This article summarizes the steps to install Python 3.9.1 on Windows Subsystem for Linux Debian distro. You can also apply them to other similar distros.
Installation steps
Run the following commands in your WSL terminal.
- Update package lists
sudo apt update
- Install dependent libraries
sudo apt install build-essential zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libgdbm-dev libnss3-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libreadline-dev libffi-dev curl libbz2-dev
- Download Python binary package
wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.1/Python-3.9.1.tgz
- Unzip the package
tar -xzf Python-3.9.1.tgz
- Execute configure script
cd Python-3.9.1
./configure --enable-optimizations
- Build Python 3.9
make -j 2
- Install Python 3.9
sudo make install
Verify the installation
Run the following command to install Python 3.9:
$ python3.9Python 3.9.1 (default, Jan 8 2022, 14:44:10)[GCC 6.3.0 20170516] on linuxType "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
Make Python 3.9 the default
If you want to make Python 3.9 the default python program, you can follow these steps:
- Change ~/.bashrc file to add the following line:
alias python='/usr/local/bin/python3.9'
- And then run the following command to make it effective:
source ~/.bashrc
You can verify it using python command directly:
python --version
Python 3.9.1