Install Python#

These instructions describe how to install Python from Anaconda on a Linux server.

Note that these steps refer to Miniconda, which is a minimal installation of Python, conda, and a small number of other packages. After you install a base version of Python with Miniconda, you can optionally install additional packages into the Python environment.

Install required dependencies#

Use the following commands to install the dependencies required to install Python for your Linux distribution.

RHEL/CentOS Linux

$ sudo yum install bzip2

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

$ sudo apt-get install bzip2

SUSE Linux

$ sudo zypper install bzip2

Download and install Python#

Download and install Python 3.7.7 by running the following commands:

Terminal

$ curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py37_4.8.3-Linux-x86_64.sh
$ sudo bash Miniconda3-py37_4.8.3-Linux-x86_64.sh -bp /opt/python/3.7.7/

Info

The above command will install Python 3.7.7, which is the default version of Python available in the version of that installer. You can download and install a different version of Python by using another version of the Miniconda installer, or by creating a new Python environment with a different version of Python.

Verify Python installation#

Verify that Python is installed by running the following command:

Terminal

$ /opt/python/3.7.7/bin/python --version

(Optional) Install additional Python packages#

You can install additional Python packages into the your Python environment by running a command such as:

Terminal

$ sudo /opt/python/3.7.7/bin/pip install altair beautifulsoup4 cloudpickle \
  cython dask gensim keras matplotlib nltk numpy pandas pillow pyarrow \
  requests scipy scikit-image scikit-learn scrapy seaborn spacy sqlalchemy \
  statsmodels tensorflow xgboost

(Optional) Add Python to the system PATH#

Info

You can configure Python on the system PATH so that users can use pip within a terminal to install packages to their home directory, similar to how R works with install.packages().

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:

File: /etc/profile.d/python.sh

PATH=/opt/python/3.7.7/bin:$PATH

(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 to other locations.

For example, you can run the following commands to install Python 2.7.16:

Terminal:

$ curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda2-4.7.12-Linux-x86_64.sh
$ sudo bash Miniconda2-4.7.12-Linux-x86_64.sh -bp /opt/python/2.7.16/

Or, you can run the following commands to install Python 3.6.5:

Terminal:

$ curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-4.5.4-Linux-x86_64.sh
$ sudo bash Miniconda3-4.5.4-Linux-x86_64.sh -bp /opt/python/3.6.5/