How to Install Python 3.12 on Debian 12

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Python 3.12 is the newest major release of the Python programming language, and it contains many new features and optimizations.

Manually build Python 3.12 from the source code

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Update System

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First, ensure your system is up-to-date by running,

apt update -y

apt upgrade -y

Install Required Dependencies

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Install necessary packages to build Python from source,

apt install -y build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev \
    libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev \
    xz-utils tk-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev python3-openssl git

Download Python Source Code

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Visit the Python downloads page to get the source code. Then, using wget, download the source,

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.0/Python-3.12.0.tgz

Now, Extract the Archive,

tar -xf Python-3.12.0.tgz

Configure and Build,

cd Python-3.12.0
./configure --enable-optimizations

Build Python,

make -j 8

Replace 8 with the number of CPU cores you want to allocate for the build process.

Install Python

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make altinstall

Using altinstall instead of install prevents it from replacing the system's default Python interpreter (which could cause system tools to malfunction).

Verify Installation

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Check if Python 3.12 has been installed successfully,

python3.12 --version

Output:

root@vps:~/Python-3.12.0# python3.12 --version
Python 3.12.0
root@vps:~/Python-3.12.0#

This should output the Python version you just installed.