The latest version of Python is 3.12.2 and is the second maintenance release, with more than 350 bugfixes since 3.12.1.
I use Debian 11 for a lot of my work , and would like to have the latest Python 3.12.2. Unfortunately, Debian 11 stable includes a much older version. This tutorial will help you install Python 3.12.2 on Debian 11 by building it from source.
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Install Python using apt
The default version of Python on Debian 11 is Python 3.9.2. If you are happy with it, good.
$ apt info python3
Package: python3
Version: 3.9.2-3
Priority: optional
Section: python
Source: python3-defaults
Maintainer: Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>
Installed-Size: 91.1 kB
Provides: python3-profiler
Pre-Depends: python3-minimal (= 3.9.2-3)
Depends: python3.9 (>= 3.9.2-0~), libpython3-stdlib (= 3.9.2-3)
Suggests: python3-doc (>= 3.9.2-3), python3-tk (>= 3.9.2-0~), python3-venv (>= 3.9.2-3)
Replaces: python3-minimal (<< 3.1.2-2)
Homepage: https://www.python.org/
Tag: devel::interpreter, devel::lang:python, devel::library,
implemented-in::c, implemented-in::python, role::devel-lib,
role::program, role::shared-lib
Cnf-Extra-Commands: python
Cnf-Priority-Bonus: 5
Download-Size: 37.9 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: no
APT-Sources: http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Packages
Description: interactive high-level object-oriented language (default python3 version)
Python, the high-level, interactive object oriented language,
includes an extensive class library with lots of goodies for
network programming, system administration, sounds and graphics.
.
This package is a dependency package, which depends on Debian's default
Python 3 version (currently v3.9).
If you want to upgrade to 3.12.2, read on.
Previous versions of Python
If you are using any previous version of Python, such as 3.12.1 or 3.11, this article is applicable.
Download Python 3.12.2 source
Python 3.12.2 was released on February 6, 2024. The latest Python source code is available here.
Download and extract the Python source code.
cd /tmp/ wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.2/Python-3.12.2.tgz tar -xzvf Python-3.12.2.tgz cd Python-3.12.2/
OUTPUT:
$ cd /tmp/
$ wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.2/Python-3.12.2.tgz
--2024-02-08 12:48:45-- https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.2/Python-3.12.2.tgz
Resolving www.python.org (www.python.org)... 146.75.104.223, 2a04:4e42:77::223
Connecting to www.python.org (www.python.org)|146.75.104.223|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 27116462 (26M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: โPython-3.12.2.tgzโ
Python-3.12.2.tgz 100%[=====================================>] 25.86M 2.15MB/s in 12s
2024-02-08 12:48:57 (2.20 MB/s) - โPython-3.12.2.tgzโ saved [27116462/27116462]
...
Install the build tools
Now, install the build tools. The build tools includes gcc, make, zlib, ssl libraries and other libraries.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libgdbm-dev libnss3-dev libssl-dev libreadline-dev libffi-dev libsqlite3-dev
If you are prompted to install other dependencies, select yes.
Configure, make and make install
Run the configure script and enable Profile guided optimization (PGO) and Link Time Optimization (LTO). This can boost up speed up to 20%.
./configure --enable-optimizations
Now run make. You can make the build using nproc, which returns the number of CPUs.
make -j `nproc`
This step can take several minutes.
Make install
The default Python installation is /usr/bin. If you want to install Python under /usr/local/bin instead of overwriting the default, do this:
sudo make altinstall
This will install Python at /usr/local/bin/python3.12. To test the version, run this:
python3.12 -V
You will get this output:
Python 3.12.2
Make Python 3.12.2 the default version
To make the default version of Python 3.12.2, run this:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/python3.12 /usr/local/bin/python
This creates a bunch of softlinks and links the latest Python to /usr/local/bin.
ln: failed to create symbolic link '/usr/local/bin/python': File exists
If you get this error:
ln: failed to create symbolic link '/usr/local/bin/python': File exists
that means that you already have a softlink at that location. Delete the softlink.
$ sudo rm /usr/local/bin/python
Then, repeat the softlink create command:
$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/python3.12 /usr/local/bin/python
Now, verify it:
$ ls -al /usr/local/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Dec 26 13:08 /usr/local/bin/python -> /usr/local/bin/python3.12
Test if Python 3.12.2 is the default version
Test whether Python 3.12.2 is the default version:
$ ls -al /usr/local/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Dec 26 13:08 /usr/local/bin/python -> /usr/local/bin/python3.12
$ ls -al /usr/local/bin/python3.12
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 37195824 Feb 8 18:00 /usr/local/bin/python3.12
$ /usr/local/bin/python3.12 -V
Python 3.12.2
python -VV
The output will be:
Python 3.12.2 (main, Feb 8 2024, 13:06:49) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110]
So, at this point, Python 3.12.2 has been set as the default version of Python.
Hope this worked for you. If you have any issues installing Python on your Debian 11 system, feel free to comment below or email me.
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