How to Install Python 3.9 on CentOS/RHEL 8

Written by Rahul, Updated on November 30, 2020

Recently, Python development team released latest stable version of Python 3.9. You can download it from its official pages. New version comes with multiple new features and security updates. Python 3.9 uses a new more flexible parser, based on PEG, which replaces LL parser. In the next Python versions the old parser will be deleted.

This tutorial describe you to how to install Python 3.9 on CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 systems. In this tutorial, we will install Python from the source code.

Prerequisites

This Python installation required the GCC compiler on your system. Login to your server using ssh or shell access. Now, use the following command to install prerequisites for Python before installing it.

sudo dnf install wget yum-utils make gcc openssl-devel bzip2-devel libffi-devel zlib-devel

Step 1 – Download Python 3.9

Visit the official download site https://www.python.org/ftp/python to download the latest or required version of the Python.

Command line users can download Python 3.9 via command line:

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.0/Python-3.9.0.tgz

Then, extract the archive file on your system

tar xzf Python-3.9.0.tgz

This will create a directory named Python-3.9.0 in current directory containing all source files for the Python 3.9.

Step 2 – Install Python on CentOS 8

Change directory to Python-3.9.0. Then prepare the source code with required values before compiling it.

cd Python-3.9.0 
sudo ./configure --with-system-ffi --with-computed-gotos --enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions

Next, compile the source code with make. Here nproc will provide the number of CPU cores available on system. So that make can perform well.

sudo make -j ${nproc} 
sudo make altinstall

make altinstall is used to prevent replacing the default python binary file /usr/bin/python.

Now, we don’t need the downloaded archive file, so delete it to free space.

sudo rm Python-3.9.0.tgz

Step 3 – Test Python Version

At this step, you have successfully installed Python 3.9 on CentOS/RHEL system. Now, check the installed version’s of Python and PIP.

Check Python Version:

python3.9 -V  

Python 3.9.0

Check PIP Version:

pip3.9 -V  

pip 20.2.3 from /usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)

Step 4 – Create Virtual Environment

Its a good idea to create a separate virtual environment for each Python application. Which provides an isolated environment where Python project have its own modules and set of dependencies.

To create Python virtual environment, run:

sudo /usr/local/bin/python3.9 -m venv /home/rahul/python-app/venv

All the files will be generated under /home/rahul/python-app/venv directory. You can active the environment by running command:

source /home/rahul/python-app/venv/bin/activate

Do your stuff with isolated environment here. Once you finish with your work, deactivate the environment by typing:

deactivate

This will return you back to original system prompt.

Conclusion

This tutorial described you to install Python 3.9 on CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 systems using source code.