How to install pip for Python 3.6 on Ubuntu 16.10?

Posted on Jul 5, 2023

Question

I'd like to start by pointing out that this question may seem like a duplicate, but it isn't. All the questions I saw here were regarding pip for Python 3 and I'm talking about Python 3.6. The steps used back then don't work for Python 3.6.

  1. I got a clear Ubuntu 16.10 image from the official docker store.
  2. Run apt-get update
  3. Run apt-get install python3.6
  4. Run apt-get install python3-pip
  5. Run pip3 install requests bs4
  6. Run python3.6 script.py

Got ModuleNotFoundError below:

 Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "script.py", line 6, in <module>
     import requests
 ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'requests'

Python's and pip's I have in the machine:

python3
python3.5
python3.5m
python3.6
python3m
python3-config
python3.5-config
python3.5m-config
python3.6m
python3m-config  

pip pip3 pip3.5

Answer

Let's suppose that you have a system running Ubuntu 16.04, 16.10, or 17.04, and you want Python 3.6 to be the default Python.

If you're using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, you'll need to use a PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/python-3.6  # (only for 16.04 LTS)

Then, run the following (this works out-of-the-box on 16.10 and 17.04):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3.6
sudo apt install python3.6-dev
sudo apt install python3.6-venv
wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
sudo python3.6 get-pip.py
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3.6 /usr/local/bin/python3
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/pip /usr/local/bin/pip3

Do this only if you want python3 to be the default Python

instead of python2 (may be dangerous, esp. before 2020):

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3.6 /usr/local/bin/python

When you have completed all of the above, each of the following shell commands should indicate Python 3.6.1 (or a more recent version of Python 3.6):

python --version   # (this will reflect your choice, see above)
python3 --version
$(head -1 `which pip` | tail -c +3) --version
$(head -1 `which pip3` | tail -c +3) --version