Upgrading python

Question

Is it possible to update python without root access, this is the first time using red hat linux (any linux for that matter) and the default version is python 2.3 which breaks some of my code that i tested on python 2.6.

i tried building from source but it said i needed root access.

Answer 1

How did you compile the source? If you did ./configure, do this instead:

./configure --prefix=$HOME
make
make install

($HOME should expand to something like /home/burisum.) In this way the third step (make install) will install the files in your homedir and you will not need root access.

Answer 2

You can make a "user" installation i.e. in your ~ directory.

Make sure you update your .bashrc (or equivalent) to insert the path to your interpreter in front of /usr/bin if you intend for your interpreter to serve as default for your session though.

Answer 3

this is the error i'm getting

/usr/bin/install -c python /bin/python2.6
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/bin/python2.6': 
Permission deniedmake: *** [altbininstall] Error 1

added this here, so that it could be formatted

edit: I just got it installed, it missed a / at the end of the path

i tried this and it worked,

./configure --prefix=/home/sam/

instead of

./configure --prefix=/home/sam.

thanks a lot to everyone who answered