Currently when I use "python" command, it points to python2.6. I have installed python3.1 and I want the "python" command point to python3.1. How it is possible?
mahmood@mpc:~$ which python
/usr/bin/python
mahmood@mpc:~$ ls -l /usr/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2010-11-24 16:14 /usr/bin/python -> python2.6
mahmood@mpc:~$ uname -a
Linux orca 2.6.32-24-server #39-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 28 06:21:40 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Since you have Linux, and if you want to simply type "python" instead of "python3" in order to run Python programs, a solution is simply to define an alias in you shell configuration file (.bashrc, etc.). For Bourne shells, it should be something like
alias python=python3
(or whatever your Python 3 name is).
This way, you do not have to change anything on your system, so this solution should quite innocuous and it should not break your system.
You really don't want to change what python points to, because some programs might expect Python 2, and break.
The solution is to use virtualenv: create an isolated Python 3 environment (with the -p python3 option), activate it, and you're good to go.
It is not advisable.
You could write at the top in your own script (a shebang):
#!/usr/bin/env python3
If you're on Windows then install pylauncher. It understands #!.
On Linux to make your script executable, run once:
$ chmod +x your-script
After that, to run your script:
$ ./your-script
For interactive use you could create virtualenv as @Petr Viktorin points out. To install/upgrade (versions from Ubuntu's repositries are too old):
$ pip install -U virtualenv{,wrapper}
Follow instructions in /path/to/virtualenvwrapper.sh, to create virtualenv that uses python3:
$ mkvirtualenv --python python3 py3
To activate virtualenv:
$ workon py3
In an active virtualenv python refers to /path/virtualenv/bin/python. So you could run:
$ python your_module.py
You could follow this procedure:
sudo rm /usr/bin/python
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3.1 /usr/bin/python
But as already stated by Petr Viktorin, any programs that would expect python v2 would stop to work. So use with caution. You can undo the change by running:
sudo rm /usr/bin/python
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python2.6 /usr/bin/python
unlink /usr/bin/python
ln -s /usr/bin/python3.1 /usr/bin/python
On Linux/Mac OS you can use python3 instead of python.
Try update-alternatives for Linux.
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7679674/changing-default-python-to-another-version