Install packages with yum to alt python location

Question

I am currently running RHEL 6.6. This has python 2.6.6 pre-installed and is the default. I installed python 2.7 using the altinstall method. The default python is still 2.6.6 . I'm trying to install the python-devel packages using yum which only runs with root. However when I run yum install python-devel as root it installs the packages to python 2.6.6 .

Is there a way to get yum to install packages using the alt python install?

Answer 1

You may want to use the Python 2.7 version that is available as part of "Software Collections". This is installed along side the original 2.6 and doesn't try to replace it (and is included in nearly all RHEL subscriptions.) See info here:

Introduction: http://developers.redhat.com/products/softwarecollections/overview/

List of available components including Python 2.7: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Software_Collections/2/html/2.0_Release_Notes/chap-RHSCL.html#sect-RHSCL-Features

It's still a yum install, but with an extra command or two. You can start with this Get Started guide for Python 3.4 ( http://developers.redhat.com/products/softwarecollections/get-started-rhel6-python/ ) but swap out the Python versions in steps 2 and 3.