How to Install Python 3.8 on Ubuntu, Debian and LinuxMint

The Python team has released its latest version Python 3.8 for general use. You can download the latest stable version Python 3.8 series and install it on your system. This article will help you to install Python 3.8.12 on Ubuntu, Debian, and LinuxMint operating systems. You can visit here to read more about Python releases.

Step 1 – Installing Prerequisite

As you are going to install Python 3.8 from the source. You need to install some development libraries to compile Python source code. Use the following command to install prerequisites for Python:

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall
sudo apt-get install libreadline-gplv2-dev libncursesw5-dev libssl-dev \
    libsqlite3-dev tk-dev libgdbm-dev libc6-dev libbz2-dev libffi-dev zlib1g-dev

Step 2 – Download Python 3.8

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

cd /opt
sudo wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.8.12/Python-3.8.12.tgz

Then extract the downloaded source archive file

sudo tar xzf Python-3.8.12.tgz

Step 3 – Compile Python Source

Use the below set of commands to compile Python source code on your system using the altinstall command.

cd Python-3.8.12
sudo ./configure --enable-optimizations
sudo make altinstall

make altinstall is used to prevent replacing the default python binary file /usr/bin/python.Step 4 – Check Python Version

Check the installed version of python using the following command. As you have not overwritten the default Python version on the system, So you have to use Python 3.8 as follows:

python3.8 -V

Python-3.8.12

After successful installation remove the downloaded archive to save disk space

cd /opt
sudo rm -f Python-3.8.12.tgz

Conclusion

This tutorial helped you for installing Python 3.8 on Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux Mint systems by compiling it from source code.