How to Install Python 3.9 on CentOS/RHEL 7 & Fedora 34/33

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.

This tutorial will help you to install Python 3.9 on CentOS/RHEL 7 & Fedora systems. We will compile 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 yum install gcc openssl-devel bzip2-devel libffi-devel zlib-devel 

Step 1 – Download Python 3.9

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

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.

Step 2 – Install Python 3.9 on CentOS

Change directory to Python-3.9.4 and use the following commands to compile Python source code on your system using altinstall.

cd Python-3.9.6 
sudo ./configure --enable-optimizations 
sudo make altinstall 

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

Now remove downloaded source archive file from your system

sudo rm Python-3.9.6.tgz 

Step 3 – Test Python Version

Check the latest version installed of python using the below command

python3.9 -V  

Python 3.9.6

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned to install Python 3.9 on CentOS 7 and Fedora systems using source code.