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Managing Python installations

macOS

  • Verify and install the latest supported Python version from python.org

    🚨 Do not use the one from Homebrew as it is known to cause issues

  • Ensure the ~/.zprofile of all accounts contains the following lines, and remove any older ones, if they exist:

    PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/<version>/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH

    (make sure to replace <version> with the version of the newly installed Python, e.g., 3.13)

    🚨 When a user installs Python from python.org, it is installed by default in a non-standard location (/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/), and can co-exist with previous installations from https://python.org. In order to make it accessible to the shell, the Python installer updates the PATH environment variable. However, it does so only for the account that installs Python, and not for the rest of the accounts. So, the last part must be done manually.

  • Exit any previous terminal/SSH sessions, so that the $PATH changes can take effect.

    (We can't just source ~/.zshrc, because it doesn't account for removals or changes in ~/.zprofile)

  • Ensure which python3 returns the expected Python installation

    % which python3
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3

  • Install Poetry from an account with admin privileges, with python3 -m pip install -U poetry

  • Ensure which poetry returns the expected Poetry installation

    % which poetry
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/poetry

  • Ensure that Poetry picks the correct Python version with poetry debug info

    % cd dangerzone
% poetry debug info
Poetry
Version: 2.1.3
Python:  3.13.5

Virtualenv
Python:         3.13.5
Implementation: CPython
Path:           [...]
Executable:     [...]
Valid:          True

Base
Platform:   darwin
OS:         posix
Python:     3.13.5
Path:       [...]
Executable: [...]

Windows

  • Verify and install the latest supported Python version from python.org

  • Install Poetry with python -m pip install -U poetry

  • Ensure that Poetry picks the correct Python version with poetry debug info

    C:\> cd dangerzone
C:\> poetry debug info
Poetry
Version: 2.1.3
Python:  3.13.5

Virtualenv
Python:         3.13.5
Implementation: CPython
Path:           [...]
Executable:     [...]
Valid:          True

Base
Platform:   win32
OS:         nt
Python:     3.13.5
Path:       [...]
Executable: [...]