Python and Ubuntu versions

[Cameron Simpson]

On 23Jul2021 19:51, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Fri, Jul 23, 2021 at 7:48 PM Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au> wrote:
>> Do the build and install as yourself. I usually do the install step by
>> making the install directory as root, then chowning it to me. Then you
>> can do the install as you - this has the advantage the you're
>> unprivileged and can't accidentally damage the OS install.
>
>That's interesting, in that it leaves you vulnerable to accidentally
>damaging your alternate installation, but you're putting it into a
>directory that normally would look privileged. I'd be inclined to
>leave /usr as a privileged directory, and do this sort of installation
>entirely within ~/bin or something equivalent. But hey, this is the
>flexibility of Unix file system permissions!

Rereading this, maybe I was unclear. This is for install directories 
like /opt/Python-3.whatever or /usr/local/python-3.whatever. Create the 
install point, chown, install as yourself.

I agree about the risk of future mangling - there's a good case for 
chowning it all to root _after_ the install. I'm just trying to do the 
install itself in an unprivileged mode.

Probably for the OP, the simplest way is a local install as themselved, 
eg in ~/opt/python-3.whatever. Not rootneed needed at all, and a few 
symlinks in ~/bin (or adding ~/opt/python-3.whatever/bin to $PATH) are 
all that's needed to make use of it.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>