How do I use brew installed Python as the default Python?

As suggested by the homebrew installer itself, be sure to add this to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

export PATH="/usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin:$PATH" 

For Apple Silicon machines, the path are slightly different. After running brew install python, you must ensure your ~/.zshrc uses the correct Homebrew paths:

# Homebrew eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)" # Homebrew: Python export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/python/libexec/bin:$PATH" 

Results:

% which python /opt/homebrew/opt/python/libexec/bin/python % python --version Python 3.9.9 % which pip /opt/homebrew/opt/python/libexec/bin/pip % pip -V pip 21.3.1 from /opt/homebrew/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9) 

UPDATE 2023

Brew python changed it's location again and had to update my ~/.zshrc to:

export PATH="$(brew --prefix)/opt/python@3/libexec/bin:$PATH" 

There isn't a .../opt/python/... anymore which is annoying because now I have to specify v3 explicitly, but at least better than having to specify the minor version like in the comments.

As you are using Homebrew the following command gives a better picture:

brew doctor 

Output:

==> /usr/bin occurs before /usr/local/bin This means that system-provided programs will be used instead of those provided by Homebrew. This is an issue if you eg. brew installed Python.

Consider editing your .bash_profile to put: /usr/local/bin ahead of /usr/bin in your $PATH.

See: How to symlink python in Homebrew?

$ brew link --overwrite python Linking /usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3... 28 symlinks created $ which python /usr/local/bin/python 

Quick fix:

1. Open /etc/paths
2. Change the order of the lines (highest priority on top)

In my case /etc/paths looks like:

/usr/local/bin /usr/local/sbin /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin 

If you want to know more about paths in OSX I found this article quite useful:

http://muttsnutts.github.com/blog/2011/09/12/manage-path-on-mac-os-x-lion/

I did "brew install python" for OSX High Sierra. The $PATH had /usr/local/bin before any other path but still which python was pointing to the system's python.

When I looked deeper I found that there is no python executable at /usr/local/bin. The executable is named python2. To fix this problem create a symbolic link python pointing to python2:

/usr/local/bin $: ln -s python2 python

python formula now uses python3(v3.6.5 for now), brew will link the directory:

/usr/local/opt/python -> ../Cellar/python/3.6.5 

it will also link the binary:

/usr/local/bin/python3 -> ../Cellar/python/3.6.5/bin/python3 

If you still need to use python2.x, use:

brew install python@2 

To use homebrew's python, just put its directory in PATH, for bash:

export PATH="/usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin:$PATH" 

for fish:

set -x PATH /usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin $PATH 

Note:

1. doing this will shadow the system default version of python
2. homebrew used to link python to /usr/local/share/python in older versions.

Homebrew does NOT replace stuff in "/usr/bin". You'll just want to put "/usr/local/bin" ahead of "/usr/bin" in your path, then "which python" will give you "/usr/local/bin/python".

Replacing /usr/bin/python (or /usr/bin/ruby) is highly unrecommended.

Modify your $PATH, Add this in your bashrc or bash_profile:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:~/bin:$PATH 

more click here: Issue #89791

I did brew install python, my $PATH was good, but still, which python gave me the system installed one. Restarting the terminal fixed it.

You need to edit your PATH environmental variable to make sure wherever the homebrew python is located is searched before /usr/bin. You could also set things up in your shell config to have a variable like PYTHON be set to your desired version of python and call $PYTHON rather than python from the command line.

Also, as another poster stated (and especially on mac) DO NOT mess with the python in /usr/bin to point it to another python install. You're just asking for trouble if you do.

python now points to python3, if you need python 2 then do: brew install python@2 and then in your .zshrc or .bashrc file export PATH="/usr/local/opt/python@2/libexec/bin:$PATH" Now, pyhon --version = Python 2.7.14 and python3 --version = Python 3.6.4. That's the behavior I'm used to seeing in my terminal.

