Install Python on Linux

How can I check if Python is already installed on my Linux system?

You can check if Python is pre-installed on your Linux distribution by opening the terminal and running the following commands:

python --version  # For Python 2.x
python3 --version # For Python 3.x

If Python is installed, these commands will display the respective version numbers. If not, you’ll typically get a “command not found” error.

What is the recommended way to install Python on Ubuntu/Debian-based distributions?

The recommended way to install Python on Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions is to use the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) package manager. You can install Python 3 with the following command:

sudo apt install python3

This command will install the latest available version of Python 3 from the official Ubuntu repositories.

How can I install a specific version of Python on Linux?

To install a specific version of Python, you may need to add a third-party repository like the deadsnakes PPA for Ubuntu/Debian. After adding the repository, you can install the desired Python version with a command like:

sudo apt install python3.9  # For Python 3.9

Replace “3.9” with the version number you want to install.

What is pip, and how do I install it on Linux?

pip is the package installer for Python, which allows you to install and manage external Python packages and libraries. On most Linux distributions, you can install pip for Python 3 with the following command:

sudo apt install python3-pip

Alternatively, you can download the get-pip.py script and run it with the respective Python version:

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3

How can I install Python packages in a virtual environment on Linux?

It’s generally recommended to use virtual environments to isolate Python packages and dependencies for different projects. You can create and activate a virtual environment on Linux using the venv module:

python3 -m venv myenv       # Create a virtual environment named 'myenv'
source myenv/bin/activate   # Activate the virtual environment

With the virtual environment activated, you can install packages using pip without affecting the system-wide Python installation.

Before we start with how to install Python3 on Linux, let’s first go through the basic introduction to Python. Python is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly and integrate systems more efficiently. There are two major Python versions- Python 2 and Python 3. Both are quite different.