diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 7098f5f5ec4..f7f99eb0412 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #! /bin/sh
-# From configure.in Revision: .
+# From configure.in Revision: 47023 .
 # Guess values for system-dependent variables and create Makefiles.
 # Generated by GNU Autoconf 2.59 for python 2.5.
 #
@@ -722,13 +722,13 @@ echo X"$0" |
   	  /^X\(\/\).*/{ s//\1/; q; }
   	  s/.*/./; q'`
   srcdir=$ac_confdir
-  if test ! -r "$srcdir/$ac_unique_file"; then
+  if test ! -r $srcdir/$ac_unique_file; then
     srcdir=..
   fi
 else
   ac_srcdir_defaulted=no
 fi
-if test ! -r "$srcdir/$ac_unique_file"; then
+if test ! -r $srcdir/$ac_unique_file; then
   if test "$ac_srcdir_defaulted" = yes; then
     { echo "$as_me: error: cannot find sources ($ac_unique_file) in $ac_confdir or .." >&2
    { (exit 1); exit 1; }; }
@@ -737,7 +737,7 @@ if test ! -r "$srcdir/$ac_unique_file"; then
    { (exit 1); exit 1; }; }
   fi
 fi
-(cd $srcdir && test -r "./$ac_unique_file") 2>/dev/null ||
+(cd $srcdir && test -r ./$ac_unique_file) 2>/dev/null ||
   { echo "$as_me: error: sources are in $srcdir, but \`cd $srcdir' does not work" >&2
    { (exit 1); exit 1; }; }
 srcdir=`echo "$srcdir" | sed 's%\([^\\/]\)[\\/]*$%\1%'`
@@ -14980,6 +14980,15 @@ fi
 fi
 
 
+case $ac_sys_system/$ac_sys_release in
+Darwin/*)
+	_CUR_CFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
+	_CUR_LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS}"
+	CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -Wl,-search_paths_first"
+	LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS} -Wl,-search_paths_first -L/usr/local/lib"
+	;;
+esac
+
 echo "$as_me:$LINENO: checking for inflateCopy in -lz" >&5
 echo $ECHO_N "checking for inflateCopy in -lz... $ECHO_C" >&6
 if test "${ac_cv_lib_z_inflateCopy+set}" = set; then
@@ -15053,6 +15062,13 @@ _ACEOF
 fi
 
 
+case $ac_sys_system/$ac_sys_release in
+Darwin/*)
+	CFLAGS="${_CUR_CFLAGS}"
+	LDFLAGS="${_CUR_LDFLAGS}"
+	;;
+esac
+
 echo "$as_me:$LINENO: checking for hstrerror" >&5
 echo $ECHO_N "checking for hstrerror... $ECHO_C" >&6
 cat >conftest.$ac_ext <<_ACEOF
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 9ab576d3d58..29242cf246d 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -2352,8 +2352,34 @@ AC_CHECK_LIB(c, inet_aton, [$ac_cv_prog_TRUE],
 )
 
 dnl Check if system zlib has *Copy() functions
+dnl
+dnl On MacOSX the linker will search for dylibs on the entire linker path
+dnl before searching for static libraries. setup.py adds -Wl,-search_paths_first
+dnl to revert to a more traditional unix behaviour and make it possible to
+dnl override the system libz with a local static library of libz. Temporarily
+dnl add that flag to our CFLAGS as well to ensure that we check the version
+dnl of libz that will be used by setup.py. 
+dnl The -L/usr/local/lib is needed as wel to get the same compilation 
+dnl environment as setup.py (and leaving it out can cause configure to use the
+dnl wrong version of the library)
+case $ac_sys_system/$ac_sys_release in
+Darwin/*) 
+	_CUR_CFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
+	_CUR_LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS}"
+	CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -Wl,-search_paths_first"
+	LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS} -Wl,-search_paths_first -L/usr/local/lib"
+	;;
+esac
+
 AC_CHECK_LIB(z, inflateCopy, AC_DEFINE(HAVE_ZLIB_COPY, 1, Define if the zlib library has inflateCopy))
 
+case $ac_sys_system/$ac_sys_release in
+Darwin/*) 
+	CFLAGS="${_CUR_CFLAGS}"
+	LDFLAGS="${_CUR_LDFLAGS}"
+	;;
+esac
+
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(for hstrerror)
 AC_TRY_LINK([
 #include "confdefs.h"