On Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:51:21 +1100, Chris Angelico wrote: > On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 2:40 AM, patrickwayodi <patrickway...@gmail.com> > wrote: >>> You should actually already have Python installed. Try typing 'python' >>> at a terminal and see if it invokes the interactive interpreter. >>> >>> ChrisA >> >> >> Yes, I have Python installed, but it's an old version. So I want to >> upgrade to "Python-2.7.2.tar.bz2". > > Ah gotcha. I believe you can 'sudo apt-get install python2.7' - at > least, you can on the Ubuntu system next to me. Not sure though; I build > my Python from source straight from Mercurial. > > What you have there, I think, is a source code snapshot. You'd need to > extract it and then do the usual incantation: $ ./configure > $ make > $ sudo make install
And you have now potentially broken your system python :( Generally speaking, unless you are an expert, you should not use make install when installing Python from source, because it will replace the system Python with the newly installed one. Instead use `sudo make altinstall`. This is exactly the same as install, except it won't replace the python symlink that points to the actual Python executable. That way system tools that call Python get the version they are expecting, together with any libraries installed for their use, while you can call the version you prefer manually. Or set up an alias in your bashrc file. > If you don't have the compiler/build environment set up, you'll have to > do that first. The trickiest part for me is ensuring that tkinter works correctly. After installing Python from source about a dozen times now, I still don't know why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
