Building Python from source takes very little time and effort! Just follow these easy steps:

Clone the source repository

Make a shallow clone at the tip of the desired branch, 3.15 in this example. To build a specific version, you’d specify a tag instead a branch, e.g. --branch=v3.14.7.

$ git clone --depth=1 --branch=3.15 https://github.com/python/cpython.git

Configure, compile, and install

In this example, we’ll build a free-threaded interpreter. For a single-threaded one you’d omit the --disable-gil option.

Omitting --enable-optimizations will also cause the tests to be skipped and thus greatly speed up the build, though this not recommended. Compilation without the tests typically takes around 10 seconds (!) on a modern 12-core computer.

$ cd cpython
$ ./configure --enable-optimizations --disable-gil --prefix=$HOME/py315-nogil
$ make -j
$ make install

Update execution path

Your Python 3.15 binaries are now in ~/py315-nogil/bin. Add the directory to your path and check the installation:

$ export PATH=$HOME/py315-nogil/bin:$PATH
$ python3 --version
$ python3 -m pip --version

That’s all! Your custom Python installation is now ready to use!