Installation of python3.6.2 on Ubuntu 14.04 - python3 --version still shows 3.4.3

Question

I'm trying to install the latest python on my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I've tried to do the following so far:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/python-3.6
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3.6

it's finished successfully.

when I enter:

ls /usr/bin | grep python

I'm getting:

dh_python2
dh_python3
python
python2
python2.7
python3
python3.4
python3.4-config
python3.4m
python3.4m-config
python3.6
python3.6m
python3-config
python3m
python3m-config
python-mkdebian
x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.4-config
x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.4m-config
x86_64-linux-gnu-python3-config
x86_64-linux-gnu-python3m-config

as I can see, there is a Python 3.6. But when I type:

python3 --version

I'm getting

Python 3.4.3

Could you please help me to understand what I'm doing wrong?

Solution

You didn't do anything wrong and things are working as intended. Even after you have installed Python 3.6 from a PPA, the /usr/bin/python3 symlink on your Ubuntu 14.04 system still points to /usr/bin/python3.4, not /usr/bin/python3.6. Therefore, to invoke the Python 3.6 interpreter, you explicitly run python3.6.

I would highly discourage you from changing the /usr/bin/python3 symlink to point to /usr/bin/python3.4 because there is probably a significant number of programs in Ubuntu that rely on Python 3 being actually Python 3.4 and you risk breaking these programs by making the symlink point to Python 3.6.

Comments

[edwinksl]

This is working as intended. If you want to use Python 3.6, run python3.6.

[hdiogenes]

For anyone who's getting sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found when trying the first command, you have to sudo apt-get install software-properties-common first.