[NLPL Task Force (A)] XY support in Python3

[Stephan Oepen]

colleagues,

using the default ‘python3’ module on Abel, i am running into the
following import error (required by a third-party component):

[oe at login-0-0 ~]$ module purge; module load python3/3.5.0
[oe at login-0-0 ~]$ type -all python3
python3 is /cluster/software/VERSIONS/python3-3.5.0/bin/python3
[oe at login-0-0 ~]$ python3 -c "import lzma;"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/cluster/software/VERSIONS/python3-3.5.0/lib/python3.5/lzma.py",
line 26, in <module>
    from _lzma import *
ImportError: No module named '_lzma'

for all i can tell, there are no RHEL lzma packaged installed, but
there is a separate module ‘xz/5.2.2’.  i wonder whether my import
error could just mean that no lzma (aka xz) headers and libraries were
visible when the python3 installation was compiled?

with thanks in advance, oe