Red Hat and Python¶
- Red Hat contributes to Python upstream.
- Red Hat is a Diamond sponsor of the PSF
See also: Python in Fedora.
Python shipped with RHEL¶
| RHEL | Python |
|---|---|
| RHEL 6 | Python 2.6 |
| RHEL 7 | Python 2.7 |
| RHEL 7.7 | Python 2.7.5 and Python 3.6.8 |
| RHEL 8 | Python 3.6.8, Python 3.8.0 (*), Python 3.9, Python 2.7.15 (*) |
In RHEL 8, Python 2.7 and Python 3.8 have shorter support than RHEL, they are shipped as app streams, not in the base operating system.
(Latest table update: 2020-06-18.)
How to install Python 3 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 by Rob Terzi (August 2018).
The Python shipped with RHEL is supported as long as RHEL: RHEL Life Cycle.
April 2018, RHEL 7.5 Release Notes: Chapter 54. Deprecated Functionality:
Python 2 has been deprecated: Python 2 will be replaced with Python 3 in the next Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) major release.
How is Python 2 supported in RHEL after 2020?.
- no new features will be added to Python 2 in RHEL 7 and earlier.
- RHEL 8: Python 2.7 AppStream supported until June 2024.
See also Debugging Python C extensions with GDB (using Python 3.9 debug build built with gcc -O0).
By default on RHEL8, python3 is /usr/libexec/platform-python3.6 which
dynamically linked to /lib64/libpython3.6m.so.1.0:
$ which python3
/usr/bin/python3
$ ls -l /usr/bin/python3
/usr/bin/python3 -> /etc/alternatives/python3
$ ls -l /etc/alternatives/python3
/etc/alternatives/python3 -> /usr/bin/python3.6
$ ls -l /usr/bin/python3.6
/usr/bin/python3.6 -> /usr/libexec/platform-python3.6
$ file /usr/libexec/platform-python3.6
/usr/libexec/platform-python3.6: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, ...
$ ldd /usr/libexec/platform-python3.6
libpython3.6m.so.1.0 => /lib64/libpython3.6m.so.1.0 (0x00007f9ad79f6000)
...
Python packages in RHEL¶
RHEL8 packages:
- python3: Python 3.6
- python2 (Module): Python 2.7
See:
- Python in RHEL 8 (November 2018) by Petr Viktorin
- What, No Python in RHEL 8 Beta? (November 2018) by Langdon White
Software Collections¶
Currently supported (last update: 2018-04-23):
| Python version | Supported RHEL |
|---|---|
| Python27 | RHEL 7, RHEL 6 |
| Python34 | RHEL 7, RHEL 6 |
| Python35 | RHEL 7, RHEL 6 |
| Python36 | RHEL 7 |
No longer supported:
- Python33
Software Collections support: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/rhscl
Support shorter than RHEL support.
Python27 will likely be supported at least until 2020.