How would I build python myself from source code on Ubuntu?

Question

Ubuntu comes with Python 2.7.2+ pre-installed. (I also downloaded the python dev packages.) Because of another issue I\'m having (Explained in extreme depth in How do I repl

Answer 1

The best way to build "hot" very recent python (from github) is as follows:

  sudo apt-get update \
  && sudo apt-get install -y build-essential git libexpat1-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \
  libncurses5-dev libbz2-dev liblzma-dev \
  libsqlite3-dev libffi-dev tcl-dev linux-headers-generic libgdbm-dev \
  libreadline-dev tk tk-dev

  git clone https://github.com/python/cpython.git
  cd cpython && ./configure --prefix=/usr \
  --enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions \
  --enable-shared \
  --with-lto \
  --enable-optimizations \
  --with-system-expat \
  --with-system-ffi \
  --enable-ipv6 --with-threads --with-pydebug --disable-rpath \
  && make \
  && sudo make install

It builds the very recent python from the sources on github.

With this I have built Python 3.8.0a0 (heads/master:077059e0f0, Aug 10 2018, 21:36:32).

Answer 2

The superior solution to building Python yourself is pythonbrew, which automates the process and also allows you to not only install several different versions, but also easily select between them.

In 2016, pyenv and PyRun are the most viable solutions.

Answer 3

You may try using pyenv. I haven't tried it yet. But looking at the sources, it seems very mature to accomplish an installation of any CPython-interpreter on any *ix-system.

Answer 4

1. At a shell prompt (in a terminal), run

   sudo apt-get install build-essential 
   

   This will fetch all the common packages you need to build anything (e.g. the compiler etc.).

2. Then run

   sudo apt-get build-dep python2.7
   

   This will fetch all the libraries you need to build python.

3. Then download the source code for python and decompress it into a directory.

4. go there and run

   ./configure --prefix=/path/where/you/want/python/installed
   

5. Then make and then make install to get it built and installed:

   make && make install
   

If you hit snags on the way, ask back here and I'll try to offer some guidance.

Answer 5

You can use checkinstall to install from source code instead of make install.

Once you download the source code, navigate to the home folder and use below commands

./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

This creates a debian / RPM package and then installs it. Checkinstall keeps a tab of all the files modifications and dependencies and makes the whole uninstalling process easier. Since you have a .deb package, it's much easier to install on many systems and handle with a package manager.

Source : Checkinstall - install from source code