Accidentally deleted /usr/bin/python3.5, cannot reinstall

Question

OS: Ubuntu 14.04

I have seen a similar question, but none of the methods mentioned there work.

I installed python 3.5 by running:

apt-get install -y software-properties-common && \
add-apt-repository ppa:fkrull/deadsnakes && \
apt-get update
apt-get install -y python3.5 python3.5-dev

I make a mistake by running ln -sf /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python3.5, so the symlink to python3.5 become python2.7 .

I have tried:

1.

rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*
dpkg --configure -a
add-apt-repository ppa:fkrull/deadsnakes
apt-get update
apt-get install --reinstall python3.5 python3.5-dev

2.

apt-get remove --purge python3.5 python3.5-dev
apt-get install python3.5 python3.5-dev

In both cases I got something like:

/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3.5.postinst: 9: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3.5.postinst: python3.5: not found
dpkg: error processing package python3.5 (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python3.5-dev:
 python3.5-dev depends on python3.5 (= 3.5.2-1~trusty1); however:
  Package python3.5 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package python3.5-dev (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 python3.5
 python3.5-dev
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Solution

I fixed it.

Find all dependencies:

dpkg -l | grep python3.5

Remove all of them:

apt-get --purge remove libpython3.5 libpython3.5-dev libpython3.5-minimal libpython3.5-stdlib python3.5 python3.5-dev python3.5-minimal

Reinstall

apt-get install python3.5-dev

Comments

[George Udosen]

remove the link with rm /usr/bin/python3.5 then try installing again.

[Mithril]

@George I have rm /usr/bin/python3.5 at first.

[CoderGuy123]

Worked on Ubuntu 18.04 for me (after an upgrade from 16.04, Python3.7 was broken and actually a copy of Python2.7, yeah, no idea either why that is).

[Orville]

worked on python3.7. save my day thanks!

[Viter Rod]

worked on ubuntu 20.04 with Python3.9. Thanks!