python location on mac osx
I'm a little confused with the python on osx. I do not know if the previous owner of the laptop has installed macpython using macport. And I remembered that osx has an builtin version of python. I tried using type -a python and the result returned
python is /usr/bin/python
python is /usr/local/bin/python
However running both python at these locations give me [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin. Do they both refer to the same builtin python mac provided?
I also read that installing macpython one would
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...
I looked at Applications, and theres a MacPort folder with python2.6 and the mentioned stuff in it. But running IDLE, i find the same message as above.
Hmm I'm a little confused. Which is which?
Solution 1:
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] is the version of GCC that the Python(s) were built with, not the version of Python itself. That information should be on the previous line. For example:
# Apple-supplied Python 2.6 in OS X 10.6
$ /usr/bin/python
Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Jun 24 2010, 21:47:49)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
# python.org Python 2.7.2 (also built with newer gcc)
$ /usr/local/bin/python
Python 2.7.2 (v2.7.2:8527427914a2, Jun 11 2011, 15:22:34)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
Items in /usr/bin should always be or link to files supplied by Apple in OS X, unless someone has been ill-advisedly changing things there. To see exactly where the /usr/local/bin/python is linked to:
$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/python
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 68 Jul 5 10:05 /usr/local/bin/python@ -> ../../../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
In this case, that is typical for a python.org installed Python instance or it could be one built from source.
Solution 2:
I found the easiest way to locate it, you can use
which python
it will show something like this:
/usr/bin/python
Solution 3:
This one will solve all your problems not only for Mac but works on every basic shell -> Linux also:
If you have a Mac and you've installed python3 like most of us do :) (with brew install - ofc)
your file is located in:
/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3
How do you know? -> you can run this on every basic shell Run:
which python3
You should get:
/usr/local/bin/python3
Now this is a symbolic link, how do you know? Run:
ls -al /usr/local/bin/python3
and you'll get:
/usr/local/bin/python3 -> /usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3
which means that your
/usr/local/bin/python3
is actually pointing to:
/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3
If, for some reason, your
/usr/local/bin/python3
is not pointing to the place you want, which in our case:
/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3
just backup it:
cp /usr/local/bin/python3{,.orig}
and run:
rm -rf /usr/local/bin/python3
now create a new symbolic link:
ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/python3
and now your
/usr/local/bin/python3
is pointing to
/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3
Check it out by running:
ls -al /usr/local/bin/python3
Solution 4:
On Mac OS X, it's in the Python framework in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Resources.
Full path is:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python
Btw it's easy to find out where you can find a specific binary: which Python will show you the path of your Python binary (which is probably the same as I posted above).
Solution 5:
On High Sierra
which python
shows the default python but if you downloaded and installed the latest version from python.org you can find it by:
which python3.6
which on my machine shows
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin/python3.6