diff --git a/Makefile.pre.in b/Makefile.pre.in
index d95653bf6d3..1c32ac74e0f 100644
--- a/Makefile.pre.in
+++ b/Makefile.pre.in
@@ -1134,7 +1134,7 @@ maninstall:	altmaninstall
 	(cd $(DESTDIR)$(MANDIR)/man1; $(LN) -s python$(VERSION).1 python3.1)
 
 # Install the library
-PLATDIR=	plat-$(MACHDEP)
+PLATDIR=	@PLATDIR@
 EXTRAPLATDIR= @EXTRAPLATDIR@
 MACHDEPS=	$(PLATDIR) $(EXTRAPLATDIR)
 XMLLIBSUBDIRS=  xml xml/dom xml/etree xml/parsers xml/sax
diff --git a/Modules/Setup.dist b/Modules/Setup.dist
index 6e24eb0c697..06ba6adf24e 100644
--- a/Modules/Setup.dist
+++ b/Modules/Setup.dist
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ SITEPATH=
 TESTPATH=
 
 # Path components for machine- or system-dependent modules and shared libraries
-MACHDEPPATH=:plat-$(MACHDEP)
+MACHDEPPATH=:$(PLATDIR)
 EXTRAMACHDEPPATH=
 
 COREPYTHONPATH=$(DESTPATH)$(SITEPATH)$(TESTPATH)$(MACHDEPPATH)$(EXTRAMACHDEPPATH)
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 39ef0b961b6..72751ed1f37 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -712,6 +712,7 @@ CFLAGS
 CC
 EXPORT_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET
 CONFIGURE_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET
+PLATDIR
 SGI_ABI
 _PYTHON_HOST_PLATFORM
 MACHDEP
@@ -3497,6 +3498,9 @@ fi
 { $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: result: $MACHDEP" >&5
 $as_echo "$MACHDEP" >&6; }
 
+
+PLATDIR=plat-$MACHDEP
+
 # Record the configure-time value of MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET,
 # it may influence the way we can build extensions, so distutils
 # needs to check it
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6218bd25a74..69f7b7dd11b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -556,6 +556,9 @@ then
 fi
 AC_MSG_RESULT($MACHDEP)
 
+AC_SUBST(PLATDIR)
+PLATDIR=plat-$MACHDEP
+
 # Record the configure-time value of MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET,
 # it may influence the way we can build extensions, so distutils
 # needs to check it