How to Compile and Install Python 3.12+ on Amazon Linux 2

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

Amazon Linux 2 does not provide Python 3.12 via its default repositories.
The following script:

• Builds OpenSSL 1.1.1 manually.
• Compiles Python 3.12 against that OpenSSL.
• Installs Python without breaking the system Python.
• Creates a virtual environment safely.

Script Overview – What This Script Does

System update and required packages

#!/bin/bash
# Update the system
sudo yum update -y

# Install development tools and required libraries
sudo yum groupinstall -y "Development Tools"
sudo yum install -y openssl-devel bzip2-devel libffi-devel zlib-devel \
    readline-devel sqlite-devel ncurses-devel gdbm-devel \
    db4-devel expat-devel gcc gcc-c++ make perl-core \
    xz-devel libuuid-devel tk-devel tcl-devel

Build and install OpenSSL 1.1.1

cd /tmp/
wget https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.1.1w.tar.gz
tar xzf openssl-1.1.1w.tar.gz
cd openssl-1.1.1w

./config --prefix=/usr/local/openssl --openssldir=/usr/local/openssl shared zlib
make -j "$(nproc)"
sudo make install

# Register the new library path
echo '/usr/local/openssl/lib' | sudo tee /etc/ld.so.conf.d/openssl.conf
sudo ldconfig

# Export environment variables for the current session
export PATH="/usr/local/openssl/bin:$PATH"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/openssl/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/local/openssl/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/openssl/include"
export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/openssl/lib"

# Verify installation
openssl version

Download, configure, and compile Python 3.12

cd /tmp/
wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.0/Python-3.12.0.tgz
tar xzf Python-3.12.0.tgz
cd Python-3.12.0

# Configure the Python build.
#   --enable-optimizations : improves performance (optional but recommended)
#   --with-ensurepip=install : bundles pip
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-optimizations --with-ensurepip=install

make -j "$(nproc)"
sudo make altinstall   # installs as python3.12 without overwriting system python

Verify the installation

/usr/local/bin/python3.12 --version
/usr/local/bin/pip3.12 --version

Create a virtual environment

/usr/local/bin/python3.12 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

(Optional) Create convenient symlinks

# Symlink for python3.12
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/python3.12 /usr/bin/python3.12

# Symlink for pip3.12
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/pip3.12 /usr/bin/pip3.12

# Verify the symlinks
python3.12 --version
pip3.12 --version