Install Python#

These instructions describe how to install Python on a Linux server. Posit professional products require multiple versions of Python. These instructions install Python appropriately from pre-compiled binaries.

Install required dependencies#

To install the necessary runtime dependencies for Python, you must enable additional repositories for third-party or source packages by using the following commands:

$ sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

$ sudo subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-$(arch)-rpms

# enable the CodeReady Linux Builder repository from Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) 
$ sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
$ sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-*-rpms

$ sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

$ sudo subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms

# enable the CodeReady Linux Builder repository from Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) 
$ sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
$ sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled "codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-*-rpms"

$ sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm 

$ sudo subscription-manager repos --enable "rhel-*-optional-rpms"

# Optional repository from Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI)
$ sudo yum install yum-utils
$ sudo yum-config-manager --enable "rhel-*-optional-rpms"

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install gdebi-core

Specify Python Version#

$ export PYTHON_VERSION="3.9.14"

$ export PYTHON_VERSION=3.X.X

Download and install Python#

Download and install the desired version of Python.

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/rhel-9/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo yum install python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/centos-8/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo yum install python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/centos-7/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo yum install python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/ubuntu-2204/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
$ sudo gdebi python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/ubuntu-2004/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
$ sudo gdebi python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/ubuntu-1804/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
$ sudo gdebi python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/debian-11/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
$ sudo gdebi python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/debian-10/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
$ sudo gdebi python-${PYTHON_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/opensuse-154/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

$ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/python/opensuse-153/pkgs/python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install python-${PYTHON_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

Verify Python installation#

Verify that Python is installed by running the following command:

$ /opt/python/"${PYTHON_VERSION}"/bin/python --version

Upgrade Required Python Tools#

Connect requires that users have updated versions of some built-in Python tools. To upgrade the required tools, run the following command:

$ /opt/python/"${PYTHON_VERSION}"/bin/pip install --upgrade \
    pip setuptools wheel

(Optional) Configure a PyPI repository#

You can specify a default PyPI mirror for all installations of Python by creating a pip configuration file. This can be useful if you are using an internal PyPI mirror such as Posit Package Manager:

To do so, create a file located at /etc/pip.conf containing:

[global]
index-url = https://example.company.com/pypi/latest

Replace https://example.company.com/pypi/latest with the URL for your PyPI mirror, available in Package Manager on the "Setup" page of your PyPI repository.

(Optional) Add Python to the system PATH#

The recommended method to add Python to the PATH is to append the version of Python that you installed to the system-wide PATH variable. For example, this can be defined in a script within the /etc/profile.d/ directory:

PATH=/opt/python/"${PYTHON_VERSION}"/bin:$PATH

(Optional) Make Python available as a Jupyter Kernel#

For Workbench, you can make the version of Python installed available for use in Jupyter by running these commands:

sudo /opt/python/${PYTHON_VERSION}/bin/pip install ipykernel
sudo /opt/python/${PYTHON_VERSION}/bin/python -m ipykernel install --name py${PYTHON_VERSION} --display-name "Python ${PYTHON_VERSION}"

(Optional) Configure Python Local Certificate Authority Trust#

Add the root CA certificate to the system trust store for Python on Workbench to trust internally generated certificates. See the Posit Team SSL Considerations support article for more information. Then, point the environment variable REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE to the Linux system certificate store you have just updated based on the article above. You can set REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE to the appropriate certificate bundle by updating the /etc/rstudio/launcher-env on Posit Workbench like this:

JobType: any
Workbench: any
Environment: REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/tls-ca-bundle.pem

JobType: any
Workbench: any
Environment: REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

For Posit Connect, a program supervisor script can be used to set REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE for all applications and content that run in Connect. An example of this workflow is here.

(Optional) Install multiple versions of Python#

If you want to install multiple versions of Python on the same server, you can repeat these steps to specify, download, and install a different version of Python alongside existing versions.

Additional information#

Refer to the rstudio/python-builds repository on GitHub for more information on these binary distributions of Python.

Follow these steps to install Python from source.