How To Update Python In Mac

 



  1. How To Update Python In Mac Os
  2. Upgrade Python Mac Os
  3. Update Python From Command Line

Python is a programming language that’s widely used by both beginners and professional developers. This brief guide is written because many people search hot to Update Python on MAC computers. So we will show you how to install Python 3 on a Mac OS X computer.

Before you jump in the manual, do take note that there are a number of ways to install Python 3 on a Mac but with this guide, I’ll show you the two easiest ways to do so. Personally, the way I did it was using a package manager like HomeBrew (it is okay if you do not know what it is). Again, I’ll show you how you can do this method down below. I will explain how to install the Python 3 upgrade on a Mac.

Some Mac programs require Python 2, and when updating they may start to malfunction or stop working. Therefore, we won’t update the version, but install Python 3 in parallel. Python 3 and Python 2 can coexist without conflicts on the Mac the commands will differ slightly. For it could be somewhat frustrating that Apple does not supply the latest version, typically used these days, when learning Python.

The easiest way is to download the Python installer from the python.org website. Visit Python.org and download the latest available Python installer file; Run the downloaded file and install Python 3.x on Mac. Python 3.6.x requires about 100MB of available disk space. Open the Terminal on your Mac. Now, enter the command python -version and press the Enter key. You can see the result in the next line itself, displaying the version of python installed on your Mac pc. But, if that command doesn’t work for you then you may try python3 -version and then press the Enter key.

Update Python MAC

How to install Python 3 in macOS with Installer

The easiest way is to download the Python installer from the python.org website.

  • Visit Python.org and download the latest available Python installer file;
  • Run the downloaded file and install Python 3.x on Mac.
  • Python 3.6.x requires about 100MB of available disk space. The installation process is very fast;
  • When Python 3 is installed, you will see the Python3 folder in /Applications on your Mac. You will also see IDLE in the /Applications.

The Python installation may require about 100MB of disk space to install. Once you’ve installed Python 3 you can have it alongside Python 2 without having to delete the latter from your Mac.

Next method will show you how to install Python 3.x on a Mac through Homebrew.

How to install Python 3 using Homebrew

Installing an updated version of Python 3 through Homebrew is extremely simple. Of course, Homebrew should be installed on your computer, however, if you are interested in this method, then you probably have already used the program more than once.

First of all, you’ll need to have this thing called HomeBrew installed on your Mac. Homebrew is basically a “package manager”. A package manager is an application that helps you install the stuff you need that Apple (or even your Linux System) hadn’t installed in the first place for you.

It’s simple, fast and safe.

Second, you will need to have installed XCode onto your Mac. If you’re thinking of learning how to program or creating iOS apps on your Mac, then it’s good to have XCode installed. We will be using XCode to install HomeBrew application.

Note

If you have already installed XCode onto your Mac you can skip step 1 and jump straight to step 3.

Here are the steps to install XCode, HomeBrew as well as install Python 3 using HomeBrew onto your Mac:

  1. Jump into your Terminal app on your Mac and run the copy/paste the following command into the Terminal to install XCode onto your Mac:
  2. Simply click through all the confirmation crap that XCode shows. It may take a little while to install XCode since it is a large program.
  3. Great! Now that you have XCode installed, you can install HomeBrew! To install HomeBrew, simply copy/paste the following command into your Terminal:

Note

You can confirm the HomeBrew installed correctly by running the command: below:

  1. You’ve installed HomeBrew! Now let’s install the Python 3, the reason why you’re here. To install the latest version of Python, just copy/paste the following command into your Terminal:

Note

You can confirm which version of Python was installed all by running the command below (the exact same command you tried earlier in this guide). It should show up as follows:

  1. Finally, let’s run our new Python 3. Simply enter python3.

How to Find out the Installed Version of Python

Open the Terminal program and use the following command:

In most cases, Python 2.7.x will be installed on macOS: either 2.7.4 or 2.7.10.

If you installed the Python update, you can check the version with the following command:

Once again, both versions of Python can coexist without conflicts.

Note: Once again, I want to remind you that you do not need to upgrade Python 2.x to Python 3.x, because this can lead to program malfunctions. Just install the updated version in parallel.

Author
How to update python in mac

Bob Savage <bobsavage@mac.com>

Python on a Macintosh running Mac OS X is in principle very similar to Python onany other Unix platform, but there are a number of additional features such asthe IDE and the Package Manager that are worth pointing out.

