All, When I configure python to enable shared libraries, none of the extensions are getting built during the make step due to this error. building 'cStringIO' extension gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -I. -I/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/./Include -I. -IInclude -I./Include -I/opt/freeware/include -I/opt/freeware/include/readline -I/opt/freeware/include/ncurses -I/usr/local/include -I/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/Include -I/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6 -c /u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/Modules/cStringIO.c -o build/temp.aix-5.3-2.6/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/Modules/cStringIO.o ./Modules/ld_so_aix gcc -pthread -bI:Modules/python.exp build/temp.aix-5.3-2.6/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/Modules/cStringIO.o -L/usr/local/lib *-lpython2.6* -o build/lib.aix-5.3-2.6/cStringIO.so *collect2: library libpython2.6 not found* building 'cPickle' extension gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -I. -I/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/./Include -I. -IInclude -I./Include -I/opt/freeware/include -I/opt/freeware/include/readline -I/opt/freeware/include/ncurses -I/usr/local/include -I/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/Include -I/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6 -c /u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/Modules/cPickle.c -o build/temp.aix-5.3-2.6/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/Modules/cPickle.o ./Modules/ld_so_aix gcc -pthread -bI:Modules/python.exp build/temp.aix-5.3-2.6/u01/home/apli/wm/GDD/Python-2.6.6/Modules/cPickle.o -L/usr/local/lib *-lpython2.6* -o build/lib.aix-5.3-2.6/cPickle.so *collect2: library libpython2.6 not found* This is on AIX 5.3, GCC 4.2, Python 2.6.6 I can confirm that there is a libpython2.6.a file in the top level directory from where I am doing the configure/make etc Here are the options supplied to the configure command ./configure --enable-shared --disable-ipv6 --with-gcc=gcc CPPFLAGS="-I /opt/freeware/include -I /opt/freeware/include/readline -I /opt/freeware/include/ncurses" Please guide me in getting past this error. Thanks for your help on this. Regards, Anurag