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#70: Keep Your Python Version up to Date

Time goes by quickly and before you know it your Python interpreter is a few versions behind. Pip tells you that a new version is around, but Python keeps working and so we easily forget that Python itself deserves an update from time to time.

What version of Python do I use?

You can run this command in your terminal to see what version you currently use:

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$ python --version
Python 3.8.1

In my case I installed Python as I started with the Python Friday blog series at the end of 2019. Whoops, that was a long time ago and deserves a speedy update.

Python.org

If you installed Python directly from Python.org then you should visit python.org/downloads and get the newest version.

The Installer worked the same way as the last time I run it. Make sure that you check the option “Add Python 3.x to PATH” on the first page of the installer.

When the installation finishes, open up a new terminal and check if you get the new version:

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$ python --version
Python 3.9.5

Anaconda

If you used Anaconda to install Python, you can open the Anaconda Prompt as Administrator (not CMD) and check what version of Python you use there:

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python --version
Python 3.7.4

You can enter these two commands to update Anaconda:

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conda update conda
conda install anaconda=2020.11

You can find out the version number via the archive, which is a rather tedious approach to locate the latest version. Version 2020.11 got me only a minor update for Python itself:

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python --version
Python 3.7.9

As IanSR on StackOverflow suggested, there is an other update command that you may want to use:

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conda update --all

This got me to the latest version of Python 3.7:

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python --version
Python 3.7.10

I did know that Anaconda is a bit behind on new versions, but I did not expect that is that far behind. Therefore, if you want to use a current version of Python, go to Python.org and install it from there.

Conclusion

It is easy to forget to update your Python installation. Getting a current version from Python.org takes only a few minutes of your time. How far behind is your version?