How to Install Python 3.9 on CentOS/RHEL 7 & Fedora 34/33

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    Recently, the Python development team released the latest stable version of Python 3.9. You can download it from its official pages. The new version comes with multiple new features and security updates.

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    This tutorial will help you to install Python 3.9 on CentOS/RHEL 7 & Fedora systems. We will compile 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 yum install gcc openssl-devel bzip2-devel libffi-devel zlib-devel

    Step 1 – Download Python 3.9

    Download Python using following command from python official site. You can also download the latest version in place of the specified below.

    wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.6/Python-3.9.6.tgz

    Then, extract the archive file on your system:

    tar xzf Python-3.9.6.tgz

    This will create a directory named Python-3.9.6 in the current directory.

    Step 2 – Install Python 3.9 on CentOS

    Change directory to Python-3.9.4 and use the following commands to compile Python source code on your system using altinstall.

    cd Python-3.9.6 
sudo ./configure --enable-optimizations 
sudo make altinstall
    make altinstall is used to prevent replacing the default python binary file /usr/bin/python.

    Now remove downloaded source archive file from your system

    sudo rm Python-3.9.6.tgz

    Step 3 – Test Python Version

    Check the latest version installed of python using the below command

    python3.9 -V  

Python 3.9.6

    Conclusion

    In this tutorial, you have learned to install Python 3.9 on CentOS 7 and Fedora systems using source code.

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    3 Comments

    1. Roger Thompson on

      How do I do this in an alternate location without having sudo privilege? My location to install is /opt/python/Python-3.9.5

      Reply
    3. Sjoerd on

      Hi Rahul,

      Pretty straightforward. Worked like charm. Seems to be a better approach then adding epel or remi repo’s.
      If there is a new version, how should we deal with the old version – If for example 3.9.8 got release how do we get rid of this version?
      And.. how can I default to 3.9.4 (2.7.5 comes with a clean install)
      Regards

      Reply

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