
make: *** [Makefile:637: sharedmods] Error 1


When I compiled python 3.10 using python 3.8 one or two months ago, there was no such problem.

Compiling python from source code, shall use the bundled distutils, not the installed one.

My Linux From Scratch system appears not to have module binascii:

$ locate binascii
/usr/local/lib/python3.10/lib-dynload/binascii.cpython-310-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
/usr/local/lib/python3.10/test/__pycache__/test_binascii.cpython-310.opt-1.pyc
/usr/local/lib/python3.10/test/__pycache__/test_binascii.cpython-310.opt-2.pyc
/usr/local/lib/python3.10/test/__pycache__/test_binascii.cpython-310.pyc
/usr/local/lib/python3.10/test/test_binascii.py
/usr/local/lib/python3.8/lib-dynload/binascii.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
/usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/mypy/typeshed/stdlib/@python2/binascii.pyi
/usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/mypy/typeshed/stdlib/binascii.pyi
/usr/local/lib/python3.8/test/__pycache__/test_binascii.cpython-38.opt-1.pyc
/usr/local/lib/python3.8/test/__pycache__/test_binascii.cpython-38.opt-2.pyc
/usr/local/lib/python3.8/test/__pycache__/test_binascii.cpython-38.pyc
/usr/local/lib/python3.8/test/test_binascii.py
/git/cpython/Modules/binascii.c
/git/cpython/Modules/clinic/binascii.c.h
/git/cpython/Lib/test/test_binascii.py
/git/cpython/Doc/library/binascii.rst

You are affected by setuptools bug https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/3007 . The setuptools issues has a workaround. The next version of setuptools will come with a fix.

The problem is, that Python’s install target depends on the system-wide setuptools, if there is system-wide setuptools.  If there is no system-wide installed setuptools, apparently the installation works flawlessly.

The solution is to tweak the source code of Python, not to depend on (system-wide installed) Python code outside of Python’s tarball.

CPython's build system does not depend on setuptools.

The problem is that setuptools 60.0 introduced a .pth file and _distutils_hack to inject itself into Python import system. Under some circumstances Python's build system is affected by the hack and breaks.