diff --git a/Lib/distutils/util.py b/Lib/distutils/util.py
index b308b90dd02..caf9906281f 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/util.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/util.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 __revision__ = "$Id$"
 
-import os, string, re, shutil
+import sys, os, string, re, shutil
 from distutils.errors import *