You can use pyenv to install python with:

brew install pyenv pyenv install 2.7.18 

Optionally set it to your global default:

pyenv global 2.7.18 

Nice article on why using pyenv is better than using brew to manage your python installation.

To make python binary available globally, add shims to PATH:

PATH=$(pyenv root)/shims:$PATH 

For those showing up here after Apple removed the system python in macOS 12.3, here's how to install and run python2 and python3.

Python 2

python, python2 -> python 2.7

# Download/run the legacy macOS installer (pick which one for your sys) https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-2718/ # Verify it installed correctly # # Call it directly /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7 --version # should print Python 2.7.18 # Check the `python` symlink ls -alf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python # starts with "l" lrwxrwxr-x root admin # ends with "-> python2" # Check the `python2` symlink ls -alf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2 # starts with "l" lrwxrwxr-x root admin # ends with "-> python2.7" # Check the binary ls -alf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7 # starts with "-" -rwxrwxr-x root admin # is the actual binary # Check the Apple symlink ls -alf /usr/local/bin/python # starts with "l" lrwxrwxr-x root admin # points to /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python # Make sure python is on your PATH. Check or add # these lines to your ~/.zprofile or shell start script PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:${PATH}" export PATH # Add pip for python2.7 curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py -o get-pip2.py python2 get-pip2.py # Optionally check for pip updates (in case of post-eol patches) python2 -m pip install --upgrade pip # Optionally add some helpers while editing shell profile alias pip2="python2 -m pip" alias venv2="virtualenv -p python2" alias venv3="virtualenv -p python3" # Optionally some apple-specific std libraries are missing, search # and download them. Example: plistlib.py curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python/cpython/2.7/Lib/plistlib.py -o /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/plistlib.py # Lastly, there is no symlink /usr/bin/python anymore # /usr/bin is system protected so you can't add one either # # Change your programs to use /usr/local/bin/python # or google how to disable macOS SIP to make a symlink in /usr/bin 

Python 3 (Updated as of macOS 15.1 Sequoia)

python3 -> python 3

brew update brew install python3 # Turn off the EXTERNALLY-MANAGED flag to: # - Let you install global packages with `pip3 install` # - Upgrade pip yourself # # WARNING this is old-style python wrangling, be careful # and know what you're doing before installing global # packages with this flag turned off # # Go to your cellar dir where python3 lives cd $(brew --cellar python3) # Find the flag (version-specific directories) find . -type f -iname 'EXTERNALLY-MANAGED*' # Go to the dir it's in cd YOUR_PATH_ABOVE (leave out EXTERNALLY-MANAGED) sudo mv EXTERNALLY-MANAGED EXTERNALLY-MANAGED.bak # Add pip for python 3 in case it is missing curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py python3 get-pip.py # Check for pip updates python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip # Optionally add a helper in ~/.zprofile alias venv3="virtualenv -p python3" 

Test it out

~ % python --version Python 2.7.18 ~ % python2 --version Python 2.7.18 ~ % python3 --version Python 3.9.10 # Running older python2 python2 -m pip install... python2 ... # Testing the venv2 alias from above venv2 foo source foo/bin/activate pip -V # pip 20... from... python2.7 pip install -y -r req.txt pip uninstall -y -r req.txt pip freeze deactivate # Testing the venv3 alias from above venv3 foo3 source foo3/bin/activate pip -V # pip22... from ...python3.9 pip install -y -r req.txt pip uninstall -y -r req.txt pip freeze deactivate 

Troubleshooting via uninstall / reinstall

# Credit to https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/5880/python/uninstall # for many of the tips in this section. # Sometimes there are problems related to accepting xcode # tool agreement. Open XCode to make sure it finished # installing its tool updates. # Remove old python Application installs # open the apps dir and delete Python 2, 3 via Finder open /Applications # Remove old brew installs brew list | grep python brew uninstall python brew uninstall python3 # find/remove lingering unlinked kegs ls -l $(brew --cellar) | grep python # Cleanup binaries sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Pyth* rm /usr/local/bin/pip* # Cleanup symlinks which -a python # check results, and rm each one which -a python2 # check results, and rm each one which -a python3 # check results, and rm each one brew cleanup # prunes symlinks 

How to install python@2 from a local tap

The following method works with the current version (c9b8a3ef6) of brew:

$ brew tap-new <user>/homebrew-python2 $ brew extract python@2 <user>/homebrew-python2 $ brew install /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/<user>/homebrew-python2/Formula/[email protected] 

The brew tap-new command creates a new local tap template in /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/<user>/homebrew-python2. The tap name needs a <user> and a <repo> component separated by a /. The actual values are arbitrary. The naming above follows the conventions from How to Create and Maintain a Tap. If you wanted to push the tap to GitHub you would use your GitHub username as user. Pushing to GitHub is not necessary (and was not performed in the instructions above).