I believe there are means to make homebrew python default, but in my opinion the proper way to solve a problem is not to mess with system python paths: it is better to create a virtualenv in which homebrew python would be default (by using virtualenv --python option). Using tools like python_select is almost always a bad idea.

Add the /usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin explicitly to your .bash_profile:

export PATH="/usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin:$PATH" 

After that, it should work correctly.

Use pyenv instead to install and switch between versions of Python. I've been using rbenv for years which does the same thing, but for Ruby. Before that it was hell managing versions.

Consult pyenv's github page for installation instructions. Basically it goes like this: - Install pyenv using homebrew. brew install pyenv - Add a function to the end of your shell startup script so pyenv can do it's magic. echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.bash_profile

• Use pyenv to install however many different versions of Python you need. pyenv install 3.7.7.
• Set the default (global) version to a modern version you just installed. pyenv global 3.7.7.
• If you work on a project that needs to use a different version of python, look into pyevn local. This creates a file in your project's folder that specifies the python version. Pyenv will look override the global python version with the version in that file.

On Mac OS X, if you installed Python3 via Homebrew with brew install python3, then you need to run the following command via terminal:

export PATH="/usr/local/opt/[email protected]/libexec/bin:$PATH" 

This is for the latest Python version 3.11. Make sure to edit the command to correspond with your Python version.

Just do:

brew install python brew link python 

After doing that, add this to your bashrc or bash_profile:

alias python='/usr/local/bin/python2' 

Enjoy!

try this

which python3 

Try typing python3 instead of just python

Add this to your PATH variable in .bashrc or .zshrc

export PATH=$(brew --prefix python)/libexec/bin:$PATH 

This will make sure that when updating your python, it will be updated as well

You can edit /etc/paths. Here is mine:

/usr/local/bin /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin 

Then add a symlink for the python version. In my case

$ cd /usr/local/bin $ ln -s python3 python 

Voila!

If you are fish shell

echo 'set -g fish_user_paths "/usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin" $fish_user_paths' >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish 

Greeting folks! I have the need to use python 3.10 version to harness its new features. My solved solution at 2022-07-03 is as follows. Have fun coding python!

» rm '/usr/local/bin/pip3.10' » brew link [email protected] » echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/[email protected]/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc » python3 Python 3.10.5 (main, Jun 23 2022, 17:15:25) [Clang 13.1.6 (clang-1316.0.21.2.5)] on darwin Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. 

So I ran into this as well, took me a bit but I figured it out. I had to use which python to find out where python was installed, turns out I had installed it with homebrew, and pip was under the Frameworks dir

 which pip /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin/pip 

So then I installed pip with homebrew as well and tried to install it again and got the following

pip install pandas error: externally-managed-environment × This environment is externally managed ╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try brew install xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to install. If you wish to install a non-brew-packaged Python package, create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv. Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. If you wish to install a non-brew packaged Python application, it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed. note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages. hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification. 

So I then followed what it advised me to do and created a virtual environment in the directory my project was in.

python3 -m venv ./ 

After that I still couldn't get it, pip kept giving me the same error until I ran it like this:

./bin/pip install pandas 

and THAT worked... so now I run

./bin/python3 filename.py 

And I no longer get the error. It's all about finding where your python that you're actually using is, and using that to run your scripts.

I hope this helps someone out there!

Since High Sierra, you need to use:

sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(brew --prefix)/* 

This is because /usr/local can no longer be chowned

brew link python 

And you must create/add an alias for python and put it in your .zprofile (Located in Users/username folder, if you press Shift+command+.

This must point to your homebrew python installation location.

alias python ='opt/homebrew/bin/python3' 

Well just in case anyone needed something I needed i.e. just to play around with Python a bit, you may as well call it from terminal with

python3 my_python_file.py 

considering python 3.x is installed, of course, in my case using brew.

Just add the brew's Python directory to the PATH environment variable and don't hard-code the path, rather get it directly from brew, so it doesn't break when it changes:

export PATH="$(brew --prefix python@3)/libexec/bin:$PATH"