How to link homebrew installed python3.x version to python3 command?

Question

I had on OSX High Sierra versions 2.7 and 3.6 and correspondingly pip and pip3 installed. The terminal commands python and pip were linked to Python2 while python3 and pip3 to python3`

I upgraded my Python3 version with homebrew. The installation was successful but now I have to link the command for python3. homebrew suggests:

Linking /usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.6_1...

Error: Could not symlink Frameworks/Python.framework/Headers

Target /usr/local/Frameworks/Python.framework/Headers is a symlink belonging to python@2. You can unlink it:

brew unlink python@2

To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files:

brew link --overwrite python

To list all files that would be deleted:

brew link --overwrite --dry-run python

However this would link python3 to python terminal command while I want a separate python3 and pip3 commands.

How to do that?

Answer 1

However this would link python3 to python terminal command

That’s not true. Homebrew links python to either its own Python 2 or the system Python. It never links it to Python 3:

Homebrew provides one formula for Python 3.x (python) and another for Python 2.7.x (python@2).

The executables are organised as follows so that Python 2 and Python 3 can both be installed without conflict:

• python3 points to Homebrew’s Python 3.x (if installed)
• python2 points to Homebrew’s Python 2.7.x (if installed)
• python points to Homebrew’s Python 2.7.x (if installed) otherwise the macOS system Python. Check out brew info python if you wish to add Homebrew’s 3.x python to your PATH.
• pip3 points to Homebrew’s Python 3.x’s pip (if installed)
• pip and pip2 point to Homebrew’s Python 2.7.x’s pip (if installed)

Emphasis mine. Source: https://docs.brew.sh/Homebrew-and-Python#python-3x-or-python-2x

You should thus be fine linking python@3. If you can’t do so, you can add $(brew --prefix python)/bin to your PATH to get all python3 and similar binaries.