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I have python3 installed on Ubuntu 20.04, and I have an application that needs python 2.7 installed. After installation of python 2.7 it looks like python cannot be found

 /usr/bin/python: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

which python, which python2 and which python3 do not return any results

Here's the content of /usr/bin:

root@ip-10-10-10-201:/home/ubuntu# ls -alh /usr/bin/pyt* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Mar 13 2020 /usr/bin/python2 -> python2.7 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.5M Aug 4 11:16 /usr/bin/python2.7 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Mar 13 2020 /usr/bin/python3 -> python3.8 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Mar 13 2020 /usr/bin/python3-config -> python3.8-config -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5.3M Jul 28 12:59 /usr/bin/python3.8 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jul 28 12:59 /usr/bin/python3.8-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.8-config

I'm not sure how to get this working, if I need both pythons (2.7 and 3.8) to be working. Should I change the #!/usr/bin/python in the scripts that require phyton2 to #!/usr/bin/python2 ?

Will appreciate your help. Happy holidays!

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  • Start a new shell or reloading your profile may do it source ~/.bash_profile Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 18:30
  • Do you see a file named exactly /usr/bin/python in this output from ls? In order to use the correct interpreter, you should specify a path to the existing executable. Thus, you can use /usr/bin/python2 or /usr/bin/python2.7. The shebang normally looks like #!/usr/bin/env python. Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 18:31
  • Does this answer your question? : bad interpreter: No such file or directory in python Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 18:33
  • Relevant: askubuntu.com/questions/1296790/… To get python, you have to explicitly choose between python-is-python2 or python-is-python3. Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 18:35
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    Keep in mind, though, that just because you link /usr/bin/python to one or the other, that doesn't mean it's correct for any arbitrary script that specifies /usr/bin/python. It's probably better to update the script to be explicitly. Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 18:46

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As suggested by @ForceBru, changing the scripts from /usr/bin/python to /usr/bin/python2 seems to work.

This is due to the fact that Ubuntu Python packages are always coming as python2 and python3, not python.

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