Install Python 2.7.13 on Ubuntu

This article will help you to install Python 2.7.13 on your Ubuntu, Debian and LinuxMint operating systems. At writing time of this article Python 3.4.5 latest stable version is available to download and install. To install Python 3.4.5 visit following article.

Install Required Packages

Use the following command to install prerequisites for Python before installing it.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall
$ sudo apt-get install libreadline-gplv2-dev libncursesw5-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev tk-dev libgdbm-dev libc6-dev libbz2-dev

Download Python 2.7.13

Download Python using following command from python official site. You can also download latest version in place of specified below.

$ cd /usr/src
$ wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.13/Python-2.7.13.tgz

Now extract the downloaded package.

$ tar xzf Python-2.7.13.tgz

Compile Python Source

Use below set of commands to compile python source code on your system using altinstall.

$ cd Python-2.7.13
$ sudo ./configure
$ sudo make altinstall

make altinstall is used to prevent replacing the default python binary file /usr/bin/python.

Step 4: Check the Python Version

Check the latest version installed of python using below command

# python2.7 -V

Python 2.7.13