install_python {reticulate}

Install Python

Description

Download and install Python, using the pyenv. and pyenv-win projects.

Usage

install_python(
  version = "3.10:latest",
  list = FALSE,
  force = FALSE,
  optimized = TRUE
)

Arguments

version

The version of Python to install.

list

Boolean; if set, list the set of available Python versions?

force

Boolean; force re-installation even if the requested version of Python is already installed?

optimized

Boolean; if TRUE, installation will take significantly longer but should result in a faster Python interpreter. Only applicable on macOS and Linux.

Details

In general, it is recommended that Python virtual environments are created using the copies of Python installed by install_python(). For example:

library(reticulate)
version <- "3.9.12"
install_python(version)
virtualenv_create("my-environment", version = version)
use_virtualenv("my-environment")

# There is also support for a ":latest" suffix to select the latest patch release
install_python("3.9:latest") # install latest patch available at python.org

# select the latest 3.9.* patch installed locally
virtualenv_create("my-environment", version = "3.9:latest")

Note

On macOS and Linux this will build Python from sources, which may take a few minutes. Installation will be faster if some build dependencies are preinstalled. See https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/wiki#suggested-build-environment for example commands you can run to pre-install system dependencies (requires administrator privileges).

If optimized = TRUE, (the default) Python is build with:

PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS="--enable-shared --enable-optimizations --with-lto"
PYTHON_CFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native"

If optimized = FALSE, Python is built with:

PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS=--enable-shared

On Windows, prebuilt installers from https://www.python.org are used.