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

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.

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'

There is a module to see the system config

import sysconfig
print(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.sysconfig
print distutils.sysconfig.get_config_vars()