This document is about installing Python from source.
| Version | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1.3 | 2024-01-29 | Fix line breaks |
| 0.1.2 | 2024-01-25 | Python 3.12.1 on Debian 12 Bookworm |
| 0.1.1 | 2023-08-02 | Typos |
| 0.1.0 | 2022-03-11 | Initial release (Python 3.10.2, Debian Stretch) |
aptitude install make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \
libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm \
libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-devLook at https://www.python.org/ftp/python/ to chose the version of Python you would like to compile.
export VER=3.12.1
export DIR=Python-$VER
export TAR=$DIR.tar.xz
export URL=https://www.python.org/ftp/python/$VER/$TAR
mkdir -p src
mkdir -p build
cd src
wget $URL
cd ../build
tar xvJf ../src/$TAR
cd $DIRThe --enable-optimizations flag will enable some optimizations within Python to make it run about 10 percent faster. Doing this may add twenty or thirty minutes to the compilation time. The --with-ensurepip=install flag will install pip bundled with this installation.
This might take 10-20 seconds:
cd /srv/build/$DIR
./configure --enable-optimizations --with-ensurepip=installThis might take 2-3 hours (2:37h for a 2014 PC)
make -j 4This takes about 15 minutes on a “AMD FX(tm)-4300” Quad-Core Processor and 17 minutes on an AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual Core Processor BE-2400.
Test the build with make test that executes 427 tests. This might need an internet connection. The tests are more demanding to the system as the compilation.
make testThe output with time might look like on an AMD dual core BE-2400:
== Tests result: SUCCESS ==
20 tests skipped:
test.test_asyncio.test_windows_events
test.test_asyncio.test_windows_utils test.test_gdb.test_backtrace
test.test_gdb.test_cfunction test.test_gdb.test_cfunction_full
test.test_gdb.test_misc test.test_gdb.test_pretty_print
test_dbm_gnu test_dbm_ndbm test_devpoll test_ioctl test_kqueue
test_launcher test_lzma test_msilib test_startfile
test_winconsoleio test_winreg test_wmi test_zoneinfo
6 tests skipped (resource denied):
test_ossaudiodev test_tix test_tkinter test_ttk test_winsound
test_zipfile64
463 tests OK.
Total duration: 15 min 11 sec
Total tests: run=40,432 skipped=1,270
Total test files: run=483/489 skipped=20 resource_denied=6
Result: SUCCESS
make test 1452.83s user 171.06s system 177% cpu 15:12.57 totalSee ‘Python v3.10.2 on Debian Stretch from Source’ for different test invocations and alternative installation.
This guide will probably also be valid for more recent versions of Debian.
aptitude install make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \
libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm \
libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-devLook at https://www.python.org/ftp/python/ for the desired or latest version.
export VER=3.10.2
export DIR=Python-$VER
export TAR=$DIR.tar.xz
export URL=https://www.python.org/ftp/python/$VER/$TAR
mkdir src build
cd src
wget $URL
cd ../build
tar xvJf ../src/$TAR
cd $DIRThe --enable-optimizations flag will enable some optimizations within Python to make it run about 10 percent faster. Doing this may add twenty or thirty minutes to the compilation time. The --with-ensurepip=install flag will install pip bundled with this installation.
This might take 10-20 seconds:
cd /srv/build/$DIR
./configure --enable-optimizations --with-ensurepip=installThis might take 2-3 hours (2:37h for a 2014 PC)
make -j 4Test the build with 427 tests. This might need an internet connection.
make testThe output might look like:
== Tests result: SUCCESS ==
407 tests OK.
20 tests skipped:
test_dbm_gnu test_dbm_ndbm test_devpoll test_gdb test_ioctl
test_kqueue test_lzma test_msilib test_ossaudiodev test_smtpnet
test_ssl test_startfile test_tix test_tk test_ttk_guionly
test_winconsoleio test_winreg test_winsound test_zipfile64
test_zoneinfo
Total duration: 4 min 23 sec
Tests result: SUCCESSThe build binary is located at build/$DIR/python and a test can be executed with the -m option. This is basically the same as make test.
./python -m test== Tests result: SUCCESS ==
403 tests OK.
24 tests skipped:
test_curses test_dbm_gnu test_dbm_ndbm test_devpoll test_gdb
test_kqueue test_lzma test_msilib test_ossaudiodev test_smtpnet
test_socketserver test_ssl test_startfile test_tix test_tk
test_ttk_guionly test_urllib2net test_urllibnet test_winconsoleio
test_winreg test_winsound test_xmlrpc_net test_zipfile64
test_zoneinfo
Total duration: 24 min 17 sec
Tests result: SUCCESSInterestingly ./python -m test runs less tests than make test.
If you just want to use Python in a limited way, you are done. Maybe write an environment to source and put the new python version in your path.
If you need all functionality you might use the altinstall target here to avoid overwriting the system Python. Since you are installing into /usr/local, you will need to run as root (alternatively use --prefix with ./configure):
make altinstallThis will result in a bunch of warnings
WARNING: Value for scheme.headers does not match. Please report this to \
<https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/10151>
distutils: /usr/local/include/python3.10/UNKNOWN
sysconfig: /srv/build/Python-3.10.2/Include/UNKNOWN
WARNING: Additional context:
user = False
home = None
root = '/'
prefix = None
Looking in links: /tmp/tmpwdn4wp92
Processing /tmp/tmpwdn4wp92/setuptools-58.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
Processing /tmp/tmpwdn4wp92/pip-21.2.4-py3-none-any.whl
Installing collected packages: setuptools, pip
WARNING: Value for scheme.headers does not match. Please report this to \
<https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/10151>
distutils: /usr/local/include/python3.10/setuptools
sysconfig: /srv/build/Python-3.10.2/Include/setuptools
WARNING: Value for scheme.headers does not match. Please report this to \
<https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/10151>
distutils: /usr/local/include/python3.10/pip
sysconfig: /srv/build/Python-3.10.2/Include/pip
Successfully installed pip-21.2.4 setuptools-58.1.0
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and \
conflicting behaviour with the system package manager. It is recommended to \
use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv