Installing Python 2 and 3 on macOS

python-pyenv-macos.md

Installing Python 2 and 3 on macOS

Starting with macOS 12.3, Python is no longer bundled with macOS. These instructions allow you to set up Python 2 and Python 3 side-by-side using pyenv. The instructions were tested on an Apple Silicon Mac, but the process on an Intel Mac should be similar.

Install Homebrew

Homebrew is a popular package manager that makes it easy to install command line tools. If you don’t yet have Homebrew installed, instructions can be found here: https://brew.sh

Verify that Homebrew is installed:

brew -v

Install pyenv

1. Run the Homebrew install script for pyenv:

brew install pyenv

2. Update your .zprofile and .zshrc files to reference pyenv:

echo 'eval "$(pyenv init --path)"' >> ~/.zprofile
echo 'eval "$(pyenv init -)"' >> ~/.zshrc

3. Install the latest available Python 2 and Python 3 versions:

LATEST_PYTHON_2=$(pyenv install --list | grep -e "^\s*2[0-9.]*[0-9]\s*$" | tail -1 | xargs)
LATEST_PYTHON_3=$(pyenv install --list | grep -e "^\s*3[0-9.]*[0-9]\s*$" | tail -1 | xargs)
pyenv install $LATEST_PYTHON_2
pyenv install $LATEST_PYTHON_3
pyenv versions

4. Tell pyenv to activate the two versions of Python that were installed:

pyenv global $LATEST_PYTHON_2 $LATEST_PYTHON_3
pyenv versions

5. Open a new terminal window.

6. Verify that the pyenv version of Python 2 is loaded:

which python
python -V

7. Verify that the pyenv version of Python 3 is loaded:

which python3
python3 -V

error while execute pyenv install $LATEST_PYTHON_2

~ pyenv install $LATEST_PYTHON_2
Error: No available formula with the name "[email protected]". Did you mean [email protected], [email protected] or openssl@3?
python-build: use openssl from homebrew
python-build: use readline from homebrew
Downloading Python-2.7.18.tar.xz...
-> https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.18/Python-2.7.18.tar.xz

It looks like it's failing while trying to install the openssl dependency.
Are you running a recent version of pyenv? You could try brew upgrade pyenv.
You can also try installing openssl manually – that may allow the pyenv Python installer to skip the failing step: brew install openssl

This issue doesn't seem to affect. In the end, it was successfully installed.

I got the same issue. I think this is because python2 is not supported by arm systems. I am using apple silicon

It works on my mac mini M4. Thanks.

This worked for me:

PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS="--disable-toolbox-glue" pyenv install 2.7.18