Install the latest Zsh on CentOS

2020-10-20T00:00:00+06:00

As the default Zsh on CentOS is usually an older version, many cool things are not possible on this version of Zsh, like installing oh-my-zsh or using awesome powerlevel10k prompt system, it’s understandable if you’d like to have the latest Zsh on your system. Easy peasy !!

Note: Please remember to remove the sudo from the commands if you are already in “root” or sudo-er mode

We’ll be following these steps:

Install the pre-requisites
Download the latest source
Build & Install
Final steps
Related

Install the pre-requisites¶

We need GCC (C++ compiler) and other related stuffs for building Zsh from the source code.

$ sudo yum groupinstall "Development tools"  
$ sudo yum install ncurses-devel

Now, check if GCC is installed properly, by

$ gcc -v

Download the latest source¶

Now, we gonna get the latest code of Zsh.
Please update the link (in the shown command) with the latest by checking this web-folder.
Don’t forget to update the filename as well, if needed.

$ cd /usr/local/src
$ sudo curl -L https://www.zsh.org/pub/zsh-5.8.tar.xz \
-o zsh-5.8.tar.xz

Build & Install¶

Unzip the file, “dig in” to the folder, and build & install from the source.

$ sudo tar -xf zsh-5.8.tar.xz  # the actual version of the downloaded file might be different
$ cd zsh-5.8
$ sudo ./configure && sudo make && sudo make install

Final steps¶

Add Zsh to the login shells by adding ‘/usr/local/bin/zsh’ on the last line of the config file, /etc/shells

$ sudo -e /etc/shells
$ sudo chsh $USER

Update the system’s default symlink to the new Zsh version.

$ sudo ln -sf /usr/local/bin/zsh /bin/zsh
$ zsh --version

It’s always a good habit to clean up after doing stuffs. ;)

$ sudo make clean

That’s it !

Want to have a super, cool-looking command shell? Gotcha, fam. Check out my blog on Pimping up My Linux Terminal.

If you find this post helpful, you can show your support through Patreon or Paypal or by buying me a coffee. Thanks!

Install latest Python 3 on Linux CentOS 7

2018-07-07T00:00:00+06:00

Why¶

Not all distro created equal.
Some are created to join the space race, some are to hold unto the leagcy, some are cutting-edge, some are cutting edge. Some are born to boot-up IoT devices some are to push out heavy graphics.

That’s the fun (albeit, power) of Linux.

CentOS 7 is a powerful and stable distro that runs on thousands (probably, millions) production-grade servers.
In the matter of stability, it’s a beast. However, it doesn’t ship with Python 3, by default. You can install it via EPEL repository, or the below simple steps.

Also, take a note. The Python 2 comes with the system, which is probably 2.7.5, do NOT mess with it. Many system components rely on that specific version. If you need the latest versions of 2, use virtualenv or pipenv.

Prepare your system¶

Start with installing pre-requisite utilities for compilation and development support.

$ sudo yum update && sudo yum groupinstall -y "development tools"  
$ sudo yum install -y zlib-devel bzip2-devel openssl-devel ncurses-devel \
       sqlite-devel readline-devel tk-devel gdbm-devel \
       db4-devel libpcap-devel xz-devel expat-devel

Download latest Python source code from Python.org¶

$ wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.6.6/Python-3.6.6.tar.xz
$ tar xf Python-3.6.6.tar.xz
$ cd Python-3.6.6

Enable performance optimizations (optional, but highly recommended)¶

$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-shared LDFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath /usr/local/lib"  
$ ./configure --enable-optimizations

Build and install¶

$ make
$ sudo make altinstall

Now, Python 3.6.6 is ready to be used in your system; located in /usr/local/bin/python3.6

$ which python3.6
/usr/local/bin/python3.6

$ python3.6
Python 3.6.6 (default, Jul 10 2018, 14:04:26)
[GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-28)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

For convenience, you can create a symbolic-link with a shorter name. If you had system-installed Python3 (unlikely), don’t do this, as some system-components may depend on that specific older version of Python 3.

$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/python3.6 /usr/local/bin/python3
$ python3
Python 3.6.6 (default, Jul 10 2018, 14:04:26)
[GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-28)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Install wheel and pip¶

You don’t need to, because Python 3.6.6 includes these necessary tools included.

$ pip3.6 -V
pip 10.0.1 from /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip (python 3.6)
$ wheel version
wheel 0.29.0

I think ... - CentOS