Running specific python interpreters form command line

Question

When I open CMD (on windows 10) and enter python it initializes python 3.6.0

C:\>python
Python 3.6.0 (v3.6.0:41df79263a11, Dec 23 2016, 08:06:12) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Now I recently also installed 2.7.6 the interpreter. How can I call both version of Python from CMD?

desired outcome

C:\>python
Python 3.6.0 (v3.6.0:41df79263a11, Dec 23 2016, 08:06:12) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
>>> ^Z
C:\>python2.6
Python 2.7.6 (default, Nov 10 2013, 19:24:24) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

You can copy or symlink python.exe to python2.7.exe, and then add the Python 2.7 installation directory to the PATH environment variable. Or just use the py.exe launcher, e.g. py -2 or py -2.7. — Eryk Sun
– Eryk Sun, Commented Jun 17, 2017 at 12:17

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

2

You can use Python launcher for Windows:

Python 2.7 interptreter:

C:\> py -2.7
Python 3.6 interpreter:

C:\> py -3.6

You also can run a script with a specific interpreter:

C:\> py -2.7 myScript.py

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 17, 2017 at 12:36

FJSevilla

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Comments

Alpesh Valaki · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-17 12:42:11Z

0

If its windows machine, to open a specific version of python you can use py from the command line.

example: py2.7 #for version 2.7

and

py3.6 #for version 3.6

if its a Linux machine you can use the following commands in the command line python

python2.7 #opens version 2.7

and

python3.6 #opens version 3.6

edited Jun 17, 2017 at 12:42

Alpesh Valaki

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answered Jun 17, 2017 at 12:26

Sam Williams Jebaraj

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1 Comment

Eryk Sun Over a year ago

It's py -2.7 and py -3.6. py on its own used to default to the latest version of Python 2 installed. Starting with 3.6, it uses the latest version of Python 3. An active virtual environment overrides this default. You can also override it via the PY_PYTHON environment variable.

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