Install Python from source on Ubuntu

Basic way to build is download sources and run ./configure && make.

There may emerge some problems and questions though:

• Python is built without some modules, e.g. tkinter and sqlite3.
• Where do you place source code?
• Do you need to run make install?

Python 3.6.1 will be used as an example.

Compiler

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Or, for yum:

yum install make automake gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel

Dependencies for Tkinter, sqlite3 and others

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev  # PIP won't work without it.
sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev  # PIP won't work without it.
sudo apt-get install tk8.6-dev  # For Tkinter. (tcl8.6-dev is dependency).
sudo apt-get install libsqlite3-dev  # For sqlite3.

For yum commands are:

sudo yum install openssl-devel  # PIP won't work without it.
sudo yum install zlib-devel  # PIP won't work without it.
sudo yum install sqlite-devel
sudo yum install tk-devel

There are another modules, e.g. dbm and gdbm, for which other dependencies must be installed.

Install to /usr/local/

Install to /usr/local/ as prescribed at https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/ch04s09.html.

Don’t nest it to avoid complicated directories structure.

Use same name of directory as archive: less commands, easier to find it later.

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.6.1/Python-3.6.1.tar.xz
sudo tar -xvf Python-3.6.1.tar.xz -C /usr/local/

Don’t install if Python will be used from venv (virtual environment)

It’s best practice to use virtual environment. (No third-party packages in Python site-packages, no version conflicts.)

Don’t meddle with system Python interpreters, other software may rely on particular version of system Python. For everyday scripting, system Python is usually enough.

To create virtual environment, use absolute path to Python:

/usr/local/Python3.6.1/bin/python -m venv path/to/env

Installing uWSGI and other binary packages

uWSGI installation into freshly created virtual environment may end up with following error:

gcc: error: /home/george/ll/env/lib/python3.6/config-3.6m/libpython3.6.a: No such file or directory

Root cause of this problem is unclear.

It can be solved by creating a symbolic to static Python lib:

mkdir -p /home/george/ll/env/lib/python3.6/config-3.6m
ln -s /usr/local/Python-3.6.1/libpython3.6m.a /home/george/ll/env/lib/python3.6/config-3.6m/libpython3.6.a