Broke my centos7 VPS when trying to update Python

[water]

I followed this guide in order to update python running on my Centos7 vps. unfortunately this messed some things up. I didn't know that centos7 relied on python 2.7.

Im now unable to perform yum or any other commands. I don't know where to start to fix this problem as I want to revert back to my old Python version of 2.7.5(-58.el7)

when performing yum I get: No module named yum

What is the best way to revert my noob changes:)?

[avij]

Looking through that document it looks like it would install Python 3.6 in parallel to your existing CentOS-provided python, so it should not break yum.

Did you deviate from those instructions somehow?

[water]

yes, I tried to enable it since the output of python --version was 2.7.5. and I wanted it to have on version 3. Think it was the commands below which messed things up

scl enable python36u bash
sudo ln -fs /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

I do have a log file of the commands I used in order to update python. But it's a long list. I went pretty nuts on trying to get python 3 running fully unexperienced and unaware that I could break stuff

[TrevorH]

sudo ln -fs /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

That broke it. It should look like

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 7 Apr 30 01:25 /usr/bin/python -> python2

[water]

sudo ln -fs /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

That broke it. It should look like

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 7 Apr 30 01:25 /usr/bin/python -> python2

How can I restore what I did there?

[Mike_Rochefort]

Assuming none of these commands rely on Python, you should be able to:

Code: Select all

cd /usr/bin
ln -sf python2 python

Cheer,
Mike

[water]

Assuming none of these commands rely on Python, you should be able to:

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cd /usr/bin
ln -sf python2 python

Cheer,
Mike

I got this as output: ln: failed to access ‘python’: Too many levels of symbolic links

[Mike_Rochefort]

Are you running as root or using sudo? If yes, try removing the symbolic link completely (rm python) then recreate it with python2.

Cheers,
Mike

[jlehtone]

One would expec to see:

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# ls -l /usr/bin/python*
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root    7 Jul 23 14:51 /usr/bin/python -> python2
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root    9 Jul 23 14:51 /usr/bin/python2 -> python2.7
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 7216 Jul 13 16:07 /usr/bin/python2.7
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 1835 Jul 13 16:07 /usr/bin/python2.7-config
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root   16 Jul 23 14:54 /usr/bin/python2-config -> python2.7-config
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root   14 Jul 23 14:54 /usr/bin/python-config -> python2-config

That is,
the /usr/bin/python2.7 is a file.
The /usr/bin/python2 is a symbolic link to /usr/bin/python2.7
The /usr/bin/python is a symbolic link to /usr/bin/python2

What have you now?


Furthermore,

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scl enable python36u bash

Runs a command (bash) in modified environment. In that environment the "python36u"'s binaries are first on the PATH. Exit from that shell, if you haven't already.

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$ scl enable rh-python36 bash
$ ps af
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
 2040 pts/2    Ss     0:00 bash
 2448 pts/2    S      0:00  \_ scl enable rh-python36 bash
 2449 pts/2    S      0:00      \_ /bin/bash /var/tmp/sclKXjWJx
 2452 pts/2    S      0:00          \_ bash
 2543 pts/2    R+     0:00              \_ ps af
$ exit
exit
$ ps af
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
 2040 pts/2    Ss     0:00 bash
 3543 pts/2    R+     0:00  \_ ps af

[water]

ls -l /usr/bin/python* outputs

And I don't know if the shell is still running actually. I rebooted the VPS already so probably the shell is already exit?

ps af gives