How to Install Python 3.9 on CentOS/RHEL 8

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. Python 3.9 uses a new more flexible parser, based on PEG, which replaces the LL parser. In the next Python versions, the old parser will be deleted.

This tutorial describes how to install Python 3.9 on CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 systems. In this tutorial, we will install 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 dnf install wget yum-utils make gcc openssl-devel bzip2-devel libffi-devel zlib-devel 

Step 1 – Download Python 3.9

Visit the official download site https://www.python.org/ftp/python to download the latest or required version of the Python.

Command line users can download Python 3.9 via command line:

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 containing all source files for Python 3.9.

Step 2 – Install Python on CentOS 8

Change directory to Python-3.9.6. Then prepare the source code with the required values before compiling it.

cd Python-3.9.6 
sudo ./configure --with-system-ffi --with-computed-gotos --enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions 

Next, compile the source code with make. Here nproc will provide the number of CPU cores available on system. So that make can perform well.

sudo make -j ${nproc} 
sudo make altinstall 

make altinstall is used to prevent replacing the default python binary file /usr/bin/python.

Now, we don’t need the downloaded archive file, so delete it to free space.

sudo rm Python-3.9.6.tgz 

Step 3 – Test Python Version

At this step, you have successfully installed Python 3.9 on CentOS/RHEL system. Now, check the installed versions of Python and PIP.

Check Python Version:

python3.9 -V  

Python 3.9.6

Check PIP Version:

pip3.9 -V  

pip 20.2.3 from /usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)

Step 4 – Create Virtual Environment

It is a good idea to create a separate virtual environment for each Python application. Which provides an isolated environment where the Python project has its own modules and set of dependencies.

To create Python virtual environment, run:

sudo /usr/local/bin/python3.9 -m venv /home/rahul/python-app/venv 

All the files will be generated under /home/rahul/python-app/venv directory. You can active the environment by running command:

source /home/rahul/python-app/venv/bin/activate 

Do your stuff with isolated environment here. Once you finish with your work, deactivate the environment by typing:

deactivate 

This will return you back to the main system prompt.

Conclusion

This tutorial described you to install Python 3.9 on CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 systems using source code.