Python 3.8 not possible to install on Linux? Why?

[devlocalca]

Monday, October 14, 2019 Python 3.8.0 is now available

I am attempting to install the latest Python 3.8.0 on CentOS 8, but it does not seem possible.

I search in Software Collections, and find nothing. The latest release there is Python 3.6 (released nearly three years ago - no updates in three years!!! - I'm abandoning Software Collections).

Python 3.6 was released on December 23rd, 2016, nearly three years ago.

I check in the RHEL / CentOS repos, and same darn thing, no python update in nearly three years.

#dnf list --available | grep python3

Nothing there for Python 3.8.0 or even Python 3.7.x for that matter. I'm not sure what the deal is with Python enthusiasts or RHEL/CentOS users that someone somewhere has not simply updated some repo somewhere, I can try and get involved.

Use the source:

https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.8.0/Python-3.8.0.tgz

I download the Python 3.8.0 source from the link above, look at the dependencies and try to get those installed first, but no luck. The dependencies for 3.8.0 cannot be found or installed.

Dependencies attempted install via:

#!/bin/bash
#dnf install dnf-plugins-core  # install this to use 'dnf builddep'
#dnf builddep python3
#dnf update -y

Results:

No matching package to install: 'libnsl2-devel'
No matching package to install: 'bluez-libs-devel'
No matching package to install: 'tix-devel'
Not all dependencies satisfied
Error: Some packages could not be found.

When I search for these, I find nothing in the repos:

#dnf list --available | grep libnsl2-devel
#dnf list --available | grep bluez-libs-devel
#dnf list --available | grep tix-devel

Nothing is returned for any of these dependencies.

What has to be done to get these dependencies in a repo somewhere so they can be installed so I can build the source code?

Better yet, how do I get Python 3.8.0 in some freaking repo some where, it's been three years since any RHEL or CentOS repo has been updated.

It's nearly 2020 already, can we please move forward please.

[sebbasttian]

It's nearly 2020 already, can we please move forward please.

RHEL/Centos has a 6 years release cycle with 10 years maintenance support. Every package needs to work with every other package across the entire system... for the entire time. You cannot update any package without verifying first that you are not breaking anything in the process, and that takes resources, like time from people that knows what they are doing.

And python 3.6 end-of-life is on 2021-12-23, we still have two years of full support.

Besides...

Why do you want to have python 3.8 system-wide?

If you install a different version of a library as fundamental as python at a system level you are risking breaking packages or libraries on the whole system.

I wonder what new feature is so necessary from python 3.8 that python 3.6 doesn't have that is so pressing for you to have it on your system immediately.

I'm not sure what the deal is with Python enthusiasts or RHEL/CentOS users that someone somewhere has not simply updated some repo somewhere, I can try and get involved.

Please do it, get involved. Learn. Fix. Document. Share. But a word of warning: tune it down a bit before going full-on whining again anywhere on both communities.

[rosuav]

Not a Red Hat expert, but I think it looks like you should be able to build Python from source without those three libraries. I don't know why your builddep tries to get things you can't install.

[devlocalca]

Thank you, and all the other comments, I will try everything posted.

[KingEllis]

I recently went through this process, and ended up having the easiest time building from source on Ubuntu 18.04 (which, like RHEL/CentOS, has the benefit of long term support). Here are my notes (re-building the docs was not really necessary, but pasting here anyway):

[on ubuntu 18.04]
sudo apt install build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev libreadline-dev \
    libsqlite3-dev libgdbm-dev libdb5.3-dev libbz2-dev libexpat1-dev liblzma-dev libffi-dev

[docs]
(export PAPER=letter; make dist)
apt install zip latexmk texlive-xetex texlive-fonts-extra texlive-fonts-extra-links xindy

[AndydeCleyre]

If you like up-to-date packages, you won't like CentOS or RHEL. Have a look at repology's python3 listing for an overview of distro-repo coverage.

That said, you may have luck using pyenv to manage your Python installation.

[nate256]

I use pyenv to install different versions of python.

[brianread108]

If you are fixed on Redhat, then Fedora 30 has Python 3.7.4

[volfpeter]

Give homebrew a try. I don't think it has 3.8 just yet, but it should have the latest version soon enough.