python 2 instead of python 3 as the (temporary) default python?

Question

on my computer

~$ python -V  Python 3.2.1 

but I get into problems when I run some python programs. my guess is (or at least I want to try this) that there is some backward compatibility issues, and I want to run those python scripts with

 python2 2.7.2-2 

which is also installed on my system but I do not know how to make it as the (temporary) default python. The python script starts with

 #!/usr/bin/env python 

and I am using arch linux.

Answer 1

You can use virtualenv

# Use this to create your temporary python "install" # (Assuming that is the correct path to the python interpreter you want to use.) virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 --distribute temp-python  # Type this command when you want to use your temporary python. # While you are using your temporary python you will also have access to a temporary pip, # which will keep all packages installed with it separate from your main python install. # A shorter version of this command would be ". temp-python/bin/activate" source temp-python/bin/activate  # When you no longer wish to use you temporary python type deactivate 

Enjoy!

Answer 2

mkdir ~/bin PATH=~/bin:$PATH ln -s /usr/bin/python2 ~/bin/python 

To stop using python2, exit or rm ~/bin/python.