Gettext support in Python is configured by two tests: - textdomain in libc or libintl - bind_textdomain_codeset in libc only The latter causes incomplete gettext support in the locale module. Since the implementation uses two different defines, the provided patch provides them and also ensures they exist. The issue is not present in 3.x branches, as only a single test is done for full gettext support in locale.
As this problem does not affect Python3 I think it's up to the 2.7 release manager to decide if it should be merged. benjamin, what do you think? If you want it, I'll open a PR on github for it.