How to make python3 default in kali linux

Open terminal and write “alias python=python3” and hit enter. You are done!

Now check your default interpreter version by simply run “python -V” command in the terminal.

for more details you may check my blog post : How to set python 3 as default interpreter instead of python 2 in Linux [Kali Linux, Ubuntu]

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tried to install sherlock for installing sherlock python 3.6 or more required, i installed python 3.8.2.But the default version is not changed it remain as python 2.7.17.

asked Apr 4, 2020 at 15:13

1

Here is a link that may help. Check it out! Basically:

1. Check your existing python version by running:

   python -V

   or

   python --version

2. List all the available items by running:

   ls /usr/bin/python

3. Now, set your version priorities by issuing the following commands:

   update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python2.7 1

   update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3.8 2

4. You can then list the python priorities by:

   update-alternatives --config python

5. Finally, check your default python version to confirm by repeating the first step!

I have included a screenshot of the same. Check it out. Change Default Python Version Priority.png

answered Apr 30, 2020 at 21:53

0

Just taking the needed part from @George Oyosa's answer

update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3.8 2

Just execute it and the the command update-alternatives will handle the rest for you.

answered Nov 21, 2020 at 19:32

Simply open terminal and run "alias python=python3" [without the quotes] then run "python -V" to check

answered Dec 3, 2020 at 5:56

About the transition

Kali Linux fully switched to Python 3. This means that any tool packaged by Kali that was using Python 2 has been either dropped or converted to use Python 3. Any tool converted to Python 3 contains only scripts with /usr/bin/python3 as their shebang.

Concerning the packages that come straight from Debian, they did the same on most packages, but there are a few exceptions where packages are allowed to continue to rely on Python 2. However those packages have been updated so that all their scripts use /usr/bin/python2 as their shebang and so that they depend on the python2 binary package [instead of the former python].

Thanks to those changes, Debian no longer need to provide /usr/bin/python and recent upgrades will effectively get rid of that symlink.

Unfortunately, when you download a Python script on the web, it will likely have /usr/bin/python as its shebang. If you try to execute it without fixing the shebang line, you will end up with an error like this one:

zsh: /home/kali/test.py: bad interpreter: /usr/bin/python: no such file or directory

In Debian, you can reinstate the /usr/bin/python symlink by installing:

• python-is-python2 if you want to have it point to python2
• python-is-python3 if you want to have it point to python3

Keeping backwards compatibility in Kali

Given the large number of users that would not know how to avoid the above error, we decided that Kali would continue to ship Python 2 by default [as long as Debian still provides it] and that /usr/bin/python would point to it. We are also keeping a few common external modules [like requests] so that random exploit scripts have a reasonable chance to run successfully.

Howewer, pip for Python2 [aka python-pip] is gone, /usr/bin/pip is the same as /usr/bin/pip3 and it will install modules for Python 3. See the FAQ below for more information.

This compatibility has been implemented by having kali-linux-headless recommend python2, python-is-python2 and offsec-awae-python2 so that they are installed by default while being removable by users that would like to get rid of them.

To make users aware of this situation, we are displaying a promiment message on login:

┏━[Message from Kali developers]
┃
┃ We have kept /usr/bin/python pointing to Python 2 for backwards
┃ compatibility. Learn how to change this and avoid this message:
┃ ⇒ //www.kali.org/docs/general-use/python3-transition/
┃
┗━[Run “touch ~/.hushlogin” to hide this message]

The hope is that they will read this article and know how do deal with the various issues that they will encounter.

Frequently Asked Questions

I have downloaded a Python script, what should I do?

You need to inspect its shebang line. The shebang line is the first line of a script and it starts with #! followed by the path of the interpreter that will be used to execute the script.

If the interpreter is /usr/bin/python, you should read the documentation to see whether the script can run with Python 3. If yes, then you should update the shebang line to point to /usr/bin/python3. Otherwise you should update it to point to /usr/bin/python2.

Good shebang lines that can be kept:

• #!/usr/bin/python3
• #!/usr/bin/python2
• #!/usr/bin/env python3
• #!/usr/bin/env python2

Bad shebang lines that need to be updated:

• #!/usr/bin/python
• #!/usr/bin/env python

How can I get rid of the login message?

The message will only be displayed as long as /usr/bin/python points to the deprecated Python 2. Now that you know about this situation and that you know how to fix the shebang line of old scripts, you can safely get rid of /usr/bin/python:

[email protected]:~$ sudo apt remove python-is-python2

Or you can decide to make it point to Python 3:

[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install -y python-is-python3

Either of those actions will get rid of the login message.

Alternatively, if you want to keep /usr/bin/python pointing to python2 and you still want to disable the message, you can do this:

[email protected]:~$ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/kali-motd
[email protected]:~$ touch ~/.local/share/kali-motd/disable-old-python-warning

I have a Python 2 script that doesn’t run, what should I do?

If your Python 2 script uses modules that are not among those that we ship in the offsec-awae-python2 compatibility package [see list here], then you can try pyenv to setup a fully isolated Python 2 environment where you can use pip to install supplementary modules. See our Using EoL Python versions on Kali article.

I want pip for Python 2, how can I get it back?

Try pyenv. See our Using EoL Python versions on Kali article.

I wrote a Python script, what should I do?

Be nice with end users:

• document clearly whether your code runs with Python 3 or Python 2
• use /usr/bin/python3 or /usr/bin/python2 as the shebang line, it’s more expressive than /usr/bin/python and is more likely to have the desired result
• update it for Python 3 compatibility if that’s not the case yet

How do I change Python to Python 3 Linux?

How do I start python3 in Linux?

Does Kali Linux have Python 3?

How do I start Python in Kali Linux?