How To Install Python 3 on CentOS 7

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and configure Python 3 on CentOS 7. As of the latest CentOS 7, the default Python version still remains python 2.7, and python3 is not available in base repositories. If you need to use python3 as part of Python application dependency, there are several ways to install python3 on CentOS.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of Python on a CentOS 7 server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: CentOS 7.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Python 3 on CentOS 7

Step 1. First, let’s start by ensuring your system is up-to-date.

yum -y update
yum groupinstall "Development tools"

Step 2. Installing Python.

Method One: Build and Install Python3 from the Source

The first thing to do is to go to Python’s download page and download the latest stable version of Python, At the moment of writing this article it is version 3.5.1:

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.5.1/Python-3.5.1.tgz

Extract source archive and build:

tar xzf Python-3.5.1.tgz
cd Python-3.5.1

Next, we are going  to configure the installation directory  on /usr/local, We can change the path:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local

Building and installing Python through below make altinstall command, this command will replace the python, which is used by the server:

make altinstall

You now should be all set to use your newly compiled python version:

#  python3.5 –V
Python 3.5.1

Method Two: Install Python3 from EPEL Repository

First, you need to enable EPEL repository on your system:

yum install epel-release

Then install python 3.4 and its libraries using yum:

yum install python34

Method Three: Install Python3 from Software Collections (SCL)

The first step is to install the utilities needed to manage collections:

yum -y install scl-utils

Once you enable the SCL repository, go ahead and install python3 as follows:

yum -y install python33

Python 3.3 will become accessible by launching a new shell instance using the Software Collection scl command:

scl enable python33 bash

Additional Python libraries and tools, such as pip, can now be installed:

easy_install pip

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Python. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing Python 3 on CentOS 7 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Python website.