diff -Nru libcap-ng-0.6.1.orig/configure.ac libcap-ng-0.6.1/configure.ac
--- libcap-ng-0.6.1.orig/configure.ac	2009-09-12 05:39:48.000000000 +0200
+++ libcap-ng-0.6.1/configure.ac	2009-09-12 05:40:11.000000000 +0200
@@ -100,12 +100,25 @@
 
 AC_SUBST(DEBUG)
 
-AC_CHECK_PROG(swig_found, swig, yes, no)
-if test x"${swig_found}" = x"no" ; then
-	AC_MSG_WARN("Swig not found, python bindings will not be made")
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(python,
+[  --disable-python        disable python bindings],
+[
+if test "x${enableval}" = xyes; then
+        PYTHONBINDINGS="yes"
+else
+        PYTHONBINDINGS="no"
+fi
+],PYTHONBINDINGS="yes")
+if test x"${PYTHONBINDINGS}" = xyes; then
+	AC_CHECK_PROG(swig_found, swig, yes, no)
+	if test x"${swig_found}" = x"no" ; then
+		AC_MSG_WARN("Swig not found, python bindings will not be made")
+	fi
+	AM_PATH_PYTHON
+else
+	swig_found="no"
 fi
 AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_SWIG, test x"${swig_found}" = x"yes")
-AM_PATH_PYTHON
 
 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile src/test/Makefile bindings/Makefile
 	  bindings/python/Makefile bindings/python/test/Makefile