Question
How to install a specific Python version on Ubuntu?
- Posted on March 1, 2021
- PythonLinux BasicsLinux CommandsUbuntu
Asked by Bobby Iliev
In some cases, you might need to install a very specific Python version on your Ubuntu server which might be different from the one that comes from the default apt repositories.
Here is how you could do that!
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.
Hi there,
Thank you for reporting this.
This is going to be beyond the scope of the tutorial. However here is how you could install a specific version if needed:
First, install the required libraries:
- sudo apt-get install libssl-dev openssl make gcc
Then choose the specific Python from here:
https://www.python.org/ftp/python/
After that go to the /opt directory and download the archive of the specific version:
- cd /opt
- wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.2/Python-3.9.2.tgz
Extract the archive:
- tar xzvf Python-3.9.2.tgz
Then cd into the directory:
- cd Python-3.9.2
And finally, compile the new version:
- ./configure
- make
- make install
Finally you can create a symlink for that specific Python version so that you could use the binary from anywhere:
- sudo ln -fs /opt/Python-3.9.2/Python /usr/bin/python3.9
Then you could check if the python3.9 version is available:
- python3.9 --version
Hope that this helps. Regards, Bobby
Want to learn more? Join the DigitalOcean Community!
Join our DigitalOcean community of over a million developers for free! Get help and share knowledge in Q&A, subscribe to topics of interest, and get courses and tools that will help you grow as a developer and scale your project or business.