Installed python3, getting command not found error in terminal

Question

I installed python3, I can open idle and it says it is running python3.0.1, but when I enter python3 in the terminal (on OSX) I get an error saying 'command not found'. Entering python gets me the 2.x version that came on the computer. Any advice on how I can access python3 from the terminal?

Thanks

Solution

First, don't use Python 3.0.1. It has many problems and was officially retired upon the release of Python 3.1 (currently 3.1.2). You can find the python.org Mac OS X installer for 3.1.2 here. Once it is installed, then you need to ensure that the bin directory from the 3.1.2 framework (/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/bin) is on your shell search path. You can manually modify an appropriate shell startup file, like .bash_profile. Or just double-click the Update Shell Profile.command found in /Applications/Python 3.1. In either case, you will need to open a new terminal window or re-login. Another approach is to install Python 3.1 from MacPorts or another distributor. Also, alpha releases of Python 3.2 are now available from python.org and elsewhere.

Comments

[Ned Deily]

Glad to hear it. By the way, when you post a question on Stackoverflow, you should either mark an answer as accepted (so that the answerer gets reputation points) or edit your question until you do get a satisfactory answer.