Installed python3, getting command not found error in terminal

Question

I installed python3, I can open idle and it says it is running python3.0.1, but when I enter python3 in the terminal (on OSX) I get an error saying 'command not found'. Entering python gets me the 2.x version that came on the computer. Any advice on how I can access python3 from the terminal?

Thanks

If it works from the installation directory it's probably a path problem, path as in your environment variables, not sure how to edit them on OSX, if your 2.x version runs fine it's probably pointing to that directory instead of the 3.0.1-directory. — dutt
– dutt, Commented Oct 9, 2010 at 5:14
@I agree with @dutt. If you were on windows, I could give you detailed instructions, as I've solved this issue a bunch of times. Essentially, the list of paths your system checks lists the python2x directory before the python3 directory. SuperUser may be able to give you better assistance. — JoshD
– JoshD, Commented Oct 9, 2010 at 5:19

Ned Deily · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-09 05:45:57Z

16

First, don't use Python 3.0.1. It has many problems and was officially retired upon the release of Python 3.1 (currently 3.1.2). You can find the python.org Mac OS X installer for 3.1.2 here. Once it is installed, then you need to ensure that the bin directory from the 3.1.2 framework (/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/bin) is on your shell search path. You can manually modify an appropriate shell startup file, like .bash_profile. Or just double-click the Update Shell Profile.command found in /Applications/Python 3.1. In either case, you will need to open a new terminal window or re-login. Another approach is to install Python 3.1 from MacPorts or another distributor. Also, alpha releases of Python 3.2 are now available from python.org and elsewhere.

edited Oct 9, 2010 at 5:45

answered Oct 9, 2010 at 5:38

Ned Deily

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Ned Deily Over a year ago

Glad to hear it. By the way, when you post a question on Stackoverflow, you should either mark an answer as accepted (so that the answerer gets reputation points) or edit your question until you do get a satisfactory answer.

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