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

install_python(version = "3.9:latest", list = FALSE, force = FALSE)

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?

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). Python is built with PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS=--enable-shared set.

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