[Slackbuilds-users] RFC: SlackBuild to Install Newer Python to /opt

[Glenn]

For anyone interested, since this topic has come up yet again. Some time 
back I wrote a script which makes some minor changes to a Slackbuild for 
a python3 package to allow it to be easily rebuilt using whatever 
version of python the builder chooses, the default remains the stock 
version. The resulting package has a unique file name so it plays nice 
with other versions. I understand the rationale for not upgrading the 
stock version, but for those of us that require an upgraded version it 
allows an easy path to do so. SB need not accept any official 
responsibility for it and can take a "use at your own risk" posture 
which also frees maintainers. I currently run both 3.14 and the stock 
3.9 with no issues.
For anyone interested I offer the script free to use. Message me is you 
want to try it.
Glenn

On 6/8/26 00:30, Matteo Bernardini wrote:
> hi Lumin,
>
> we avoided doing a python3-opt SlackBuild until now because we didn't 
> want to install a parallel python interpreter in the system: the 
> potential new dependencies that the various scripts that might use 
> that are *a lot* and we cannot afford to maintain what we have on SBo 
> for the system's python also for another python in /opt, it will 
> result in madness for the maintainers and for the admins.
> but if you really want to use a newer python for wormhole you can add 
> the python3 build to the wormhole SlackBuild itself so that 
> *everything* is restricted to the /opt/wormhole directory, also the 
> newer python3 interpreter, so that no other script should use it.
>
> Matteo
>
> Il giorno lun 8 giu 2026 alle ore 10:19 Lumin Etherlight via 
> SlackBuilds-users <slackbuilds-users at slackbuilds.org> ha scritto:
>
>
>     Hello, friends,
>
>             I was  trying to  package magic-wormhole[1],
>       but found out that it requires Python 3.10+, which
>       is newer than the  version available in Slackware.
>       I solved  this by compiling a  python3-opt version
>       of python,  that installs to /opt,  without effect
>       on the base Python install.
>
>             I also wrote a SlackBuild for magic-wormhole
>       that installs pre-built wheels for the package and
>       all of its dependencies into a venv, then packages
>       it as  an installation to /opt  too.  the wormhole
>       executables are then copied  to /usr/bin, and they
>       work as  expected; they automatically use  the new
>       /opt Python installation, since they set it as the
>       shebang #!  interpreter,  thus using the libraries
>       installed in that venv.
>
>             Wormhole works, all  dependencies are in the
>       /opt/magic-wormhole-bin  venv, the  Python install
>       it uses is in /opt/python3.  This seems to be some
>       reasonable  method to  package such  applications.
>       Close to  a typical -bin package,  but for Python,
>       basically.  The  final wormhole package  is 26MiB,
>       so not  too bloated.  Other applications  that may
>       depend on  newer Python3  versions can  perhaps do
>       the same, until we hopefully get a newer Python in
>       Slackware.  No internet  connection is required at
>       build-time for  this method; all  dependencies are
>       listed in the .info file as expected.
>
>             I have submitted  both scripts; python3-opt,
>       and magic-wormhole-bin, for your consideration and
>       review.  I don't expect them to be published soon,
>       of course,  as this approach is  not traditionally
>       used in  SlackBuilds, so it will  likely take some
>       discussion, testing, and improvement.  On my side,
>       python3-opt was tested on clean Slackware installs
>       fully patched,  for both 32bit and  64bit.  As for
>       magic-wormhole-bin, it works on 64bit for now, and
>       that's where I  tested it.  It fails  on 32bit, in
>       an isolated venv, with  some Rust compiler errors,
>       as one  of the dependencies compiles  something at
>       some point,  probably a Python plugin.   I haven't
>       had time to debug this yet.
>
>       Feedback is, as always, much appreciated :)
>
>     [1]: https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/
>
>
>     Best Regards,
>     Lumin Etherlight
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