Building Python2.7 and Python3 on CentOS and cPanel

Python is built right into CentOS but if you are using CentOS 5 you are stuck with python2.4. This is pretty old and we are getting to the point where many plugins simply will not work with it any longer. You may be on CentOS 6 which is better but still behind. This will allow you to install python 2.7 or 3.0 without removing built in to CentOS. I havent tested it but there is no reason this will not work with Ubuntu or Debian. To access this you will have to launch the program by typing “python2.7” or “python3” rather than just “python”. You can then put /usr/local/python2.7/bin/python2.7 in the shebang of the script to have it called automatically.

Another note, many admins prefer not to even mess with it this way as Yum relies on python to do its work. This method will install python2.7 or python3 without breaking yum. Lets get started!

PreReq

If you havent already, go ahead and install the development tools

yum groupinstall "Development Tools" 

You will also need the zlib developer package and openssl-devel

yum install zlib-devel openssl-devel

Installing Python 2.7

cd /usr/local/src
wget http://python.org/ftp/python/2.7.9/Python-2.7.9.tgz
tar xzf Python-2.7.9.tgz
cd Python-2.7.9
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/python2.7 --with-libs --with-threads --enable-shared
make
make altinstall

This will install the python2.7 binaries and library files to /usr/local/python2.7/. This will keep everything organized and out of the way of the base python installation. Next we will add the lib folder to the library path and update our global PATH upon login

echo 'PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/python2.7/bin' > /etc/profile.d/python2.7-path.sh
echo 'export PATH' >> /etc/profile.d/python2.7-path.sh
echo "/usr/local/python2.7/lib" > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/opt-python2.7.conf

We can now run the following to update the servers library cache and our own session

ldconfig
source /etc/profile.d/python2.7-path.sh

Its also a good idea to install setup tools because who does not like to easy_install?

wget https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/raw/bootstrap/ez_setup.py -O - | python2.7

Thats it! Python 2.7 can be ran by typing “python2.7” and easy_install can be ran by typing “easy_install-2.7”. While you are here, go ahead and install pip. To anwer the previous question of “Who does not like to easy_install?”. Those who pip install!!

easy_install-2.7 pip

This can now be called by typing “pip-2.7” and you should have a fully complete setup!

Install Python3

This is virtually the same method as above. You can call up this version of python by typing “python3.4” or simply “python3”

cd /usr/local/src
wget http://python.org/ftp/python/3.4.2/Python-3.4.2.tgz
tar xzf Python-3.4.2.tgz
cd Python-3.4.2
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/python3.4 --with-libs --with-threads --enable-shared 
make
make altinstall

This will install the python3.4 binaries and library files to /usr/local/python3.4/. This will keep everything organized and out of the way of the base python installation. Next we will add the lib folder to the library path and update our global PATH upon login

echo 'PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/python3.4/bin' > /etc/profile.d/python3.4-path.sh
echo 'export PATH' >> /etc/profile.d/python3.4-path.sh
echo "/usr/local/python3.4/lib" > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/opt-python3.4.conf

We can now run the following to update the servers library cache and our own session

ldconfig
source /etc/profile.d/python3.4-path.sh

For easy_install you had to use distribute but now you can use the same setup tools as before!

wget https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/raw/bootstrap/ez_setup.py -O - | python3.4

Then install pip

easy_install-3.4 pip

And thats it boys and girls!