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I installed Python following the directions in the accepted answer to "How do I install python 2.7.2 on Ubuntu?". Doing this involved "wget"ing a Python-2.7.9.tgz file in my ~/Downloads/ directory, unzipping it, navigating to the extracted directory, and running the configure and make commands.

I'm now left with a Python-2.7.9 folder in my ~/Downloads/ directory. If I execute the command

whereis python

I get the result

python: /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python2.7 /etc/python /etc/python2.7 /usr/lib/python2.7 /usr/bin/X11/python /usr/bin/X11/python2.7 /usr/local/bin/python /usr/local/bin/python2.7 /usr/local/bin/python2.7-config /usr/local/lib/python2.7 /usr/include/python2.7 /usr/share/python /usr/share/man/man1/python.1.gz

which does not seem to include the ~/Downloads/Python-2.7.9 directory.

Does this mean that I can delete ~/Downloads/Python-2.7.9 without losing any functionality? If not, is there a better place to put that directory than in the Downloads folder?

1 Answer 1

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It's "installed" so the ~/Downloads/Python-2.7.9 directory is safe to delete. However, you can keep it somewhere you like as backup.

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  • Thank you. Could you explain what "installed" means in more detail for me? For example, I recently installed the Anaconda Python package, and "installed" for it means the "anaconda" folder that was created. Clearly "installed" for Python is not that folder that was left in Downloads. Jan 8, 2015 at 23:17
  • I deleted the Python folder in my Downloads/ directory, and that changed the location of which python. Does that not mean that the folder is important for installation? Jan 8, 2015 at 23:42
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    After your installed it, the files in the Downloads directory is somehow 'copied' to /usr/bin, /usr/lib and other location. The files in Download directory is just 'for you to install'.
    – leighton
    Jan 10, 2015 at 23:55
  • Got it, thanks. Before deleting the folder, the directory of python which was run at the command python was ~/Downloads/Python-2.7.9, but after deleting the folder the directory is ~/anaconda/bin/python. Do you know how it is decided which of these locations is used? Jan 12, 2015 at 18:00
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    The program itself.
    – leighton
    Jan 12, 2015 at 23:49

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