Brew Python 3

| 30-04-2021
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As explained above, with homebrew you have only Python 2 (python@2) and Python 3 (python), there is no explicit formula for Python 3.6. Although those minor updates are mostly irrelevant in most cases and for most users, I will search if someone has done an explicit formula for 3.6. Python has been installed as $(brew -prefix)/bin/python3 Unversioned symlinks `python`, `python-config`, `pip` etc. Pointing to `python3`, `python3-config`, `pip3` etc., respectively, have been installed into.

Question or problem about Python programming:

How can I install a previous version of Python 3 in macOS using brew?

With the command brew install python I got the latest version of Python 3 (currently v3.7.0), but I want the last version of Python 3.6 (currently 3.6.5).

Manual for mac. I have read about another package pyenv that can assist in handle different python installation, but this solution is not suitable for me.

How to solve the problem:

Solution 1:

Short Answer

To make a clean install of Python 3.6.5 use:

If you prefer to recover a previously installed version, then:

Long Answer

There are two formulas for installing Python with Homebrew: [email protected] and python.
Hdmi connector for mac. The first is for Python 2 and the second for Python 3.

Note: You can find outdated answers on the web where it is mentioned python3 as the formula name for installing Python version 3. Now it’s just python!

By default, with these formulas you can install the latest version of the corresponding major version of Python. So, you cannot directly install a minor version like 3.6.

Solution

Mac Homebrew Python

With brew, you can install a package using the address of the formula, for example in a git repository.

Or specifically for Python 3

The address you must specify is the address to the last commit of the formula (python.rb) for the desired version.
You can find the commint identifier by looking at the history for homebrew-core/Formula/python.rb

Python > 3.6.5

In the link above you will not find a formula for a version of Python above 3.6.5.
After the maintainers of that (official) repository released Python 3.7, they only submit updates to the recipe of Python 3.7.

As explained above, with homebrew you have only Python 2 ([email protected]) and Python 3 (python), there is no explicit formula for Python 3.6.

Although those minor updates are mostly irrelevant in most cases and for most users, I will search if someone has done an explicit formula for 3.6.

Solution 2:

As an update, when doing

You may encounter

To bypass it, add the --ignore-dependencies argument to brew install.

Solution 3:

What I did was first I installed python 3.7

then I installed python 3.6.5 using above link

After that I ran brew link --overwrite python. Now I have all pythons in the system to create the virtual environments.

To create Python 3.7 virtual environment.

To create Python 3.6 virtual environment

Solution 4:

I have tried everything but could not make it work. Finally I have used pyenv and it worked directly like a charm.

So having homebrew installed, juste do:

to manage virtualenvs:

See pyenv and pyenv-virtualenv for more info.

EDIT (2019/03/19)

I have found using the pyenv-installer easier than homebrew to install pyenv and pyenv-virtualenv direclty:

To manage python version, either globally:

or locally in a given directory:

Solution 5:

I tried all the answers above to install Python 3.4.4. The installation of python worked, but PIP would not be installed and nothing I could do to make it work. I was using Mac OSX Mojave, which cause some issues with zlib, openssl.

What not to do:

Brew Python3

  • Try to avoid using Homebrew for previous version given by the formula Python or Python3.
  • Do not try to compile Python

Solution:

  1. Download the macOS 64-bit installer or macOS 64-bit/32-bit installer: https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-365/
  2. In previous step, it will download Python 3.6.5, if for example, you want to download Python 3.4.4, replace in the url above python-365 by python-344
  3. Download click on the file you downloaded a GUI installer will open
  4. If you downloaded python-365, after installation, to launch this version of python, you will type in your terminal python365, same thing for pip, it will be pip365

p.s: You don’t have to uninstall your other version of Python on your system.

Edit:

Brew Python3 Pip

I found a much much much better solution that work on MacOSX, Windows, Linux, etc.

  1. It doesn’t matter if you have already python installed or not.
  2. Download Anaconda
  3. Once installed, in terminal type: conda init
  4. In terminal,create virtual environment with any python version, for example, I picked 3.4.4: conda create -n [NameOfYour VirtualEnvironment] python=3.4.4
  5. Then, in terminal, you can check all the virtual environment you ahave created with the command: conda info --envs
  6. Then, in terminal, activate the virtual environment of your choice with: conda activate [The name of your virtual environment that was shown with the command at step 5]
Brew python3 pip

Mac Brew Install Python 3.7

Hope this helps!