Compile Python

This is a small bash script to compile one or multiple Python versions.

I use it on my laptop, using Debian, but it may work on other distribs.

On Debian (and Debian-based distribs) it needs the following dependencies:

apt install make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev \
libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm libncursesw5-dev \
xz-utils tk-dev libxml2-dev libxmlsec1-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev

Installation

Clone the repo anywhere, then in your ~/.bashrc add:

source PATH/To/THE/REPO/compile-python.sh

And for the compiled Python to be found in your PATH:

PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin"

Usage

$ compile-pythons
$ python3.6 --version
Python 3.6.15
$ python3.7 --version
Python 3.7.12
$ python3.8 --version
Python 3.8.12
$ python3.9 --version
Python 3.9.9
$ python3.10 --version
Python 3.10.1
$ python3.11 --version
Python 3.11.0a2

How it works

It downloads official Python sources (from https://www.python.org/ftp/python/), then compiles them using --with-pydebug (it's a dev tool, don't use it in production! Rely on your distrib in production!), and --prefix=~/.local, and finally installs it using make altinstall.

Anyway it's ~67 lines of code, maybe just read it.

Be nice with distrib' provided Python

compile-python only produces binaries on the form pythonX.Y (like python3.8), so python3 and python will always point to your distrib' Python.

Don't hesitate to apt install python-is-python3 if you want python to be python3.

Functions

The file declares 3 functions:

• compile-pythons: To compile a set of usefull Python versions.
• compile-python: To compile a given Python version (has autocompletion).
• venv: Just a wrapper to python -m venv that I like to use daily.

Using a function don't force you to use the others, they are not related.

compile-pythons

This is probably the one you're seeking, it compiles a bunch of usefull Python verisons, typically usefull if you use tox and need multiple Python versions to test your project.

compile-python

This one is used by compile-python but you can use it manually, like:

compile-python 3.10.1

venv

A bit unrelated to the two others, here for historical reasons, this is how I create venvs. I use it like:

$ venv

If the venv does not exists it's created, if it exist it's just activated.

It takes an optional parameter: the Python version to use, like venv 3.10 or venv 3.6.

The venv prompt takes the name of the current directory plus the version, like:

(compile-python)(py3.10.0) mdk@seaph:~/ $

which I find usefull, but feel free to not use it.

Why not using pyenv?

I know pyenv exists, I even used it back in the time. I did not appreciated the shims part (I'm not saying it's bad), so I tried myself as something more simple: just build Python and that's it.