Python is important package that comes installed on Linux systems. Corrupting the pre-installed version makes many of the packages non-usable. I could not yum after the pre-installed version of Python was corrupt.
Here is how you can install a version of Python on Linux operating system, keeping the pre-installed one safe. Here, we use CentOS 6.4 version, which is a pretty old release.

Here is how you can install a version of Python on Linux operating system, keeping the pre-installed one safe. Here, we use CentOS 6.4 version, which is a pretty old release.
Issues solved by this document
pip is an important module you need while working on Python. Following are the errors I have faced while trying to install pip module and this document helps you in solving them too:-
zipimport.ZipImportError: can't decompress data; zlib not available
[root@localhost tmp]# python2.7 get-pip.py Traceback (most recent call last): File "get-pip.py", line 20061, in
main() File "get-pip.py", line 194, in main bootstrap(tmpdir=tmpdir) File "get-pip.py", line 82, in bootstrap import pip zipimport.ZipImportError: can't decompress data; zlib not available
There was a problem confirming the ssl certificate: Can't connect to HTTPS URL because the SSL module is not available.
[root@localhost tmp]# python2.7 get-pip.py pip is configured with locations that require TLS/SSL, however the ssl module in Python is not available. Collecting pip Could not fetch URL https://pypi.python.org/simple/p ip/: There was a problem confirming the ssl certificat e: Can't connect to HTTPS URL because the SSL module i s not available. - skipping Could not find a version that satisfies the requirem ent pip (from versions: ) No matching distribution found for pip [root@localhost tmp]#
Verify the current version
You may use python --version command on the terminal to find the current version.
Installing a different version
- You may download a version you would need to install from Python Download. By default, Python comes as tarball for Linux.
- Once you have the tarball downloaded, copy it to a location where we extract and do the installation. Here, I copied the 2.7.12 version to /tmp. Use the version which is available for your platform and remember to use the commands accordingly.
- Extract tarball and change directory to the extracted folder.
tar xvf Python-2.7.12.tar.xz
cd Python-2.7.12 - Install required Linux packages. gcc is a utility for compiling and installing Python from source, zlib-devel and openssl-devel are required to avoid errors while installing pip module at a later stage. You would need to be root or a sudoer to install these packages:
yum install gcc
yum install zlib-devel
yum install openssl-devel - Run configure with option to export shared libraries. This is necessary if you would need to use pyinstaller module.
./configure --enable-shared
- Generate the build:
make
- Install Python without replacing the existing version. Using altinstall option will help you to use the new installation with version suffix during execution. e.g. python2.7 --version:
make altinstall
- Make a link to Python library path:
- On 32 bit OS
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libpython2.7.so.1.0 /usr/lib/libpython2.7.so.1.0- On 64 bit OS
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libpython2.7.so.1.0 /usr/lib64/libpython2.7.so.1.0Installing pip module
Here is how you may get pip for the Python version you have just installed:
- Running get-pip.py is a better way to install pip. get-pip.py file is available at pip module listing.
- Run get-pip.py with the version of Python you have installed. For example:
python2.7 get-pip.pyThis installs a pip utility which you can use with suffix. e.g. pip2.7 install pyinstaller