Some questions came up at work today about the default version of Python on Rocky Linux 8. Someone said it was Python 3.6.8, others said it was Python 3.9.<\/p>\n
I decided to test this empirically and install Rocky Linux 8.10 from the minimal ISO. The answer is:<\/p>\n
You’re all wrong. There is no default version of Python on Rocky Linux 8. (At least, not on the minimal ISO, i.e. There is, however, As the description mentions, if you, as a user of the Linux system, want to run Python, you’ll need to install it. Rocky Linux provides several packages:<\/p>\n I decided to install all of the versions offered. After installing, I checked the version of each:<\/p>\n There is no default However, it appears that Rocky 8 will make Python 3.6.8 the target of the python3 alias\/link if it is installed. I am basing this claim on the following:<\/p>\n That suggests it’s not just the most-recently installed Python 3 version that becomes the target of the Some questions came up at work today about the default version of Python on Rocky Linux 8. Someone said it was Python 3.6.8, others said it was Python 3.9. I decided to test this empirically and install Rocky Linux 8.10 from the minimal ISO. The answer is: You’re all wrong. There is no default version … Continue reading Default version of Python on Rocky Linux 8<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[358,578],"class_list":["post-3817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-python","tag-python","tag-rocky-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3817"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3823,"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817\/revisions\/3823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osric.com\/chris\/accidental-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rocky-8.10-x86_64-minimal.iso<\/code>.)<\/p>\nplatform-python<\/code>. Rocky Linux needs Python as a dependency for various other tools. That version is, in fact, Python 3.6.8:<\/p>\n[root@localhost ~]# dnf info platform-python\r\nLast metadata expiration check: 0:24:11 ago on Tue 11 Jun 2024 05:49:30 PM EDT.\r\nInstalled Packages\r\nName : platform-python\r\nVersion : 3.6.8\r\nRelease : 62.el8_10.rocky.0\r\nArchitecture : x86_64\r\nSize : 40 k\r\nSource : python3-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.src.rpm\r\nRepository : @System\r\nFrom repo : anaconda\r\nSummary : Internal interpreter of the Python programming language\r\nURL : https:\/\/www.python.org\/\r\nLicense : Python\r\nDescription : This is the internal interpreter of the Python language for the system.\r\n : To use Python yourself, please install one of the available Python 3 packages,\r\n : for example python36.<\/code><\/pre>\n[root@localhost ~]# dnf install python\r\nLast metadata expiration check: 0:30:25 ago on Tue 11 Jun 2024 05:49:30 PM EDT.\r\nNo match for argument: python\r\nThere are following alternatives for \"python\": python2, python3.11, python3.12, python36, python38, python39\r\nError: Unable to find a match: python<\/code><\/pre>\n[root@localhost ~]# python --version\r\n-bash: python: command not found\r\n[root@localhost ~]# python2 --version\r\nPython 2.7.18\r\n[root@localhost ~]# python3 --version\r\nPython 3.6.8\r\n[root@localhost ~]# python3.8 --version\r\nPython 3.8.17\r\n[root@localhost ~]# python3.9 --version\r\nPython 3.9.19\r\n[root@localhost ~]# python3.11 --version\r\nPython 3.11.7\r\n[root@localhost ~]# python3.12 --version\r\nPython 3.12.1<\/code><\/pre>\npython<\/code>, although you can easily create that alias\/link:<\/p>\n[root@localhost ~]# ln \/usr\/bin\/python3.12 \/usr\/bin\/python\r\n[root@localhost ~]# python --version\r\nPython 3.12.1<\/code><\/pre>\n\n
dnf remove python36 python38 python39 python311 python312<\/code><\/li>\npython312<\/code>. python --version<\/code> showed Python 3.12.1<\/li>\npython36<\/code>. python --version<\/code> showed Python 3.6.8<\/li>\npython39<\/code>. python --version<\/code> still showed Python 3.6.8<\/li>\n<\/ol>\npython3<\/code> link. Python 3.6.8, if installed, seems to take precedence over other versions (or at least other versions won’t overwrite the link).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"