Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: Unable to get the locale encoding on Debian/Python 3.6.4 source build

[zopyx]

BPO	33142
Nosy	@zopyx, @ned-deily

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2018-03-28.05:56:16.916>
created_at = <Date 2018-03-26.08:52:29.398>
labels = ['build', 'expert-installation']
title = 'Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: Unable to get the locale encoding on Debian/Python 3.6.4 source build'
updated_at = <Date 2018-03-28.05:56:16.907>
user = 'https://github.com/zopyx'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2018-03-28.05:56:16.907>
actor = 'ned.deily'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2018-03-28.05:56:16.916>
closer = 'ned.deily'
components = ['Installation']
creation = <Date 2018-03-26.08:52:29.398>
creator = 'ajung'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 33142
keywords = []
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['314442', '314563']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['ajung', 'ned.deily']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'works for me'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'compile error'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue33142'
versions = ['Python 3.6']

[zopyx]

Unable to build Python 3.6.4 from sources on a fresh Debian system:

@plone /tmp/Python-3.6.4 $ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="9"
VERSION="9 (stretch)"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

gcc -pthread -c -Wno-unused-result -Wsign-compare -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -std=c99 -Wextra -Wno-unused-result -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -I. -I./Include -DPy_BUILD_CORE
-DGITVERSION=""LC_ALL=C ""
-DGITTAG=""LC_ALL=C ""
-DGITBRANCH=""LC_ALL=C ""
-o Modules/getbuildinfo.o ./Modules/getbuildinfo.c
rm -f libpython3.6m.a
ar rc libpython3.6m.a Modules/getbuildinfo.o
ar rc libpython3.6m.a Parser/acceler.o Parser/grammar1.o Parser/listnode.o Parser/node.o Parser/parser.o Parser/bitset.o Parser/metagrammar.o Parser/firstsets.o Parser/grammar.o Parser/pgen.o Parser/myreadline.o Parser/parsetok.o Parser/tokenizer.o
ar rc libpython3.6m.a Objects/abstract.o Objects/accu.o Objects/boolobject.o Objects/bytes_methods.o Objects/bytearrayobject.o Objects/bytesobject.o Objects/cellobject.o Objects/classobject.o Objects/codeobject.o Objects/complexobject.o Objects/descrobject.o Objects/enumobject.o Objects/exceptions.o Objects/genobject.o Objects/fileobject.o Objects/floatobject.o Objects/frameobject.o Objects/funcobject.o Objects/iterobject.o Objects/listobject.o Objects/longobject.o Objects/dictobject.o Objects/odictobject.o Objects/memoryobject.o Objects/methodobject.o Objects/moduleobject.o Objects/namespaceobject.o Objects/object.o Objects/obmalloc.o Objects/capsule.o Objects/rangeobject.o Objects/setobject.o Objects/sliceobject.o Objects/structseq.o Objects/tupleobject.o Objects/typeobject.o Objects/unicodeobject.o Objects/unicodectype.o Objects/weakrefobject.o
ar rc libpython3.6m.a Python/_warnings.o Python/Python-ast.o Python/asdl.o Python/ast.o Python/bltinmodule.o Python/ceval.o Python/compile.o Python/codecs.o Python/dynamic_annotations.o Python/errors.o Python/frozenmain.o Python/future.o Python/getargs.o Python/getcompiler.o Python/getcopyright.o Python/getplatform.o Python/getversion.o Python/graminit.o Python/import.o Python/importdl.o Python/marshal.o Python/modsupport.o Python/mystrtoul.o Python/mysnprintf.o Python/peephole.o Python/pyarena.o Python/pyctype.o Python/pyfpe.o Python/pyhash.o Python/pylifecycle.o Python/pymath.o Python/pystate.o Python/pythonrun.o Python/pytime.o Python/random.o Python/structmember.o Python/symtable.o Python/sysmodule.o Python/traceback.o Python/getopt.o Python/pystrcmp.o Python/pystrtod.o Python/pystrhex.o Python/dtoa.o Python/formatter_unicode.o Python/fileutils.o Python/dynload_shlib.o Python/thread.o Python/frozen.o
ar rc libpython3.6m.a Modules/config.o Modules/getpath.o Modules/main.o Modules/gcmodule.o
ar rc libpython3.6m.a Modules/_threadmodule.o Modules/posixmodule.o Modules/errnomodule.o Modules/pwdmodule.o Modules/_sre.o Modules/_codecsmodule.o Modules/_weakref.o Modules/_functoolsmodule.o Modules/_operator.o Modules/_collectionsmodule.o Modules/itertoolsmodule.o Modules/atexitmodule.o Modules/signalmodule.o Modules/_stat.o Modules/timemodule.o Modules/_localemodule.o Modules/_iomodule.o Modules/iobase.o Modules/fileio.o Modules/bytesio.o Modules/bufferedio.o Modules/textio.o Modules/stringio.o Modules/zipimport.o Modules/faulthandler.o Modules/_tracemalloc.o Modules/hashtable.o Modules/symtablemodule.o Modules/xxsubtype.o
ranlib libpython3.6m.a
gcc -pthread -Xlinker -export-dynamic -o python Programs/python.o libpython3.6m.a -lpthread -ldl -lutil -lm
gcc -pthread -Xlinker -export-dynamic -o Programs/_testembed Programs/_testembed.o libpython3.6m.a -lpthread -ldl -lutil -lm
./python -E -S -m sysconfig --generate-posix-vars ;
if test $? -ne 0 ; then
echo "generate-posix-vars failed" ;
rm -f ./pybuilddir.txt ;
exit 1 ;
fi
Could not find platform independent libraries
Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to [:<exec_prefix>]
Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: Unable to get the locale encoding
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'

Current thread 0x00007f1757349440 (most recent call first):
Aborted
generate-posix-vars failed
Makefile:575: recipe for target 'pybuilddir.txt' failed
make: *** [pybuilddir.txt] Error 1

[ned-deily]

Since python3.6 is regularly built with various Debian releases, this seems unlikely to be a problem in Python itself. Suggest you verify that no venv or virtualenv is in use or that PYTHON* environment variables are set or that no modifications provided by Debian are the cause. If you can reproduce with a stock Python 3.6.4 (3.6.5 shortly) tarball from python.org, please feel free to reopen and show the exact steps used to build, i.e. tar, configure, and make commands.