I have managed to compile python on Tru64Unix, but am
curious when I rerun "make", I get:

make
case $MAKEFLAGS in \
*-s*)  CC='cc -pthread' LDSHARED='ld -shared
-expect_unresolved "*"' OPT='-DNDEBUG -O' ./python -E
./setup.py -q build;; \
*)  CC='cc -pthread' LDSHARED='ld -shared
-expect_unresolved "*"' OPT='-DNDEBUG -O' ./python -E
./setup.py build;; \
esac
running build
running build_ext
building '_locale' extension
cc -pthread -DNDEBUG -O -Olimit 1500 -I.
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/./Include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include -I/usr/local/include
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Include -I/mnt/Python-2.3b1 -c
/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Modules/_localemodule.c -o
build/temp.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_localemodule.o
ld -shared -expect_unresolved *
build/temp.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_localemodule.o
-L/software/@sys/usr/lib -L/usr/local/lib -o
build/lib.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_locale.so
*** WARNING: renaming "_locale" since importing it
failed: dlopen:
build/lib.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_locale.so: symbol
"libintl_gettext" unresolved
building '_curses' extension
cc -pthread -DNDEBUG -O -Olimit 1500 -I.
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/./Include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include -I/usr/local/include
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Include -I/mnt/Python-2.3b1 -c
/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Modules/_cursesmodule.c -o
build/temp.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_cursesmodule.o
ld -shared -expect_unresolved *
build/temp.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_cursesmodule.o
-L/software/@sys/usr/lib -L/usr/local/lib -lncurses -o
build/lib.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_curses.so
*** WARNING: renaming "_curses" since importing it
failed: dlopen:
build/lib.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_curses.so: symbol
"_acs_map" unresolved
building '_curses_panel' extension
cc -pthread -DNDEBUG -O -Olimit 1500 -I.
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/./Include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include -I/usr/local/include
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Include -I/mnt/Python-2.3b1 -c
/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Modules/_curses_panel.c -o
build/temp.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_curses_panel.o
cc: Severe: /mnt/Python-2.3b1/Modules/_curses_panel.c,
line 17: Cannot find file <panel.h> specified in
#include directive. (noinclfilef)
#include <panel.h>
-^
running build_scripts


This looks suspicious. I have ncurses available on the
system too, also termcap

I see that ncurses isn't found because newer version
are in $prefix/include/ncurses/ and not anymore in
$prefix/include/. There configure fails to detect them.
So, I have to configure as:

F77=f77 F90=f90 CC="cc -pthread" CXX="cxx -pthread"
CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -pthread -I/software/@sys/usr/include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include/ncurses" CPPFLAGS=$CFLAGS
CXXFLAGS=$CFLAGS ./configure
--prefix=/software/@sys/usr --host=alphaev56-dec-osf5.1
--with-dec-threads --enable-large-file

But even in this case, CPPFLAGS weren't propagated to
Makefiles:
cc -pthread -DNDEBUG -O -Olimit 1500 -I.
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/./Include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include -I/usr/local/include
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Include -I/mnt/Python-2.3b1 -c
/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Modules/_curses_panel.c -o
build/temp.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_curses_panel.o
cc: Severe: /mnt/Python-2.3b1/./Include/py_curses.h,
line 16: Cannot find file <ncurses.h> specified in
#include directive. (noinclfilef)
#include <ncurses.h>
-^


Ooops! Not propagated, they are NOT USED! See
config.status:

s,@CXX@,cxx -pthread,;t t
s,@MAINOBJ@,python.o,;t t
s,@EXEEXT@,,;t t
s,@CC@,cc -pthread,;t t
s,@CFLAGS@,-O2 -arch ev56 -pthread
-I/software/@sys/usr/include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include/ncurses,;t t
s,@LDFLAGS@,,;t t
s,@CPPFLAGS@,-O2 -arch ev56 -pthread
-I/software/@sys/usr/include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include/ncurses,;t t
s,@ac_ct_CC@,,;t t
s,@OBJEXT@,o,;t t
s,@CPP@,cc -pthread -E,;t t

And during build I still see:

case $MAKEFLAGS in \
*-s*)  CC='cc -pthread -O2 -arch ev56
-I/software/@sys/usr/include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include/ncurses' LDSHARED='ld
-shared -expect_unresolved "*"' OPT='-DNDEBUG -O'
./python -E ./setup.py -q build;; \
*)  CC='cc -pthread -O2 -arch ev56
-I/software/@sys/usr/include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include/ncurses' LDSHARED='ld
-shared -expect_unresolved "*"' OPT='-DNDEBUG -O'
./python -E ./setup.py build;; \
esac
running build
running build_ext
building '_locale' extension
cc -pthread -O2 -arch ev56 -I/software/@sys/usr/include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include/ncurses -DNDEBUG -O
-Olimit 1500 -I. -I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/./Include
-I/software/@sys/usr/include -I/usr/local/include
-I/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Include -I/mnt/Python-2.3b1 -c
/mnt/Python-2.3b1/Modules/_localemodule.c -o
build/temp.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_localemodule.o
ld -shared -expect_unresolved *
build/temp.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_localemodule.o
-L/software/@sys/usr/lib -L/usr/local/lib -o
build/lib.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_locale.so
*** WARNING: renaming "_locale" since importing it
failed: dlopen:
build/lib.osf1-V5.1-alpha-2.3/_locale.so: symbol
"libintl_gettext" unresolved
running build_scripts


I've reinstalled gettext/libiconv/ncurses, but no
difference.