How To Install python2 on CentOS 8
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install python2 on CentOS 8.
What is python2
Python 2 is an old version of the language that is incompatible with the 3.x line of releases. The language is mostly the same, but many details, especially how built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, have changed considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have finally been removed in the 3.x line. Note that documentation for Python 2 is provided in the python2-docs package. This package provides the “python2” executable; most of the actual implementation is within the “python2-libs” package. For the unversioned “python” executable, see manual page “unversioned-python”.
We can use yum or dnf to install python2 on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install python2.
Install python2 on CentOS 8 Using dnf
Update yum database with dnf using the following command.
sudo dnf makecache --refresh
The output should look something like this:
CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream 43 kB/s | 4.3 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS 65 kB/s | 3.9 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease 43 kB/s | 3.0 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras 23 kB/s | 1.5 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack 40 kB/s | 3.0 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability 36 kB/s | 3.9 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus 24 kB/s | 1.5 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools 50 kB/s | 4.3 kB 00:00
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64 13 kB/s | 9.2 kB 00:00
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 24 kB/s | 8.5 kB 00:00
Metadata cache created.
After updating yum database, We can install python2 using dnf by running the following command:
sudo dnf -y install python2
Install python2 on CentOS 8 Using yum
Update yum database with yum using the following command.
sudo yum makecache --refresh
The output should look something like this:
CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream 43 kB/s | 4.3 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS 65 kB/s | 3.9 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease 43 kB/s | 3.0 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras 23 kB/s | 1.5 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack 40 kB/s | 3.0 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability 36 kB/s | 3.9 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus 24 kB/s | 1.5 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools 50 kB/s | 4.3 kB 00:00
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64 13 kB/s | 9.2 kB 00:00
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 24 kB/s | 8.5 kB 00:00
Metadata cache created.
After updating yum database, We can install python2 using yum by running the following command:
sudo yum -y install python2
How To Uninstall python2 on CentOS 8
To uninstall only the python2 package we can use the following command:
sudo dnf remove python2
python2 Package Contents on CentOS 8
/usr/bin/pydoc2
/usr/bin/pydoc2.7
/usr/bin/python2
/usr/bin/python2.7
/usr/bin/unversioned-python
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/25
/usr/lib/.build-id/25/17fddef6a6494c48330c5de62d51a97270b3ee
/usr/share/doc/python2
/usr/share/doc/python2/README
/usr/share/licenses/python2
/usr/share/licenses/python2/LICENSE
/usr/share/man/man1/python.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/python2.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/python2.7.1.gz
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install python2 on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.