diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 44ec5d2c472ed6..994701502ae10e 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -1,4 +1,15 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Locate python2 interpreter and re-execute the script.  Note that the
+# mix of single and double quotes is intentional, as is the fact that
+# the ] goes on a new line.
+_=[ 'exec' '/bin/sh' '-c' '''
+which python2.7 >/dev/null && exec python2.7 "$0" "$@"
+which python2 >/dev/null && exec python2 "$0" "$@"
+exec python "$0" "$@"
+''' "$0" "$@"
+]
+del _
 
 import sys
 if sys.version_info[0] != 2 or sys.version_info[1] not in (6, 7):