4.1. Getting and Installing MacPython¶

Mac OS X 10.8 comes with Python 2.7 pre-installed by Apple. If you wish, youare invited to install the most recent version of Python 3 from the Pythonwebsite (https://www.python.org). A current “universal binary” build of Python,which runs natively on the Mac’s new Intel and legacy PPC CPU’s, is availablethere.

What you get after installing is a number of things:

  • A Python3.9 folder in your Applications folder. In hereyou find IDLE, the development environment that is a standard part of officialPython distributions; and PythonLauncher, which handles double-clicking Pythonscripts from the Finder.

  • A framework /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework, which includes thePython executable and libraries. The installer adds this location to your shellpath. To uninstall MacPython, you can simply remove these three things. Asymlink to the Python executable is placed in /usr/local/bin/.

The Apple-provided build of Python is installed in/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework and /usr/bin/python,respectively. You should never modify or delete these, as they areApple-controlled and are used by Apple- or third-party software. Remember thatif you choose to install a newer Python version from python.org, you will havetwo different but functional Python installations on your computer, so it willbe important that your paths and usages are consistent with what you want to do.

IDLE includes a help menu that allows you to access Python documentation. If youare completely new to Python you should start reading the tutorial introductionin that document.

Terminal

If you are familiar with Python on other Unix platforms you should read thesection on running Python scripts from the Unix shell.

4.1.1. How to run a Python script¶

Your best way to get started with Python on Mac OS X is through the IDLEintegrated development environment, see section The IDE and use the Help menuwhen the IDE is running.

If you want to run Python scripts from the Terminal window command line or fromthe Finder you first need an editor to create your script. Mac OS X comes with anumber of standard Unix command line editors, vim andemacs among them. If you want a more Mac-like editor,BBEdit or TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software (seehttp://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html) are good choices, as isTextMate (see https://macromates.com/). Other editors includeGvim (http://macvim-dev.github.io/macvim/) and Aquamacs(http://aquamacs.org/).

To run your script from the Terminal window you must make sure that/usr/local/bin is in your shell search path.

To run your script from the Finder you have two options:

  • Drag it to PythonLauncher

  • Select PythonLauncher as the default application to open yourscript (or any .py script) through the finder Info window and double-click it.PythonLauncher has various preferences to control how your script islaunched. Option-dragging allows you to change these for one invocation, or useits Preferences menu to change things globally.

4.1.2. Running scripts with a GUI¶

With older versions of Python, there is one Mac OS X quirk that you need to beaware of: programs that talk to the Aqua window manager (in other words,anything that has a GUI) need to be run in a special way. Use pythonwinstead of python to start such scripts.

With Python 3.9, you can use either python or pythonw.

4.1.3. Configuration¶

Python on OS X honors all standard Unix environment variables such asPYTHONPATH, but setting these variables for programs started from theFinder is non-standard as the Finder does not read your .profile or.cshrc at startup. You need to create a file~/.MacOSX/environment.plist. See Apple’s Technical Document QA1067 fordetails.

For more information on installation Python packages in MacPython, see sectionInstalling Additional Python Packages.

4.2. The IDE¶

MacPython ships with the standard IDLE development environment. A goodintroduction to using IDLE can be found athttp://www.hashcollision.org/hkn/python/idle_intro/index.html.

4.3. Installing Additional Python Packages¶

How To Update Python In Mac Os

There are several methods to install additional Python packages:

  • Packages can be installed via the standard Python distutils mode (pythonsetup.pyinstall).

  • Many packages can also be installed via the setuptools extensionor pip wrapper, see https://pip.pypa.io/.

4.4. GUI Programming on the Mac¶

There are several options for building GUI applications on the Mac with Python.

PyObjC is a Python binding to Apple’s Objective-C/Cocoa framework, which isthe foundation of most modern Mac development. Information on PyObjC isavailable from https://pypi.org/project/pyobjc/.

Upgrade Python Mac Os

The standard Python GUI toolkit is tkinter, based on the cross-platformTk toolkit (https://www.tcl.tk). An Aqua-native version of Tk is bundled with OSX by Apple, and the latest version can be downloaded and installed fromhttps://www.activestate.com; it can also be built from source.

wxPython is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively onMac OS X. Packages and documentation are available from https://www.wxpython.org.

PyQt is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively on MacOS X. More information can be found athttps://riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/intro.

4.5. Distributing Python Applications on the Mac¶

The standard tool for deploying standalone Python applications on the Mac ispy2app. More information on installing and using py2app can be foundat http://undefined.org/python/#py2app.

4.6. Other Resources¶

The MacPython mailing list is an excellent support resource for Python users anddevelopers on the Mac:

Update Python From Command Line

Another useful resource is the MacPython wiki: