I have just installed Python2.6 on a Red Hat linux server which was supplied with python2.4 preinstaleld. When I type python, python2.4 is launched, typing python2.6 launches python 2.6 correctly. What is the correct way to make 2.6 the default? Also how can this result be possible:
$ python -V && which python && pwd && ./python -V
Python 2.4.3
/usr/local/bin/python
/usr/local/bin
Python 2.6.6
It's a symlink actually.
$ ls -al `which python`
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2010-04-21 12:08 /usr/bin/python -> python2.6
So changing the default version from 2.4 to 2.6 would be just:
cd /usr/bin
sudo ln -sf `which python2.6` python
./python runs it from the directory you're in, while python searches $PATH
which to check what version was in PATH; however, which is an external command (try type which) and cannot see aliases. There was likely an alias, or python was hashed before a second copy was placed in /usr/local; hash -r flushes that.The easiest and quickest way, is to prepend the path to the 2.6.6 version to your PATH variable for your shell. This would go into your .bashrc or .profile, etc.
Assuming this path is /opt/foo/bin it would be:
export PATH=/opt/foo/bin:$PATH
If you don't include the possible side effects of things in the new path, this is the quick win.
This really depends on if you need this to be system-wide.
