Debian – How to Install Python 3.6

debianpythonsoftware installation

I'd like to install the latest Python, which is 3.6 at the time of this post. However, the repository is saying that Python 3.4.2 is the newest version.

I've tried:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install python3

python3 is already the newest version.

$ python -V

Python 3.4.2

To upgrade to Python 3.6 on my Windows workstation, I simply downloaded an exe, clicked "next" a few times, and it's done. What's the proper and officially accepted procedure to install Python 3.6 on Debian Jessie?

Best Answer

Editorial note:
Warning: this answer shows how to install Python from future releases of Debian. This will result in a system which mixes Debian releases, and will affect more than Python — in most cases, applying these instructions will pull in newer libraries too. The resulting setup won’t benefit from security updates with the same speed as might be expected, for packages which are updated. This is known as a FrankenDebian.

Consider the other answers to this question instead, in particular this one showing how to build from source, and this one showing how to use virtual environments.

Debian does not have Python 3.6 in its repositories, but testing has it. 

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
# add
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing main
$ echo 'APT::Default-Release "stable";' | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00local
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get -t testing install python3.6
$ python3.6 -V

You asked for:

the proper and officially accepted procedure

but I must point it out that this is not official solution because it uses testing repositories.

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