In this article, we will have explained the necessary steps to install Python 3.9 on Debian 11. Before continuing with this tutorial, make sure you are logged in as a user with sudo
privileges. All the commands in this tutorial should be run as a non-root user.
Python is one of the most popular programming languages out there. Its incredible versatility makes it be in almost any technology field. Python 3.9 is the latest stable version available for productions environments. Most of the Debian-based Linux distribution includes older versions of Python in software repositories. Also, the Debian packages are not available for all distributions.
Install Python 3.9 on Debian 11
Step 1. The first command will update the package lists to ensure you get the latest version and dependencies.
sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade sudo apt install wget build-essential libreadline-dev libncursesw5-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev tk-dev libgdbm-dev libc6-dev libbz2-dev libffi-dev zlib1g-dev
Step 2. Install Python on Debian 11.
Download the latest version of the Python 3.9 source archive from its official website:
wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.7/Python-3.9.7.tgz
Then, extract the downloaded file:
tar xzf Python-3.9.7.tgz
Now access the generated folder and start the configuration:
cd Python-3.9.7 ./configure --enable-optimizations
Finally, run the following command to complete the Python installation:
make altinstall
After the installation is complete, you can check exactly what versions are installed for Python 3 using the following command:
python3 --version
Result:
[email protected]:~# pip3.9 -V pip 21.1.3 from /usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)
To install Python modules, you need to run the following command inside your Python 3.9 directory:
python3.9 -m pip install <module>
That’s all you need to do to install the Python on Debian (Bullseye). I hope you find this quick tip helpful. For further reading Python Programming Language on Debian’s system, please refer to their official knowledge base. If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.