CentOS 6.5 still come with Python 2.6 and I need 2.7, below a simple tutorial how to achieve this with no pain and not messing with installed Python.
Update CentOS and install development tools
yum -y update
yum groupinstall -y 'development tools'
Also you need the packages below to enable SSL, bz2, zlib for Python and some utils:
yum install -y zlib-devel bzip2-devel openssl-devel xz-libs wget
Installing Python 2.7.8 from source
Download Python and extract it
wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.8/Python-2.7.8.tar.xz
xz -d Python-2.7.8.tar.xz
tar -xvf Python-2.7.8.tar
Installation process
Since we already installed all the dependencies we are ready to go:
# Enter the directory:
cd Python-2.7.8
# Run the configure:
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
# compile and install it:
make
make altinstall
# Checking Python version:
[root@nicetry ~]# python2.7 -V
Python 2.7.8
If you need set PATH variable check the line below:
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
Installing pip and virtualenv
Now we have Python installed, but something is missing isn't? Yes! We need pip and virtualenv.
Install setuptools
wget --no-check-certificate https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/setuptools/setuptools-1.4.2.tar.gz
# Extract the files:
tar -xvf setuptools-1.4.2.tar.gz
cd setuptools-1.4.2
# Install setuptools using the Python 2.7.8:
python2.7 setup.py install
Install pip
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pypa/pip/master/contrib/get-pip.py | python2.7 -
And finally virtualenv
pip2.7 install virtualenv
And that's all, we have Python 2.7.8 installed on CentOS.