This simple tutorial shows how to compile and install Python 3.11, Python 3.10, or other certain Python version in Ubuntu.

For Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, there’s well trusted “deadsnakes” team PPA that maintains all the Python packages. For non-LTS releases, you may build the programming language package manually from the source tarball.

NOTE: This tutorial is tested and works in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 23.04 in my case.

1. Preparation:

Before getting started, you need to install some essential packages for building the computer language package.

Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching from start menu. When it opens, run the command below to install the dependencies:

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

2. Download Python Tarball:

You can simply download the latest tarball from the Python website via the link below:

In case you’re running Ubuntu without desktop environment, download the source package by running the wget command in terminal:

wget -c https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.11.0/Python-3.11.0.tar.xz

For other Python version, go and download via web browser in this page. And, change the version number in command accordingly.

And uncompress the tarball either by right-click and selecting ‘Extract Here‘ in file manager, or by running command in terminal:

tar -Jxf Python-3.11.0.tar.xz

3. Configure the source:

Depends on how you grab the source tarball, either right-click on it in file manager, extract, and open the source folder in terminal via context menu option:

Open Python 3.11 source folder in terminal

If you just did the tar command above, then you may navigate to source folder via:

cd Python-3.11.0/

The command varies depends on which Python version you downloaded.

When you’re in source directory, run command to configure the source with expensive, stable optimizations (PGO, etc.):

./configure --enable-optimizations

4. Build and install Python:

Finally compile and install it into “/usr/local/bin” by running command:

sudo make -j4 && sudo make altinstall

Here -j4 will start 4 threads to speed up the job. Depends on your CPU, you may increase the number or just skip it. And, when make command done, it will ask you to type password for running make install with sudo privilege.

5. Verify

If everything’s done successfully without error, you may verify by running command:

python3.11 --version

python3.11 -m pip --version

It should output the language version as well as the pip package manager version for you

5. Make Python 3.11 default

IMPORTANT: Change default Python3 in Ubuntu MAY cause issues!!! Do it at your own risk.

After installation, you may set it as default by creating symbolic links to /usr/bin/python3:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/local/bin/python3.10 110

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/local/bin/python3.11 100

In the first command change system default python3.10 to python3.8 if you’re on Ubuntu 20.04. Finally, run command below at any time to select which Python to use as default:

sudo update-alternatives --config python3

Uninstall Python 3.11:

Until you removed the source directory, you may first either navigate to that folder in terminal or right-click and select open folder in terminal, finally run make uninstall command to remove Python 3.11:

sudo make uninstall

If you’ve already removed the source, or the previous command does not work for you, try removing all the installed libraries manually via:

cd /usr/local/bin && rm -f sudo rm -f 2to3 2to3-3.11 idle3 idle3.11 pip pip3 pip3.10 pip3.11 pydoc3 pydoc3.11 python3 python3.11 python3.11-config python3-config

After several alpha, beta and rc tests, the Python programming language finally released version 3.10 today!

Python 3.10 will receive bug-fix updates in next 18 months. After that, it’s supported with 5-year security updates until October 2026.

What’s New in Python 3.10:

• Pattern matching syntax, inspired by similar syntax found in Scala, Erlang, and other languages.
• Support using enclosing parentheses for continuation across multiple lines in context managers
• Allow writing union types as X | Y
• Add optional length-checking to zip
• Precise line numbers for debugging and other tools
• Require OpenSSL 1.1.1 or newer
• Remove Py_UNICODE encoder APIs
• Add optional EncodingWarning
• Explicit Type Aliases
• Parameter Specification Variables

See the release note for more about Python 3.10.

How to Install Python 3.10 in Ubuntu:

The well trusted “deadsnakes” team PPA has made the packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and derivatives, e.g., Linux Mint 20, Elementary OS 6 and Zorin OS 16.

1.) Firstly, open terminal by either searching from overview screen or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

2.) Then refresh system cache and install the language via command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3.10

Use Python 3.10 as default Python3:

It’s possible to make Python3 in Ubuntu to be Python3.10 via following commands. However, it causes issues, such as Gnome Terminal refuses to launch. Do it at your own risk!

• Check current Python3 version:

  python3 --version

• Use update-alternatives to create symbolic links to python3 (replace python3.8 in Ubuntu 16.04 with ):

  sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.8 1

  sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.10 2

• And choose which one to use as Python3 via command:

  sudo update-alternatives --config python3