MacOS – When updating to macOS Catalina will the default Python installation get removed from the system

catalinamacospython

Apple will stop shipping scripting languages like Python with macOS starting with Catalina. When I eventually update to macOS Catalina, will the Python (2.7.X), which currently ships with macOS get removed from my system? Or is it only if I do a fresh install to Catalina that I won't get the Python installation anymore?

Best Answer

From Xcode 11 Beta Release Notes:

Scripting language runtimes such as Python, Ruby, and Perl are included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. In future versions of macOS, scripting language runtimes won’t be available by default, and may require you to install an additional package. If your software depends on scripting languages, it’s recommended that you bundle the runtime within the app. (49764202)

So in Catalina these runtimes will still be available.

Also, from the same document

Use of Python 2.7 isn’t recommended. This version is included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. Future versions of macOS won’t include Python 2.7. Instead, it’s recommended that you run python3 in Terminal. (51097165)

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MacOS – How to remove one old python installation from a system with multiple (non-system) installations of python

From python docs noting that they seem to have hard coded 2.5 instead of the current version and is not that well written

What you get after installing is a number of things:

A MacPython 2.5 folder in your Applications folder. In here you find IDLE, the development environment that is a standard part of official Python distributions; PythonLauncher, which handles double-clicking Python scripts from the Finder; and the “Build Applet” tool, which allows you to package Python scripts as standalone applications on your system.

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

so remove

/Applications/Python 3.1
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1
/usr/local/bin/python31 (I use a different install so this might be python3.1 or similar)

Anaconda macOS GUI installation changes – should I remove the old folder in the current user account

I removed the old folder. All seems to be working.

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MacOS – How to remove one old python installation from a system with multiple (non-system) installations of python

Anaconda macOS GUI installation changes – should I remove the old folder in the current user account

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