http://bugs.python.org/issue20767

--- Lib/distutils/unixccompiler.py
+++ Lib/distutils/unixccompiler.py
@@ -225,6 +225,10 @@
         if sys.platform[:6] == "darwin":
             # MacOSX's linker doesn't understand the -R flag at all
             return "-L" + dir
+        elif sys.platform[:7] == "freebsd":
+            return "-Wl,-rpath=" + dir
+        elif sys.platform[:5] == "linux":
+            return "-Wl,-rpath=" + dir
         elif sys.platform[:5] == "hp-ux":
             if self._is_gcc(compiler):
                 return ["-Wl,+s", "-L" + dir]