diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 59077d95f..89f4a3ed8 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -279,7 +279,8 @@ for deps in extras_require.values():
 extras_require['all'] = everything
 install_requires = []
 if sys.platform == 'darwin':
-    install_requires.append('gnureadline')
+    if any(arg.startswith('bdist') for arg in sys.argv) or not setupext.check_for_readline():
+        install_requires.append('gnureadline')
 elif sys.platform.startswith('win'):
     # Pyreadline has unicode and Python 3 fixes in 2.0
     install_requires.append('pyreadline>=2.0')