How to Install Python 3 or Python 2 in RHEL 8
Abstract: you would expect that /usr/bin/python will run a certain version of Python. To dissociate itself fromrun the following command which will install Pyth
In RedHat Enterprise Linux 8, Python doesn’t come preinstalled. The main reason for this is that the RHEL 8 developers didn’t want to set a default Python version for users. Therefore as a RHEL user, you need to specify whether you want Python 3 or 2 by installing it. In addition, in RHEL, Python 3.6 is the default and fully supported version of Python. However, Python 2 remains available and you can install it.
In this short article, we will show how to install Python 3 and Python 2, and run them in parallel in RHEL 8 Linux distribution.
Requirements:- RHEL 8 with Minimal Installation
- RHEL 8 with RedHat Subscription Enabled
- RHEL 8 with Static IP Address
Important: Most Linux distributions use Python for a number of libraries and tools as YUM package manager. Although Python is not installed in RHEL 8 by default, but yum still works even if you don’t install Python. This is because there is an internal Python interpreter called 「Platform-Python」 which is used by system tools. Platform-python can’t be used by applications but you can only employ it for writing system/administrative code.
How to Install Python 3 in RHEL 8To install Python 3 on your system, use the DNF package manager as shown.
# dnf install python3Install Python 3 in RHEL 8
From the output of the command, Python3.6 is the default version which comes with PIP and Setuptools as dependencies.
How to Install Python 2 in RHEL 8If you want to install Python 2 in parallel with Python 3, run the following command which will install Python 2.7 on your system.
# dnf install python2Install Python 2.7 in RHEL 8 How to Run Python in RHEL 8
After installing Python, you would expect that /usr/bin/python will run a certain version of Python. To dissociate itself from 「Python2 or Python3: which version should be set as the default on Linux」 debates, RedHat has not included a python command by default – what is referred to as the 「unversioned command「.
To run Python 3, type:
# python3
And to run Python 2, type:
# python2
What if there are applications/programs on your system that expect a python command to exist, what do you need to do? It is simple, you use alternatives --config
python command to easily make /usr/bin/python
point to the correct location of the Python version you want to be set as the default version.
For example:
# alternatives --set python /usr/bin/python3 OR # alternatives --set python /usr/bin/python2
That’s All! In this short article, we have shown how to install Python 3 and Python 2 on RHEL 8. You can ask questions or share your thoughts with us via the feedback form below.