Posit - Install Python From Source

How to install Python from source on a Linux server.

Python is not Posit Software and is included in Third Party Materials (as defined in our EULA) and not covered under the Posit Support Agreement. If you download Python, you are agreeing to their license and acknowledge Posit is not responsible for Python and you are downloading Python at your sole risk.

Before you begin

Install Python from pre-compiled binaries

Posit recommends installing Python appropriately from pre-compiled binaries using the Install Python procedures.

Install required dependencies

First, enable the optional and required repositories by following these steps:

Enable the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository:

sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

Enable the CodeReady Linux Builder repository:

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-$(arch)-rpms
# enable the CodeReady Linux Builder repository from Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) 
sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-*-rpms

Enable the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository

sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Enable the CodeReady Linux Builder repository:

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms
# enable the CodeReady Linux Builder repository from Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) 
sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled "codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-*-rpms"

Next, use the following commands to install the dependencies required to build and run Python for your Linux distribution:

sudo yum-builddep python3
sudo yum install wget yum-utils make gcc openssl-devel bzip2-devel libffi-devel zlib-devel
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install \
    curl \
    gcc \
    libbz2-dev \
    libev-dev \
    libffi-dev \
    libgdbm-dev \
    liblzma-dev \
    libncurses-dev \
    libreadline-dev \
    libsqlite3-dev \
    libssl-dev \
    make \
    tk-dev \
    wget \
    zlib1g-dev
sudo zypper install \
    automake \
    fdupes \
    gcc \
    gcc-c++ \
    gcc-fortran \
    gdbm-devel \
    gettext-tools \
    gmp-devel \
    intltool \
    libbz2-devel \
    libexpat-devel \
    libffi-devel \
    libnsl-devel \
    lzma-devel \
    make \
    ncurses-devel \
    netcfg \
    openssl-devel \
    pkgconfig \
    readline-devel \
    sqlite-devel \
    xz \
    zlib-devel

Specify Python version

Specify the version of Python that you want to install:

export PYTHON_VERSION=3.12.4
export PYTHON_MAJOR=3

Python.org lists the available versions of Python.

Download and extract Python

Download and extract Python. Then, navigate into the Python directory:

curl -O https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION}/Python-${PYTHON_VERSION}.tgz
tar -xvzf Python-${PYTHON_VERSION}.tgz
cd Python-${PYTHON_VERSION}

Build and install Python

Configure, make, and install Python:

./configure \
    --prefix=/opt/python/${PYTHON_VERSION} \
    --enable-shared \
    --enable-optimizations \
    --enable-ipv6 \
    LDFLAGS=-Wl,-rpath=/opt/python/${PYTHON_VERSION}/lib,--disable-new-dtags

make
sudo make install

Install pip

Install pip into the version of Python that you just installed:

curl -O https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
sudo /opt/python/${PYTHON_VERSION}/bin/python${PYTHON_MAJOR} get-pip.py

Verify Python installation

Verify that Python is installed by running the following command:

/opt/python/${PYTHON_VERSION}/bin/python${PYTHON_MAJOR} --version

(Optional) Add Python to the system PATH

Note

You can configure Python on the system PATH so that users can use pip within a terminal to install packages to their home directory, similar to how R works with install.packages().

The recommended method to add Python to the PATH is to append the version of Python that you installed to the system-wide PATH variable. For example, define this in a script within the /etc/profile.d/ directory (where <PYTHON-VERSION> is the version of Python that you installed earlier):

File: /etc/profile.d/python.sh
PATH=/opt/python/<PYTHON-VERSION>/bin/:$PATH

(Optional) Install multiple versions of Python

If you want to install multiple versions of Python on the same server, repeat these steps to specify, download, and install a different version of Python alongside existing versions.

Uninstall

sudo rm -rf /opt/path-to-installation/
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