How to Install Python 3.11 with pip on Amazon Linux 2023

Blazing quick guide to making Python 3.11 available for you to use on your AL2023 EC2 instance

Struggling to have Python 3.11 and its corresponding pip made available on your existing Amazon Linux 2023 instance? Look no further as this article is perfect for you.

Again, this is one of those articles inspired by many of my personal projects, be it for a client or not.

The good news is that installation of Python 3.11 on Amazon Linux 2023 is not as hard as it seems, and definitely easier than having Python 3.10 installed, at least from what I have tried so far.

In fact, this is supported by the official AWS documentation which states:

Newer versions of Python, such as Python 3.11, are made available as packages in AL2023, and are supported for the lifetime of the upstream versions. See AL2023 Support Statements for details on how long each AL2023 package is supported for, including Python 3.11.

This means Python 3.11 is already available as a package in the Amazon Linux 2023 image and hence downloading it is not needed anymore — we just need to simply install it.

Excited to install Python 3.11 and its corresponding pip in your Amazon Linux 2023 instance? Let’s get into it.

The default package management tool in Amazon Linux 2023 is “dnf” and not “yum” as detailed here. We will be using “dnf” to do the installation in this article.

Prerequisites

If you wish to follow along this tutorial, make sure you have these first:

  • EC2 Instance (Amazon Linux 2023 image)
  • Basic Linux/Bash skills (preferable)

If you do not have an EC2 instance yet, take this time to spin up one, ensuring you choose the image below:

Amazon Linux 2023 AMI selection

With an EC2 instance up and running, let’s move on to running some commands.

The Solution

[0] Check for existence of Python 3.11

Running the command below will let you know if Python 3.11 is already executable or not on your instance:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-47-32 ~]$ python 3.11 --version
-bash: python: command not found

[1] Search for existing Python 3.11 package

Run the command below:

sudo dnf search python3.11

The results are as follows, indicating existing Python 3.11 package, ready to be installed:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-47-32 ~]$ sudo dnf search python3.11
Last metadata expiration check: 0:06:30 ago on Sun Dec  3 02:44:48 2023.
======================= Name Exactly Matched: python3.11 =======================
python3.11.x86_64 : Version 3.11 of the Python interpreter
=========================== Name Matched: python3.11 ===========================
python3.11-debug.x86_64 : Debug version of the Python runtime
python3.11-devel.x86_64 : Libraries and header files needed for Python
                        : development
python3.11-idle.x86_64 : A basic graphical development environment for Python
python3.11-libs.x86_64 : Python runtime libraries
python3.11-pip.noarch : A tool for installing and managing Python packages
python3.11-pip-wheel.noarch : The pip wheel
python3.11-setuptools.noarch : Easily build and distribute Python packages
python3.11-setuptools-wheel.noarch : The setuptools wheel
python3.11-test.x86_64 : The self-test suite for the main python3 package
python3.11-tkinter.x86_64 : A GUI toolkit for Python
python3.11-wheel.noarch : Built-package format for Python
python3.11-wheel-wheel.noarch : The Python wheel module packaged as a wheel

[2] Install Python 3.11

Install Python 3.11 by running the command below:

sudo dnf install python3.11 -y

The results:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-47-32 ~]$ sudo dnf install python3.11 -y
Last metadata expiration check: 0:08:16 ago on Sun Dec  3 02:44:48 2023.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package                     Arch   Version                   Repository   Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 python3.11                  x86_64 3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11    amazonlinux  28 k
Installing dependencies:
 mpdecimal                   x86_64 2.5.1-3.amzn2023.0.3      amazonlinux 101 k
 python3.11-libs             x86_64 3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11    amazonlinux 9.3 M
 python3.11-pip-wheel        noarch 22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2     amazonlinux 1.4 M
 python3.11-setuptools-wheel noarch 65.5.1-2.amzn2023.0.4     amazonlinux 715 k
Installing weak dependencies:
 libxcrypt-compat            x86_64 4.4.33-7.amzn2023         amazonlinux  92 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  6 Packages

