# DP: suggest installation of the pythonX.Y-dev package, if bdist_wininst
# DP: cannot find the wininst-* files.

Index: b/Lib/distutils/command/bdist_wininst.py
===================================================================
--- a/Lib/distutils/command/bdist_wininst.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/command/bdist_wininst.py
@@ -354,7 +354,10 @@ class bdist_wininst(Command):
             sfix = ''
 
         filename = os.path.join(directory, "wininst-%.1f%s.exe" % (bv, sfix))
-        f = open(filename, "rb")
+        try:
+            f = open(filename, "rb")
+        except IOError as e:
+            raise DistutilsFileError(str(e) + ', %s not included in the Debian packages.' % filename)
         try:
             return f.read()
         finally: