From 259c159fc1faab0dd631d20374842dc0d6a9f145 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Michael Felt <aixtools@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2018 06:45:19 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] bpo-34897: avoid distutils test error when CXX is not set
 (GH-9706)

Depending on system config, a missing candidate compiler name may be
reported as the empty string rather than as None, so adjust the test
helper accordingly.
---
 Lib/test/support/__init__.py                                    | 2 +-
 .../next/Library/2018-10-04-20-25-35.bpo-34897.rNE2Cy.rst       | 2 ++
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-10-04-20-25-35.bpo-34897.rNE2Cy.rst

diff --git a/Lib/test/support/__init__.py b/Lib/test/support/__init__.py
index 53119e138cf..dd1790d592b 100644
--- a/Lib/test/support/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/test/support/__init__.py
@@ -2783,7 +2783,7 @@ def missing_compiler_executable(cmd_names=[]):
         if cmd_names:
             assert cmd is not None, \
                     "the '%s' executable is not configured" % name
-        elif cmd is None:
+        elif not cmd:
             continue
         if spawn.find_executable(cmd[0]) is None:
             return cmd[0]
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-10-04-20-25-35.bpo-34897.rNE2Cy.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-10-04-20-25-35.bpo-34897.rNE2Cy.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f25349659ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-10-04-20-25-35.bpo-34897.rNE2Cy.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Adjust test.support.missing_compiler_executable check so that a nominal
+command name of "" is ignored. Patch by Michael Felt.