How to install pip for Python 3.9 on Ubuntu 20.04

Question

Ubuntu 20.04 comes with Python 3.8. I cannot uninstall Python 3.8 but I need Python 3.9

I went ahead and installed Python 3.9 from:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

sudo apt install python3.9

How do I install pip for python 3.9?

Installing pip using sudo apt-get install python3-pip does not work for me as it installs pip for python 3.8

Installing pip using python3.9 get-pip.py gives an error:

~/python_tools$ python3.9 get-pip.py  Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/home/ubuntu/python_tools/get-pip.py", line 23704, in <module>     main()   File "/home/ubuntu/python_tools/get-pip.py", line 198, in main     bootstrap(tmpdir=tmpdir)   File "/home/ubuntu/python_tools/get-pip.py", line 82, in bootstrap     from pip._internal.cli.main import main as pip_entry_point   File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module   File "/tmp/tmpkwyc8h7j/pip.zip/pip/_internal/cli/main.py", line 10, in <module>   File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module   File "/tmp/tmpkwyc8h7j/pip.zip/pip/_internal/cli/autocompletion.py", line 9, in <module>   File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module   File "/tmp/tmpkwyc8h7j/pip.zip/pip/_internal/cli/main_parser.py", line 7, in <module>   File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module   File "/tmp/tmpkwyc8h7j/pip.zip/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py", line 18, in <module> ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.util' 

Answer 1

You can install pip for python 3.9 the following way:

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py python3.9 get-pip.py 

It is important you use python3.9 instead of just python3, to ensure pip is installed for python 3.9.

If you see any permissions errors, you may need to use

python3.9 get-pip.py --user 

If you get an error like No module named 'distutils.util' when you run python3.9 get-pip.py, and you are on a Debian-based Linux distribution, run

sudo apt install python3.9-distutils 

and then rerun your get-pip.py command. If you are not on a Debian-based distribution, use the equivalent command for your distribution's package manager.

These instructions are based in part on the official installation instructions provided by the pip maintainers.