[Distutils] Python packaging + conditional use of C library shipped with the package

[Laurent Gautier]

Hi,

I would like to make a package that is able to use a system's given 
C-library if found, or compile its own version shipped with the package.

This is bringing up two questions:

- Is there a distutils/distribute facility to help test for the presence 
(and version) of a C library, or do I have to roll my own system ?

- When having the source for a C library shipping with a package, is 
there a way to get distutils/distribute compile it, and get it seen by 
Python at runtime (so I can just use ctypes, or cffi, and even C 
extensions in other Python package see the headers and compiled libraries) ?

Best,

Laurent

PS: I have noticed that pyzmq seems to be doing a lot of that, but they 
also appear to have a relatively big set of custom code do so (setup.py 
is already a little longer than most install scripts, to which a 
complete package 'buildutils' should be added)... this makes me 
anticipate that the answer to my two questions will be "no" ( :/ ) but 
I'd like a confirmation from the experts.