If you need help installing python on OSX, read on.

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In this article, we will learn the difference between the standard Python distribution and alternatives, such as Anaconda and Miniconda, and how to install each on Mac and Windows. The official home of the Python Programming Language. Downloads Mac OS X; Python Releases for Mac OS X. Latest Python 3 Release - Python 3.9.1; Latest Python 2 Release - Python 2.7.18; Stable Releases. Python 3.8.7 - Dec. Download macOS 64-bit Intel installer. In this article, we will learn the difference between the standard Python distribution and alternatives, such as Anaconda and Miniconda, and how to install each on Mac and Windows. AIX binary packages for Python3 and Python2 are provided by AIXTOOLS for no-charge. The packages are supplied in installp format (not RPM format). There are no pre-requisites other than a recent version of openssl.base.

For the last three years, I’ve used a mac for all my development. I love the fact that everything ‘just works’ on the platform. That said, when you get into scientific computing and data analytics, especially with python, you can run into some issues.

Just like linux, python is included with the operating system. Unlike linux, this can cause problems long-term for you due to upgrades and changes that Apple may make to the python ecosystem.

On OS X, I recommend those of you starting out to go with Anaconda or Enthought Canopy. As I said in “Installing python on Windows“, I prefer Canopy over Anaconda for scientific computing / data analytics but either will work for you. Installing Canopy on the mac is very similar to installing it on Windows…so I’ll let this post be your guide for installing Canopy.

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty and install and configure python and the modules yourself, you can easily do so, but be prepared to spend some time on the command line.

Before we get started installing python on your Mac, we need to install homebrew, which is a package manager for OS X (it acts similar to the ‘apt’ package manager on ubuntu / debian).

To install homebrew, open a terminal and paste the following:

This command installs the homebrew ecosystem onto your machine and preps your machine to be ready to install various packages, including python.

Installing Python on OSX

Step 1: Let’s get python installed via homebrew. In your terminal, type:

This will install a version of python onto your machine and set up your environment to use that version. This helps mitigate any issues you might have down the road if / when Apple makes changes to the system provided python. Additionally, brew installs pip into the system to make it easy to get the necessary modules onto your machine.

From this point on, we are generally going to follow exactly the same steps that I outline in Installing Python on Linux except we don’t need to install any additional tools.

Step 2: Not required, but highly recommended – install a virtual environment. I recommend virtualenv. Install it with this command:

When you are ready to get started on a new project, type the below command to install python into a new virtual environment (the ‘env’ is the name of the environment). You only have to do this once per project. Note: You should use a folder per project to keep your virtual environments separated.

Whenever you want to work on a specific project, change into that folder and type the following. This will set up your environment with all of your installed python modules:

For the purpose of this walk-through let’s create a new directory, set up a new virtual environment and then install the necessary modules.

Create a folder in your home directory called ‘projects’.
Type “mkdir projects” to do this from the command line.
Change into that folder and then type “mkdir install_example” to create another folder inside the projects folder.
Type “virtualenv env” to create your virtual environment.
Type “source env/bin/activate” to begin using this environment

Now that we have our environment ready to go, we need to install some of the modules that are most often used when doing data work inside python. These modules are:

numpy (installed when you install pandas with pip)

The above modules can be installed with one pip command.

You’re ready to start working with python for data analysis on your mac. Just remember, for each virtualenv you create, you’ll need to reinstall these modules if you wish to use them.

Check back here often for more information on using the above modules to actually DO something.

This section covers the basics of how to install Python packages.

It’s important to note that the term “package” in this context is being used todescribe a bundle of software to be installed (i.e. as a synonym for adistribution). It does not to refer to the kindof package that you import in your Python source code(i.e. a container of modules). It is common in the Python community to refer toa distribution using the term “package”. Usingthe term “distribution” is often not preferred, because it can easily beconfused with a Linux distribution, or another larger software distributionlike Python itself.

Contents

This section describes the steps to follow before installing other Pythonpackages.

Before you go any further, make sure you have Python and that the expectedversion is available from your command line. You can check this by running:

You should get some output like Python3.6.3. If you do not have Python,please install the latest 3.x version from python.org or refer to theInstalling Python section of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python.

Note

If you’re a newcomer and you get an error like this:

It’s because this command and other suggested commands in this tutorialare intended to be run in a shell (also called a terminal orconsole). See the Python for Beginners getting started tutorial foran introduction to using your operating system’s shell and interacting withPython.

Note

If you’re using an enhanced shell like IPython or the Jupyternotebook, you can run system commands like those in this tutorial byprefacing them with a ! character:

It’s recommended to write {sys.executable} rather than plain python inorder to ensure that commands are run in the Python installation matchingthe currently running notebook (which may not be the same Pythoninstallation that the python command refers to).

Note

Due to the way most Linux distributions are handling the Python 3migration, Linux users using the system Python without creating a virtualenvironment first should replace the python command in this tutorialwith python3 and the pip command with pip3--user. Do notrun any of the commands in this tutorial with sudo: if you get apermissions error, come back to the section on creating virtual environments,set one up, and then continue with the tutorial as written.

Additionally, you’ll need to make sure you have pip available. You cancheck this by running:

If you installed Python from source, with an installer from python.org, orvia Homebrew you should already have pip. If you’re on Linux and installedusing your OS package manager, you may have to install pip separately, seeInstalling pip/setuptools/wheel with Linux Package Managers.

If pip isn’t already installed, then first try to bootstrap it from thestandard library:

If that still doesn’t allow you to run pip:

Securely Download get-pip.py1
Run pythonget-pip.py. 2 This will install or upgrade pip.Additionally, it will install setuptools and wheel if they’renot installed already.
Warning
Be cautious if you’re using a Python install that’s managed by youroperating system or another package manager. get-pip.py does notcoordinate with those tools, and may leave your system in aninconsistent state. You can use pythonget-pip.py--prefix=

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