Last modified: October 10, 2023

Overview

This document explains how the AlmaLinux OS, Rocky Linux™, Ubuntu®, and CloudLinux™ 9 operating systems handle the python command. Due to changes in how these operating systems call this command, you may need to adjust your code.

Python on AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Ubuntu, and CloudLinux 9

Since Python 2 is now end of life and many systems now use Python 3, the python command does not always refer to the correct version of Python. While many systems create an alias for the python command that refers to a specific version of Python, this alias may not point to the correct version of Python for your system.

On AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Ubuntu, and CloudLinux 9 servers, the /usr/bin/python command does not exist. This means that the python command will not work. Instead, you must specify the version of Python installed on your system that you wish to use.

On AlmaLinux 8, Rocky Linux 8, and Ubuntu servers, you may specify either Python 2 or Python 3. On servers running AlmaLinux 9, Rocky Linux 9, or CloudLinux 9, you must specify Python 3.

• To run Python 2, use the python2 command.
• To run Python 3, use the python3 command.

Trouble with your own code

If you experience trouble running Python code that you control, make certain that your code refers to the specific version of Python installed on your server rather than just /usr/bin/python.

Because Python 2 no longer receives updates, we strongly recommend that you update your code to use Python 3 syntax. Python includes a conversion tool that will perform many of the necessary updates to convert your code from version 2 to 3.

Trouble with code from another source

If you have trouble with code that you do not control, contact the provider of the code and ask them to update their code to refer to a specific version of Python.

To work around this issue, you can create a symlink or use alternatives to redirect the /usr/bin/python command to the version of Python installed on your server.

Use alternatives to redirect your python command to Python 3

On AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and CloudLinux 9 servers, to use alternatives to redirect the python command to Python 3, run the following command:

alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3 1

On Ubuntu servers, to use update-alternatives to redirect the python command to Python 3, run the following command:

update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3 1

Use symlinks to redirect your python command to Python 3

On AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Ubuntu, and CloudLinux 9 servers, to create a symlink to redirect the python command to Python 3, run the following command:

ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python