How to get the list of options that Python was compiled with?

There is a module to see the system config

import sysconfigprint(sysconfig.get_config_vars())

It offers an interface to get individual variables as well.

sysconfig.get_config_var('HAVE_LIBREADLINE')

It is also accessible via shell:

python3 -m sysconfig | less

Edit:

before python2.7, you have to use

import distutils.sysconfigprint distutils.sysconfig.get_config_vars()

To build on mirk's answer, to find the configure flags that were actually used during the build, the value you're looking for is CONFIG_ARGS.

For example, this is the output for an Ubuntu-compiled Python:

>>> print distutils.sysconfig.get_config_var('CONFIG_ARGS')'--enable-shared' '--prefix=/usr' '--enable-ipv6''--enable-unicode=ucs4' '--with-dbmliborder=bdb:gdbm''--with-system-expat' '--with-system-ffi' '--with-fpe ctl''CC=x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' 'CFLAGS=-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g-fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat-Werror=format-security ' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Bs ymbolic-functions-Wl,-z,relro'

And another way to do it... Python supplies scripts per installed version...

  ls -l /usr/bin/python*config*    16 Dec 21  2013 /usr/bin/python-config     -> python2.7-config    16 Dec 21  2013 /usr/bin/python2-config    -> python2.7-config    33 Mar 22 18:57 /usr/bin/python2.7-config  -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python2.7-config    16 Mar 23 03:17 /usr/bin/python3-config    -> python3.4-config    33 Apr 11 09:15 /usr/bin/python3.4-config  -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.4-config    34 Apr 11 09:15 /usr/bin/python3.4m-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.4m-config    17 Mar 23 03:17 /usr/bin/python3m-config   -> python3.4m-config  python3-config --help  Usage: /usr/bin/python3-config --prefix|--exec-prefix|--includes|--libs|--cflags|--ldflags|--extension-suffix|--help|--abiflags|--configdir  python3-config --prefix  /usr

The answers from one of my systems are:

--prefix           /usr--exec-prefix      /usr--includes         -I/usr/include/python3.4m -I/usr/include/python3.4m--libs             -lpthread -ldl  -lutil -lm  -lpython3.4m--cflags           -I/usr/include/python3.4m -I/usr/include/python3.4m  -Wno-unused-result -Werror=declaration-after-statement -g -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security  -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes--ldflags          -L/usr/lib/python3.4/config-3.4m-x86_64-linux-gnu -L/usr/lib -lpthread -ldl  -lutil -lm  -lpython3.4m -Xlinker -export-dynamic -Wl,-O1 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions--extension-suffix @SO@--abiflags         m--configdir        /usr/lib/python3.4/config-3.4m-x86_64-linux-gnu

So if you need setting values for bash scripts and such, these are available with this command line utility.