How to update-alternatives to Python 3 without breaking apt?

Question

The other day I decided that I wanted the command python to default to firing up python3 instead of python2.

So I did this:

$ sudo update-alternative         


        

Answer 1

As I didn't want to break anything, I did this to be able to use newer versions of Python3 than Python v3.4 :

$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/local/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.6 1
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/python3.6 to provide /usr/local/bin/python3 (python3) in auto mode
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/local/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.7 2
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/python3.7 to provide /usr/local/bin/python3 (python3) in auto mode
$ update-alternatives --list python3
/usr/bin/python3.6
/usr/bin/python3.7
$ sudo update-alternatives --config python3
There are 2 choices for the alternative python3 (providing /usr/local/bin/python3).

  Selection    Path                Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/python3.7   2         auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/python3.6   1         manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/python3.7   2         manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 1
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/python3.6 to provide /usr/local/bin/python3 (python3) in manual mode
$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/python3 /etc/alternatives/python3 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 2019-05-03 02:59:03 /etc/alternatives/python3 -> /usr/bin/python3.6*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 2019-05-03 02:58:53 /usr/local/bin/python3 -> /etc/alternatives/python3*