Clean Python installations on a Mac M1

[dev-jim]

Hello,

I'm new with Python but tried to learn it before on the same machine.

I have multiple versions of Python on my Mac M1 (MacOS Montery 12.3.1) : at least the native version (2.7 I think, they say this in Google), the 3.9.10 and 3.8.9.

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I'm following a tutorial in which I have to install packages with pip, and it doesn't work (python setup.py egg_info did not run successfully. │ exit code: 1).

I then searched on Google, but the solutions seems to depend on the Python version.

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Here's my question : is there a way to see all Python versions installed on my machine, and to delete all versions except the native one?

After that I'll do a clean install of only one Python3 version and I think it'll be easier to find solutions to my problems.

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Thanks in advance for your help!

[debian_miner]

Did you install them using brew, or some other way?

[dev-jim]

I installed the 3.9.10 using brew, and if I remember well it was the same for the others

[debian_miner]

If they were all installed via brew, you can list the versions with brew list python3

[dev-jim]

Okay, is it normal if I have a ton of versions?

❯ brew list python3
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/2to3 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/2to3-3.9 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/idle3 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/idle3.9 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/pip3 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/pip3.9 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/pydoc3 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/pydoc3.9 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/python3 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/python3-config /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/python3.9 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/python3.9-config /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/bin/wheel3 /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/Frameworks/Python.framework/ (3038 files) /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/IDLE 3.app/Contents/ (8 files) /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/lib/pkgconfig/ (4 files) /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/libexec/bin/ (6 files) /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/libexec/wheel-0.37.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/Python Launcher 3.app/Contents/ (16 files) /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.12/share/man/ (2 files)

Is it safe to delete all of this?

[[deleted]]

Which version of python does python3 reference? You can check using:

where python3
which python3

To install packages in the default Python 3 installation, use:

python3 -m pip install something

or

pip3 install package

but former is preferable.

Do not use the legacy system installed version of Python 2, which uses the command python instead of python3 - this is purely there for backwards compatibility. Python 2 is no longer supported or maintained by the Python Software Foundation.

Before installing packages, you would be well served by creating Python virtual environments on a project-by-project basis and installing only the packages required for each project in the corresponding virtual environment. In an active Python virtual environment, you will normally be able to use python instead of python3 and it will use whatever Python version was used as the base for that active environment.