The Deadsnakes PPA project originally built older Python releases for Ubuntu, so you could e.g. run unit tests on a new release using a Python version found on older releases (i.e. the ‘dead’ snakes).

Nowadays, the project also builds newer Python versions ahead of what a certain release offers as its default, but sticks to its established name.

The packages contain the minor Python version in their name (e.g. python3.6) and can thus be installed concurrently to the default python3 ones, and also other minor versions. Originally based on the Debian source packages, they can still be built on Debian and not just on Ubuntu.

Also take notice of the Unofficial Python backports for Debian project, but keep in mind you do not get uniform builds for all Debian-like releases like with this project, so there might be subtle differences.

This directory contains a Dockerfile that builds packages for some Debian releases based on the Deadsnakes PPA code, by running the build process in the related base image.

To force a full re-build with no caching, e.g. when the PPA released a new minor version, append Docker's --no-cache option to the build command. Example:

./build.sh debian:buster python3.8 --no-cache

If you want pre-built packages that could be APT-installed directly from Bintray, show your interest by voting on issue #3.

These combinations were tested and end up in successful builds:

• ./build.sh debian:stretch python3.6
• ./build.sh debian:buster python3.6
• ./build.sh debian:stretch python3.7
• Buster comes with 3.7.3 on board
• ./build.sh debian:stretch python3.8
• ./build.sh debian:buster python3.8

Based on this and as of February 2020, Python 3.6 can be used on Stretch, Buster, and Xenial, as a set of the usual core Python packages (python3.6, python3.6-venv, python3.6-dev, …). Note that Bionic comes with 3.6 as a default.

The same goes for Python 3.7, with Buster having it as a default.

Python 3.8 is an add-on for all the (old-)stable releases. Using this version makes the most sense to me, unless you have special needs forcing you to go to 3.7 or 3.6. Being an add-on everywhere ensures a similar experience regarding any quirks you encounter, and it is (right now) the newest stable version of Python. It also fits best what you get when using Docker's python:3-slim.

As a negative example, Python 3.6 on Jessie does not work because of a Breaks: libmpdec2 (<< 2.4.2) control file entry for the stdlib package (and Jessie comes with 2.4.1).