The brew extract commands extracts the recent version of formula from the repos history into the given (local) tap. In our case [email protected] is extracted.

The brew install command finally installs the formula.

Why is this necessary?

The method discussed above (installing an old version of the formula from a GitHub commit URL) does not work anymore for python@2 with the current version of brew (c9b8a3ef6), it produces the following error:

$ brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/86a44a0a552c673a05f11018459c9f5faae3becc/Formula/[email protected] Updating Homebrew... ==> Auto-updated Homebrew! Updated Homebrew from 88f17b8b6 to c9b8a3ef6. ... Error: Calling Installation of python@2 from a GitHub commit URL is disabled! Use 'brew extract python@2' to stable tap on GitHub instead. 

Please check following command (I am using it on macOS 10.13, it is possible that for a newer macOS it will work without source compilation):

brew install pr0d1r2/python2/[email protected] --build-from-source 

this work for me on m1(12.3.1):
dont use brew, download from python official website directly.
This question has tortured me for a long time :(

For posterity, working on macOS 10.15 (May/2021):

/usr/local/bin/brew tap-new ${USER}/homebrew-python2 /usr/local/bin/brew extract python@2 ${USER}/homebrew-python2 /usr/local/bin/brew install /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/${USER}/homebrew-python2/Formula/[email protected] # https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/issues/5734#issuecomment-464705002 /usr/local/bin/brew untap ${USER}/python2 

Not about using Homebrew, but asdf-python worked for me flawlessly as I was able to install and use Python 2.7.18 from it. (The top-voted answer seems to fail on my system, M1 Max MBP with MacOS 12.3. A few other answers also seem convoluted and didn't work.)

If you just want make python2 work on Mac the most effective way is access https://www.python.org/downloads/ and download the pkg of this version of python.

Seems that homebrew doesn`t support python2 anymore.

best regards.

None of the answers on this page worked for me¹ in MacOS Monterey. In case this helps anyone, here is an alternative solution, which is not technically installed directly via Homebrew – just indirectly.

A simple solution for me, that works, is to install Anaconda via Homewbrew, and then create a virtual environment for Python 2.7.

Note: Installing Anaconda will take up some space on your computer, moreso than just simply installing Python 2.7 via Homebrew or Pyenv:

Anaconda is a distribution of the Python and R programming languages for scientific computing (data science, machine learning applications, large-scale data processing, predictive analytics, etc.), that aims to simplify package management and deployment. The distribution includes data-science packages suitable for Windows, Linux, and macOS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_(Python_distribution)

Very basically, the steps are as follows – but you may want to refer to a full install guide for more details.

Install Anaconda from Homebrew:

brew install --cask anaconda 

When installed, create a virtual environment for Python 2.7 in a folder of your choice, in this case for Python 2.7.18:

conda create --prefix=/MY_FOLDER/NAME_OF_ENVIRONMENT python=2.7.18 

You can list the environments:

conda env list 

Activate the environment via:

conda activate NAME_OF_ENVIRONMENT 

Now you can install packages, etc, as usual, using pip install <package> or alternatively conda install <package>.

NB: If your Anaconda install is fresh,

1. You may be prompted to run conda init once before you can activate the virtual environment.

2. You may have to run the below in order to be able to find the virtual environment (e.g. via conda list env) which will add a line in ~/.condarc:

   conda config --append envs_dirs /MY_FOLDER/NAME_OF_ENVIRONMENT

3. If you are annoyed by the text which may say "Py base" whenever you open Terminal, do the following per this answer, which will add a line in ~/.condarc:

   conda config --set auto_activate_base false

4. Once you have activated the environment, to shorten the path to it that appears in Terminal whenever it is active, add this row to ~/.condarc:

   env_prompt: ({name})

¹ I am not sure if it is because something relating to Python installs is broken on my Mac – so you may not have the same issues. But I was running into problems with all the solutions: everything from installing virtualenv for the native MacOS Python install did not succeed, build error when attempting to install 2.7.18 via pyenv, the brew extract method also failed, etc.

This should work!!!

wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py python get-pip.py pip install virtualenv # This will not work, use below ~/Library/Python/2.7/bin/pip install virtualenv ~/Library/Python/2.7/bin/virtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python venv_twisted source venv_twisted/bin/activate 

I used methods from this page to install Python 2.7 on Mac for a year. But May 2021 I tried most suggestions on this page and they all failed.

