How to Install Python 3 on Debian 10

Python is a popular programming language created in 2000, by Guido van Rossum. It’s useful for writing everything from small scripts to full-scale software. Python is also a commonly adopted programming language by people entering into the field of software development. A lot of its popularity is based on Python’s high level of abstraction. This abstraction makes writing and reading the code easier than other languages.

As of January 1, 2020, the official version of Python is Python 3. Python 2 is no longer a supported language. This guide walks you through installing the latest version of Python 3 on Debian 10. If you are interested in porting your already existing Python 2 code to Python 3, please refer to the official documentation on how to do so.

Before You Begin

1. This guide assumes that you have access to a server or workstation running Debian 10. To provision a Linode running Debian 10, follow our Getting Started guide.

2. This guide uses sudo wherever possible. Complete the sections of our Securing Your Server to create a standard user account, harden SSH access, and remove unnecessary network services.

3. Update your system:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
   

How to Install Python 3

A fresh Debian 10 installation has both Python 2 and Python 3 installed by default. You can verify the specific versions of each by appending --version after typing python or python3 in the shell.

For Python 2:

python --version

Python 2.7.16

Note

Because of Debian’s commitment to stability, Python 2 is still installed on the system. There are default packages that depend on Python 2. On Debian 10, Python 2 continues to be supported past the EOL date of Python 2. It is not recommended to remove the Python 2 binary from your system. Instead, interact with Python 3 using the python3 command and Python 2 using the python command.

For Python 3:

python3 --version

Python 3.7.3

You can also launch the Python Interpreter. The Python Interpreter, sometimes referred to as the Python Shell or the Python Interactive Shell, is a tool that lets you interact with Python from the command line. Try it by typing python3 into the shell:

python3

Python 3.7.3 (default, Jul 25 2020, 13:03:44)
[GCC 8.3.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

The interpreter outputs the version number, the version of the C compiler that Python uses on Linux, and some initial commands to get started. The installed version of Python is 3.7.3.

In the interpreter you can write Python code in real time. Try it by typing the following print statement:

print('hello world')

The interpreter instantly returns the following output:

hello world

You can exit the interpreter by typing the exit command:

exit()

How to Upgrade from Python 3.7 to 3.9

At this guide’s publication time, the latest stable version of Python 3 was 3.9.1. On a fresh Debian 10 install, the installed version of Python 3 is 3.7. There were a lot of major changes between Python 3.7 and 3.9. These changes could be useful to take advantage of when writing code. Python 3.9 may become a dependency for certain applications running on your system as well. To upgrade your version of Python from 3.7 to 3.9, you need to add Debian’s testing repositories.

1. Open the /etc/apt/sources.list file with the following command:

    sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
   

2. Add the official testing repository. Append the following line of text to the end of the file:

    deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing non-free contrib main
   

   Your file should match this:

   File: /etc/apt/sources.list

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

   deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian buster main deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian buster main deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian-security buster/updates main deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian-security buster/updates main # buster-updates, previously known as 'volatile' deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian buster-updates main deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian buster-updates main # Debian Testing Non-Free deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing non-free contrib main

3. After editing the file, download the information for all of the packages available with the following command:

    sudo apt update
   

4. Upgrade Python 3 with the following command:

    sudo apt upgrade python3
   

   Note

   Because Python3 requires a lot of dependencies, you are prompted to allow Debian to restart certain services. If you are not running any active processes, this is okay. Otherwise, you may decide to restart the services yourself.

5. Verify that you’ve updated Python by checking the version:

    python3 --version
   

   Python 3.9.1

Now your Debian 10 system has the latest version of Python 3 installed.

Additional Information

On Debian 10, the binary for Python 2 is located at /usr/bin/python, and the binary for Python 3 is located at /usr/bin/python3.

In this guide, you updated from Python 3.7 to Python 3.9 using the Debian Testing repository. There is another method that involves compiling the binary from source. Both are acceptable methods, but compiling from source may introduce complexity if your previous version of Python had modules installed already. If you are compiling from source, it is important to understand that all public modules (modules you want to use across your system) must be installed in the Python 3 Modules directory: /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages.