Upgrade Python 2.7.6 to Python-2.7.10 on Linux Mint OS

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how we can upgrade Python from version 2.7.6 to Python 2.7.10 on the Linux Mint operating system. I am using an Oracle Virtual Box where I have installed Linux Mint operating system version 17.2. Once you download and install Linux Mint 17.2, Python software is installed by default. But the latest releases from Python are Python 2.7.10 and Python 3.4.3. I am using a 32 bit operating system as my host is 32 bit but you can still go ahead with 64 bit version which is preferred.

Log into the Mint operating system, and open terminal. Type "python" and hit enter or you can type "python --version" to check the existing version.
To download the latest version of Python, open https://www.python.org/downloads/ and click on "Download Python-2.7.10" as shown in below image.
Open the folder where the file is downloaded. In my system it's defaulted to "Downloads" folder.

If you open the tar file from the archive manager you can see the files that were downloaded.
Now extract all the files under the same folder or you can choose a specific directory. Click on Extract button as shown below.
Wait till the file get extracted.
Now from the above image we can we can see that file is successfully extracted.
Now open terminal and locate the extracted installation files.

sloba@sloba-VirtualBox ~ $ ls
                      Desktop  Documents  Downloads  Music  Pictures  Public  Templates  Videos
                      sloba@sloba-VirtualBox ~ $ cd Downloads/
                      sloba@sloba-VirtualBox ~/Downloads $ ls
                      Python-2.7.10  Python-2.7.10.tar.xz
                      sloba@sloba-VirtualBox ~/Downloads $ cd Python-2.7.10/
                      sloba@sloba-VirtualBox ~/Downloads/Python-2.7.10 $ ls
                      aclocal.m4     Demo            Mac              PC              README
                      build          Doc             Makefile         PCbuild         RISCOS
                      config.guess   Grammar         Makefile.pre     pybuilddir.txt  setup.py
                      config.log     Include         Makefile.pre.in  pyconfig.h      Tools
                      config.status  install-sh      Misc             pyconfig.h.in
                      config.sub     Lib             Modules          python
                      configure      libpython2.7.a  Objects          Python
                      configure.ac   LICENSE         Parser           python-gdb.py
                      sloba@sloba-VirtualBox ~/Downloads/Python-2.7.10 $ 
                      

Select all Open in new window

Now execute "./configure" on the same path to configure. Wait until it is completed. The execution should be completed without any errors.

Once the script is executed then type "make install" to proceed further.

If you get any errors then use the root user to execute as like above.

This will take some time to complete. Wait till this get completed.
Now the installation is completed. Now let's check the Python verison to see if the latest version is installed or not by typing "python" or "python --version" as shown in below image.
Python-2.7.10 is successfully installed on Linux Mint OS and ready to use.