title: How can I tell python which version of libmysqlclient.so to use?
body: <p>I'm running a python script on a shared hosting server which until this morning had MySQL version 4. Now it has version 5. My python script can no longer connect to MySQL, as it can't find libmysqlclient_r.so.14:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ python my_script.py
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "my_script.py", line 6, in ?
  import MySQLdb
   File "/home/lib/python2.4/site-packages/PIL-1.1.6-py2.4-linux-i686.egg/__init__.py", line 19, in ?
  
   File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/_mysql.py", line 7, in ?
   File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/_mysql.py", line 6, in __bootstrap__
  ImportError: libmysqlclient_r.so.14: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>There are various other versions of libmysqlclient in /usr/lib:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.15
  /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.14
  /usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient.la
  /usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient.so
  /usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient_r.so
  /usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient_r.a
  /usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient_r.la
  /usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient.a
  /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so
  /usr/lib/libmysqlclient_r.so
  /usr/lib/libmysqlclient_r.so.15
  /usr/lib/libmysqlclient_r.so.15.0.0
  /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.15.0.0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So my question is this: how can I tell python (version 2.4.3) which version of libmysqlclient to use?</p>