Installing on an Anaconda virtualenv fails because LIBEVENT_ROOT is not set

[parautenbach]

We have an Anaconda install and we need to install python-libevent. The setup.py checks for the existence of the LIBEVENT_ROOT environment variable. In the case of Anaconda this is e.g. <ANACONDA_ROOT>/pkgs/libevent-/. The actual libraries are in lib, but setup.py searches .libs.

One option would be to tweak the Anaconda install and create a symbolic link from lib to .libs, but this is not desirable, as we are automating an installation process that would requires unnecessary intervention with already bundled software.

Alternatively, setup.py could search both .libs and lib...

I would argue that setup.py could take a best effort approach in getting a workable python-libevent installed by searching for available libevent.a options. It could e.g. raise an error if there's an ambiguity, but if there's only one option, found e.g. by checking the LD path, it should continue.

Are there any other suggestions? It does not seem to be related to virtualenvs specifically, as I get the same error installing to the system Python.