Search code examples
pythonterminalinstallationosx-snow-leopardeasy-install

How to tell the console which python to use for installation

normally I install site packages for python with pip. Unfortunately that does not work every time and I have to do it through the console. On OS X 10.6 is python 2.6 preinstalled, but I work with version 3.3 How to I tell the console when typing python setup.py install to install it into my site-package folder of 3.3 AND, if i.e. easy install (distutils) is needed to look in my site-package folder of Version 3.3 for this site-package?

Solution

  • The problem is that the OS X python comes first in your path. Installing Python 3 should put a python3 executable in your path. Use the following command.

    python3 setup.py install

    To ensure it installs in Python 3.3, and not another version of Python 3, use the following command.

    python3.3 setup.py install

    Alternatively, you could modify your PATH so that the Python 3 executable directory appears first in your path. Something like the following would work, if you adjust your path.

    export PATH="/PATH/TO/PYTHON3/BINARY/:$PATH"