Maybe Python 2.7 is getting harder to install or maybe my new macOS Big Sur 11.4 is causing the problem.

I was able to setup a working Python 2.7 environment in this way by reusing the native Python 2.7.16

• Install pip manually
• Setup a virtual environment
• Install dependencies with pip in virtual environment

Here are the install steps:

wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py python get-pip.py pip install virtualenv ~/Library/Python/2.7/bin/pip  install virtualenv virtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python venv source venv/bin/activate 

I was getting errors using brew and not able to install.

Error: Installation of python@2 from a GitHub commit URL is unsupported! brew extract python@2 to a stable tap on GitHub instead.

You can direct download python from their site version 2.7.18 and for list of available version click here

Use case

None of the existing answers really worked for me, so here's my solution in case someone else has a similar use case.

I have python3 installed via homebrew which is symlinked as python and I wanted python2 to exist alongside it without changing anything.

Overview and some notes

• Compiling from source: At the end of the day, it was easier to compile from source. So this solution assumes you have gcc installed, which you can do via homebrew install gcc

• Sane dependencies: You will also need zlib and other dependencies installed via brew install openssl bzip2 libffi readline sqlite xz zlib

• Architecture: I'm on Apple Silicon so I needed the arch command below, but you should be able to omit it if running on x86. If you're also on Apple Silicon, you'll need Rosetta to be available, otherwise install it with /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

• Optimizations: I also think you can also remove the --enable-optimizations flag from ./configure... if you want faster compilation at the expense of not having optimizations, but I haven't tested it.

• The most important bit is running make altinstall at the end instead of make install, which ensures your existing python is left untouched.

• Timing consideration: The process will take quite a while to complete even on fast machines. I'm on a M2 Ultra and configure took a few mins whereas make took several minutes (long enough to let me write this whole answer!)

• About LDFLAGS and CPPFLAGS: These environment variables help the configure script locate necessary libraries for Python features. Setting these ensures your Python build can support secure networking, data compression, and more.

• Clean Build Environment: Running make clean ensures that any previous compilation attempts are cleared out, providing a clean slate for a successful build.

Downloading and extracting Python 2.7

I suggest cd'ing into some dir like ~/Downloads before running the below

brew install zlib openssl bzip2 libffi readline sqlite xz curl -O https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.18/Python-2.7.18.tar.xz tar -xf Python-2.7.18.tar.xz cd Python-2.7.18 

Run the Install Script

Before installing, you need to manually change to a Rosetta shell by typing

arch -x86_64 /bin/zsh 

You'll need to do this each time you open a new terminal session and intend to run any part of the installation process under Rosetta on Apple Silicon.

After doing that, you're free to run the install script.

I've pasted this separately from the download script (which you'll only ever need to run once) in case the below fails for some reason:

export LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L$(brew --prefix openssl)/lib -L$(brew --prefix readline)/lib -L$(brew --prefix bzip2)/lib -L$(brew --prefix libffi)/lib -L$(brew --prefix xz)/lib -L$(brew --prefix zlib)/lib" export CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -I$(brew --prefix openssl)/include -I$(brew --prefix readline)/include -I$(brew --prefix bzip2)/include -I$(brew --prefix libffi)/include -I$(brew --prefix xz)/include -I$(brew --prefix zlib)/include" ./configure --prefix=/opt/python27 --enable-optimizations make clean sudo make altinstall sudo ln -s /opt/python27/bin/python2.7 /opt/python27/bin/python2 echo 'export PATH="/opt/python27/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc source ~/.zshrc 

Verification

You can now run:

• which python2, which should point to /opt/python27/bin/python2
• python2 --version, which should confirm the installation by showing Python 2.7.18

Installing pip and setuptools

You'll need to install old (and possibly unsafe) versions of pip and setuptools, sorry

sudo chown -R $(`echo whoami`):staff /opt/python27/ curl -O https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/b2/40/4e00501c204b457f10fe410da0c97537214b2265247bc9a5bc6edd55b9e4/setuptools-44.1.1.zip curl -O https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/53/7f/55721ad0501a9076dbc354cc8c63ffc2d6f1ef360f49ad0fbcce19d68538/pip-20.3.4.tar.gz tar -xf setuptools-44.1.1.zip tar -xf pip-20.3.4.tar.gz cd setuptools-44.1.1 python2 setup.py install cd ../pip-20.3.4 python2 setup.py install 

You can just download the python installer. https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-2718/

This works for me.