Recompiling Python to fix arrow keys in interactive mode issue

I am working in python 2.6 (installed alongside Python2.4.3 required for CentOS) and I am having issues with the arrow keys and backspace etc.

I compiled from source and I imagine the solution is to recompile after installing readline-devel as outlined in:

Seeing escape characters when pressing the arrow keys in python shell

Question is, I have a lot of modules installed and am worried of things breaking. Is it normal to be able to just recompile without breaking existing modules.

Thanks

Solution

As long as you use the same compiler that was originally used, you should be fine, I think. Especially if you don't have any extensions to recompile, because those are what would be affected.

http://docs.python.org/release/2.6.5/install/index.html#building-extensions-tips-and-tricks

the same compiler and linker flags used to compile Python will also be used for compiling extensions.

I might have missed something, though, so...