I have been comiling Python 3.8 from source and have had a really difficult time with getting _ctypes to compile. I see that libffi is no longer distributed with the Python source code, in preference for what is on the system. I searched for a PEP that describes the rationale behind this, but my Google fu must be weak. I have also seen requests that a patch be committed that makes configuring the use of libffi easier, but as far as I can tell, these have not been committed. It is something I would like to see as I am in a situation where I cannot depend on the system libffi - we support older Linux distributions that don't have libffi - an so I am making a static libffi to be linked in. Any guidance on this issue would be helpful. Thanks, TOm