diff --git a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
index c150e15a1dbc09fe9f7d18a06d891d287c51cf47..d6758debcdf3e04647f897a6d3fc841b23d5db94 100644
--- a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -198,14 +198,13 @@ if(ENABLE_PYTHON)
   add_definitions(-DLMP_PYTHON)
   include_directories(${PYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR})
   list(APPEND LAMMPS_LINK_LIBS ${PYTHON_LIBRARY})
-  if(NOT PYTHON_INSTDIR)
-    execute_process(COMMAND ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE}
-	  -c "import distutils.sysconfig as cg; print(cg.get_python_lib(1,0,prefix='${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}'))"
-      OUTPUT_VARIABLE PYTHON_INSTDIR OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE)
-  endif()
-  install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../python/lammps.py DESTINATION ${PYTHON_INSTDIR})
-  if(NOT BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
-    message(FATAL_ERROR "Python package need lammps to be build shared, use -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON")
+  if(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
+    if(NOT PYTHON_INSTDIR)
+      execute_process(COMMAND ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE}
+        -c "import distutils.sysconfig as cg; print(cg.get_python_lib(1,0,prefix='${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}'))"
+        OUTPUT_VARIABLE PYTHON_INSTDIR OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE)
+    endif()
+    install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../python/lammps.py DESTINATION ${PYTHON_INSTDIR})
   endif()
 endif()