Compile Python 3.4 on CentOS 7

This is just a short post to document the required commands to build Python 3 on a CentOS 7.

First we need to install the Development tools and some required sources: e.g. bzip, to support compression in python

yum groupinstall "Development tools"
yum install zlib-devel bzip2-devel openssl-devel ncurses-devel sqlite-devel readline-devel tk-devel gdbm-devel db4-devel libpcap-devel xz-devel

Next we are downloading and compiling Python 3 as shared library. Compiling Python as shared library is afaik quite common and necessary for third-party tools such as mod_wsgi.

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.4.1/Python-3.4.1.tgz
tar xf Python-3.4.1.tgz
cd Python-3.4.1
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-shared
make
make install

Before we can use Python we need to make the library findable:

echo /usr/local/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf
ldconfig

Finally you should be able to launch python:

python3 --version
Python 3.4.1

If you want to remove all the packages we required to compile python, including its dependencies, use the parameter “–remove-leaves” which I also described here.

yum groupremove "Development tools" --remove-leaves
yum remove zlib-devel bzip2-devel openssl-devel ncurses-devel sqlite-devel readline-devel tk-devel gdbm-devel db4-devel libpcap-devel xz-devel --remove-leaves

12 thoughts on “Compile Python 3.4 on CentOS 7”

Reply ↓

Anonymous October 9, 2014 at 07:28

Thanks. Just what I needed!

Reply ↓

Itay January 28, 2015 at 08:57

Hi,

I’m new to linux and python and getting an error while installing.
I’m getting this error:
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;&’
after this line:
echo /usr/local/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf
Any help would be great thanks.

Reply ↓

Dw February 4, 2015 at 08:08

Try this instead. I think he meant to say use the “greater than” symbols

[root@linuxbox Python-3.4.2]# echo /usr/local/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf
[root@linuxbox Python-3.4.2]# ldconfig
[root@linuxbox Python-3.4.2]# python3 -V
Python 3.4.2

Reply ↓

Iulian February 12, 2015 at 08:52

I used <> /etc/ld.so.conf” >> to get it working in Centos 7. Maybe this helps.

Reply ↓

Iulian February 12, 2015 at 08:53

http://askubuntu.com/questions/279853/permission-denied-error-when-editing-etc-ld-so-conf

Reply ↓

Dentiny February 16, 2015 at 01:58

I just copied and pasted and it worked nice for me too, no problem.

Thanks

Dentiny

Reply ↓

Fabrizio Bartolomucci March 5, 2015 at 10:13

When I follow your instructions and execute pythin I get to:
./python: error while loading shared libraries: libpython3.4m.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory