python location on mac osx

Question

I'm a little confused with the python on osx. I do not know if the previous owner of the laptop has installed macpython using macport. And I remembered that osx has an builtin version of python. I tried using type -a python and the result returned

python is /usr/bin/python
python is /usr/local/bin/python

However running both python at these locations give me [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin. Do they both refer to the same builtin python mac provided?

I also read that installing macpython one would

     A MacPython 2.5 folder in your Applications folder. In here you
 find IDLE, the development environment that is a standard part of
 official Python distributions...

I looked at Applications, and theres a MacPort folder with python2.6 and the mentioned stuff in it. But running IDLE, i find the same message as above.

Hmm I'm a little confused. Which is which?

Trivia: Previous owner? If you purchase a computer second hand, just reinstall the OS to clean all previous user files and apps. — klys
– klys, Commented May 19, 2023 at 0:55

Kohn1001 · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-08 12:27:14Z

154

This one will solve all your problems not only on Mac but to find it on Linux also ( & every basic shell).

TL;DR (you don't have to go through all the answer - just the 1st half).
LET'S GO

Run in terminal:

which python3

On Mac you should get:

/usr/local/bin/python3

WAIT!!! It's prob a symbolic link, how do you know? Run:

ls -al /usr/local/bin/python3

and you'll get (if you've installed Python w/ Brew):

/usr/local/bin/python3 -> /usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3

which means that your

/usr/local/bin/python3

is actually pointing to (the real location)

/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3

That's it!

Longer version (optional): If for some reason, your

/usr/local/bin/python3

is not pointing to the place you want, which is in our case:

/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3

just back it up (+cool trick to add .orig suffix to file):

cp /usr/local/bin/python3{,.orig}

and run:

rm -rf /usr/local/bin/python3

now create a new symbolic link:

ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/python3

and now your

/usr/local/bin/python3

is pointing to

/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.6.4_4/bin/python3

Check it out by running:

ls -al /usr/local/bin/python3

edited Mar 8, 2023 at 12:27

answered Jul 16, 2018 at 17:26

Kohn1001

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5 Comments

Paul Jurczyk Over a year ago

finally.... thank you!!!!! i was running into this issue in a virtual environment. Solutions also works. just need to use the correct python location

cellepo Over a year ago

This is also a useful reference for me for basic shell itself - lots of incremental steps, and very well explained :)

Rajat Sharma Over a year ago

In my case python3 wasn't a symlink and @MaPY's solution showed me the path as - <module 'posixpath' from '/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/posixpath.py'>

Andrew Over a year ago

On macOS Ventura/Sonoma Python is located here: /usr/bin/python3 it is a direct binary file, not a symlink.

Aadil Srivastava Over a year ago

Great!! Thank you so much

Gavin · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-27 03:15:42Z

94

I found the easiest way to locate it, you can use

which python

it will show something like this:

/usr/bin/python

answered Oct 27, 2016 at 3:15

Gavin

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2 Comments

Scott Prive Over a year ago

This does not answer which distribution of Python (who made it).

PainIsAMaster Over a year ago

Does it matter at what directory/level you run this command in the terminal? (i.e. macOS iterm2)

Ned Deily · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-25 19:02:22Z

[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] is the version of GCC that the Python(s) were built with, not the version of Python itself. That information should be on the previous line. For example:

# Apple-supplied Python 2.6 in OS X 10.6
$ /usr/bin/python
Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Jun 24 2010, 21:47:49) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> 

# python.org Python 2.7.2 (also built with newer gcc)
$ /usr/local/bin/python
Python 2.7.2 (v2.7.2:8527427914a2, Jun 11 2011, 15:22:34) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Items in /usr/bin should always be or link to files supplied by Apple in OS X, unless someone has been ill-advisedly changing things there. To see exactly where the /usr/local/bin/python is linked to:

$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/python
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  68 Jul  5 10:05 /usr/local/bin/python@ -> ../../../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python

In this case, that is typical for a python.org installed Python instance or it could be one built from source.

cutsoy · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-26 20:11:36Z

64

On Mac OS X, it's in the Python framework in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Resources.

Full path is:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python

Btw it's easy to find out where you can find a specific binary: which Python will show you the path of your Python binary (which is probably the same as I posted above).

edited Apr 26, 2016 at 20:11

answered Jul 25, 2011 at 17:00

cutsoy

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6 Comments

goh Over a year ago

yea i knew that. Its just that I'm confused - I ran the interpreter on /usr/local/bin/ and printed sys.executable. It says /usr/bin/python. but I read the docs and it says that the apple-provided was in /usr/bin/ and the macpython's "A symlink to the Python executable is placed in /usr/local/bin/".

cutsoy Over a year ago

Well, it makes sense: when you compile the python-executable yourself and move it to, say /Users/John/Downloads/, it'll show you it's placed at /Users/John/Downloads/python. You can run multiple executable next to each other on the same system. AFAIK the one in Python.framework is the primary one though, so you should rely on that one.

Ned Deily Over a year ago

Actually, the Apple-supplied Pythons in Mac OS X are in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework. Anything in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework comes from a third-party install, usually a python.org (or other distributor) installer or if you did a default framework build of Python from source.

Zitrax Over a year ago

When I run /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7 the ps aux output shows me /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python, why is that - I don't see that it's a symlink ? ( Asked this question at AskDifferent )

Pyderman Over a year ago

@Tim Thanks. When I go to /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/, I see not 2.7 (which is what I have installed), but an alias file called 'Current', which, when clicked, gives me the error "The operation can't be competed because the original item for 'Current' can't be found."

|

Yongzhi.C · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-29 23:58:06Z

12

I checked a few similar discussions and found out the best way to locate all python2/python3 builds is:

which -a python python3

answered Mar 29, 2018 at 23:58

Yongzhi.C

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Comments

Daniel Nuriyev · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-21 02:57:50Z

8

On High Sierra

which python

shows the default python but if you downloaded and installed the latest version from python.org you can find it by:

which python3.6

which on my machine shows

/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin/python3.6

answered Mar 21, 2018 at 2:57

Daniel Nuriyev

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1 Comment

Scott Prive Over a year ago

This does not answer which distribution of Python (who made it).

Georgy Gobozov · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-09 22:55:22Z

5

installed with 'brew install python3', found it here

answered Nov 9, 2017 at 22:55

Georgy Gobozov

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Comments

MaPY · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-03 17:00:25Z

4

Run this in your interactive terminal

import os
os.path

It will give you the folder where python is installed

answered Apr 3, 2018 at 17:00

MaPY

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Comments

hanumanDev · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-15 22:15:13Z

2

run the following code in a .py file:

import sys

print(sys.version)
print(sys.executable)

answered Jan 15, 2020 at 22:15

hanumanDev

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Comments

Soner from The Ottoman Empire · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-19 14:32:20Z

1

which python3 simply result in a path in which the interpreter settles down.

answered Jun 19, 2019 at 14:32

Soner from The Ottoman Empire

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Comments

Hassek · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-25 17:18:42Z

0

I have a cook recipe for finding things in linux/macos

First update the locate db then do a

locate WHATiWANTtoSEARCH | less

do a /find to find what you are looking for.

to update your locate db in macos do this:

sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb

it sometimes takes a while. Hope this helps :)

answered Jul 25, 2011 at 17:18

Hassek

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Comments

Muhammad Yasirroni · Accepted Answer · 2024-06-05 06:07:01Z

In my case:

which python3: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/bin/python3
which python3.7: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/bin/python3.7
which python3.12: /opt/homebrew/bin/python3.12

To change the default python3 command to use Python 3.12 instead of Python 3.7

Create symbolic link

sudo ln -s /opt/homebrew/bin/python3.12 /usr/local/bin/python3

Open the shell configuration file:
```
nano ~/.zshrc
```
Add the following line at the end of the file to set the path for Python 3.12:
```
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"
```
Source the updated configuration file to apply the changes immediately:
```
source ~/.zshrc
```

Check:

which python3
python3 --version
which python3.7
which python3.12

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