Originally I made this guide for internal use in a private project on github, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to repost it here, in the off-chance someone may find it useful.
It was made using python 3.11.2 and DietPi 8.15, though it should work for other versions all the same. I do not think it to be complete nor exhaustive, so if you find any errors and have useful additions, let me know and I shall edit.
Prerequisite packages
Some of these you may or may not already have:
sudo apt install software-properties-common wget xz-utils gcc
sudo apt install openssl libssl-dev libffi7 libffi-dev
Not certain if actually needed
sudo apt install build-essential
(Installs g++ which is not used in building python, afaik)
Commands
Always update first
sudo apt update
wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.11.2/Python-3.11.2.tar.xz
sudo tar -xf Python-3.11.2.tar.xz
cd Python-3.11.2
Find you openssl path with the headers
sudo find / -name "ssl.h"
In my case it was /usr/include/openssl/ssl.h and for some reason you mustn’t specify the .../include part. The call that worked for me (but not neccessarily you, if your ssl.h is somewhere else):
sudo ./configure --enable-optimizations --with-openssl=/usr
If you see the line checking for openssl/ssl.h in /<directory>... yes then you made it. If not, adjust the argument to --with-openssl (watch the output carefully or divert it into a file and search for the line¹)
Dont ignore warnings here, if it wants additional packages )like pkg-config, install them
7:
Run all of these:
sudo make
sudo make test
The make test is the longest step and the step that will show you if packages are missing/cannot be found
sudo make altinstall
Run
python3
then test for ssl
import ssl
If you need to run pip use
python3 -m pip <pip syntax here>
¹ You might use tee for that, as it copies stdout to a file and stdout, like so
sudo <your command> | tee -a myfile.txt