Total download size: 12 M
Installed size: 47 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/6): mpdecimal-2.5.1-3.amzn2023.0.3.x86_64.rp 846 kB/s | 101 kB     00:00    
(2/6): libxcrypt-compat-4.4.33-7.amzn2023.x86_6 728 kB/s |  92 kB     00:00    
(3/6): python3.11-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x86_64 1.1 MB/s |  28 kB     00:00    
(4/6): python3.11-setuptools-wheel-65.5.1-2.amz 8.5 MB/s | 715 kB     00:00    
(5/6): python3.11-pip-wheel-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0  18 MB/s | 1.4 MB     00:00    
(6/6): python3.11-libs-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x  27 MB/s | 9.3 MB     00:00    
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                            28 MB/s |  12 MB     00:00     
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                        1/1 
  Installing       : python3.11-setuptools-wheel-65.5.1-2.amzn2023.0.4.no   1/6 
  Installing       : libxcrypt-compat-4.4.33-7.amzn2023.x86_64              2/6 
  Installing       : python3.11-pip-wheel-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2.noarch      3/6 
  Installing       : mpdecimal-2.5.1-3.amzn2023.0.3.x86_64                  4/6 
  Installing       : python3.11-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x86_64               5/6 
  Installing       : python3.11-libs-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x86_64          6/6 
  Running scriptlet: python3.11-libs-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x86_64          6/6 
  Verifying        : python3.11-libs-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x86_64          1/6 
  Verifying        : mpdecimal-2.5.1-3.amzn2023.0.3.x86_64                  2/6 
  Verifying        : libxcrypt-compat-4.4.33-7.amzn2023.x86_64              3/6 
  Verifying        : python3.11-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x86_64               4/6 
  Verifying        : python3.11-setuptools-wheel-65.5.1-2.amzn2023.0.4.no   5/6 
  Verifying        : python3.11-pip-wheel-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2.noarch      6/6 

Installed:
  libxcrypt-compat-4.4.33-7.amzn2023.x86_64                                     
  mpdecimal-2.5.1-3.amzn2023.0.3.x86_64                                         
  python3.11-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x86_64                                      
  python3.11-libs-3.11.2-2.amzn2023.0.11.x86_64                                 
  python3.11-pip-wheel-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2.noarch                             
  python3.11-setuptools-wheel-65.5.1-2.amzn2023.0.4.noarch                      

Complete!

[3] Install pip

Note that pip for Python 3.11 has not been installed at this point, proven by running the command below:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-47-32 ~]$ python3.11 -m pip --version
/usr/bin/python3.11: No module named pip

Time to solve “No module named pip” by installing pip using the command below:

sudo dnf install python3.11-pip -y

The results:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-47-32 ~]$ sudo dnf install python3.11-pip -y
Last metadata expiration check: 0:14:36 ago on Sun Dec  3 02:44:48 2023.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package                 Arch     Version                   Repository     Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 python3.11-pip          noarch   22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2     amazonlinux   2.7 M
Installing weak dependencies:
 python3.11-setuptools   noarch   65.5.1-2.amzn2023.0.4     amazonlinux   1.5 M

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  2 Packages

Total download size: 4.3 M
Installed size: 20 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): python3.11-setuptools-65.5.1-2.amzn2023.  13 MB/s | 1.5 MB     00:00    
(2/2): python3.11-pip-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2.noa  15 MB/s | 2.7 MB     00:00    
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                            17 MB/s | 4.3 MB     00:00     
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                        1/1 
  Installing       : python3.11-setuptools-65.5.1-2.amzn2023.0.4.noarch     1/2 
  Installing       : python3.11-pip-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2.noarch            2/2 
  Running scriptlet: python3.11-pip-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2.noarch            2/2 
  Verifying        : python3.11-pip-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2.noarch            1/2 
  Verifying        : python3.11-setuptools-65.5.1-2.amzn2023.0.4.noarch     2/2 

Installed:
  python3.11-pip-22.3.1-2.amzn2023.0.2.noarch                                   
  python3.11-setuptools-65.5.1-2.amzn2023.0.4.noarch                            

Complete!

[4] Verify installation of Python 3.11 and pip

To verify Python 3.11 installation:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-47-32 ~]$ python3.11 --version
Python 3.11.2

To verify pip installation specific for Python 3.11:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-47-32 ~]$ python3.11 -m pip --version
pip 22.3.1 from /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pip (python 3.11)

That’s it!

Takeaway

At this point, you should have learned these concepts:

  • Know that “dnf” is the default package management tool in Amazon Linux 2023
  • How to search for existing packages using dnf
  • How to install existing packages using dnf
  • How to install Python 3.11 with pip on Amazon Linux 2023
  • How to verify installation of Python 3.11 with pip

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