Set up Python 3.11 on Rocky Linux 8

In this guide, we want to teach you to Set up or Install Python 3.11 on Rocky Linux 8.

Python is an object-oriented (based on data), high-level (easier for humans to understand) programming language. 

Python is the third most popular programming language in the world, behind only Java and C. There are many reasons for the ubiquity of Python, including: 

• Its ease of use
• Its simple syntax
• Its thriving community
• Its versatility

Steps To Set up Python 3.11 on Rocky Linux 8

To complete this guide, you must log in to your server as a non-root user with sudo privileges. To do this, you can follow our guide on Initial Server Setup with Rocky Linux 8.

Install Python 3.11 on Rocky Linux 8

First, you need to update your local package index with the following command:

sudo dnf update -y

Install Dependencies for Python 3.11

Then, install the required packages and dependencies on your server with the command below:

sudo dnf install gcc openssl-devel bzip2-devel libffi-devel zlib-devel wget make tar -y

Download Python 3.11

Now you need to visit the Python Downloads page to check the latest stable version and download it with the following wget command:

sudo wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.11.2/Python-3.11.2.tgz

Extract your downloaded file with the following command:

sudo tar -xf Python-3.11.2.tgz

Next, switch to your source directory:

cd Python-3.11.2

Run Configuration Script

At this point, you need to run the configuration script to be sure that all dependencies are ready for the Python 3.11 installation to work on Rocky Linux 8:

./configure --enable-optimizations

–enable-optimizations option is for use after all debugging and maximum performance with minimum run-time checks is required.

Build and Install Python 3.11

After the configuration script is completed, you need to start your build process with the following command:

make -j 2

The -j option is related to the number of cores in your system to speed up the build time.

To find how many cores you have on your system, you can use the following command:

nproc

The build process takes some time to complete.

When it is finished, you can install Python 3.11 source on Rocky Linux 8 with the following command:

sudo make altinstall

When your installation is completed, you can verify your Python 3.11 installation by checking its version:

python3.11 --version

Output
Python 3.11.2

To ensure that Python 3.11 is working correctly on Rocky Linux 8, you can create a test Python project.

Create a Test Python project on Rocky Linux 8

First, you need to create the Python project directory and switch to it with the following command:

mkdir ~/test_app && cd ~/test_app

Then, from the project directory, create a virtual environment with the following command, here we named it test_app_venv:

python3.11 -m venv test_app_venv

Next, activate your virtual environment with the command below:

source test_app_venv/bin/activate

You will see that your shell prompts changes to the name of your virtual environment.

For example, you can install Apache-Airflow inside your virtual environment with the pip package manager for Python:

pip install apache-airflow

To exit from your virtual environment you can use the following command:

deactivate

Conclusion

At this point, you learn to Install Python 3.11 on Rocky Linux 8 and create a test Python project.

Hope you enjoy it. You may be like these articles too:

Install and Configure Nagios on Rocky Linux 8

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