From charlesreid1

What is it

pyenv is a command-line program that helps you control which flavor and version of Python you wish to use. This makes it really easy to switch from stock Python to conda to minipython to jython to pypy. It also provides fine-grained control over version numbers for each flavor.

$ pyenv install -l
Available versions:
  2.1.3
  2.2.3
  2.3.7
  2.4
  2.4.1
  2.4.2
  2.4.3
  2.4.4
  2.4.5
  2.4.6
  2.5
  2.5.1
  2.5.2
  2.5.3
  2.5.4
  2.5.5
  2.5.6
  2.6.6
  2.6.7
  2.6.8
  2.6.9
  2.7-dev
  2.7
  2.7.1
  2.7.2
  2.7.3
  2.7.4
  2.7.5
  2.7.6
  2.7.7
  2.7.8
  2.7.9
  2.7.10
  2.7.11
  2.7.12
  2.7.13
  2.7.14
  3.0.1
  3.1
  3.1.1
  3.1.2
  3.1.3
  3.1.4
  3.1.5
  3.2
  3.2.1
  3.2.2
  3.2.3
  3.2.4
  3.2.5
  3.2.6
  3.3.0
  3.3.1
  3.3.2
  3.3.3
  3.3.4
  3.3.5
  3.3.6
  3.3.7
  3.4.0
  3.4-dev
  3.4.1
  3.4.2
  3.4.3
  3.4.4
  3.4.5
  3.4.6
  3.4.7
  3.5.0
  3.5-dev
  3.5.1
  3.5.2
  3.5.3
  3.5.4
  3.6.0
  3.6-dev
  3.6.1
  3.6.2
  3.6.3
  3.6.4
  3.7.0a3
  3.7-dev
  anaconda-1.4.0
  anaconda-1.5.0
  anaconda-1.5.1
  anaconda-1.6.0
  anaconda-1.6.1
  anaconda-1.7.0
  anaconda-1.8.0
  anaconda-1.9.0
  anaconda-1.9.1
  anaconda-1.9.2
  anaconda-2.0.0
  anaconda-2.0.1
  anaconda-2.1.0
  anaconda-2.2.0
  anaconda-2.3.0
  anaconda-2.4.0
  anaconda-4.0.0
  anaconda2-2.4.0
  anaconda2-2.4.1
  anaconda2-2.5.0
  anaconda2-4.0.0
  anaconda2-4.1.0
  anaconda2-4.1.1
  anaconda2-4.2.0
  anaconda2-4.3.0
  anaconda2-4.3.1
  anaconda2-4.4.0
  anaconda2-5.0.0
  anaconda2-5.0.1
  anaconda3-2.0.0
  anaconda3-2.0.1
  anaconda3-2.1.0
  anaconda3-2.2.0
  anaconda3-2.3.0
  anaconda3-2.4.0
  anaconda3-2.4.1
  anaconda3-2.5.0
  anaconda3-4.0.0
  anaconda3-4.1.0
  anaconda3-4.1.1
  anaconda3-4.2.0
  anaconda3-4.3.0
  anaconda3-4.3.1
  anaconda3-4.4.0
  anaconda3-5.0.0
  anaconda3-5.0.1
  ironpython-dev
  ironpython-2.7.4
  ironpython-2.7.5
  ironpython-2.7.6.3
  ironpython-2.7.7
  jython-dev
  jython-2.5.0
  jython-2.5-dev
  jython-2.5.1
  jython-2.5.2
  jython-2.5.3
  jython-2.5.4-rc1
  jython-2.7.0
  jython-2.7.1
  micropython-dev
  micropython-1.9.3
  miniconda-latest
  miniconda-2.2.2
  miniconda-3.0.0
  miniconda-3.0.4
  miniconda-3.0.5
  miniconda-3.3.0
  miniconda-3.4.2
  miniconda-3.7.0
  miniconda-3.8.3
  miniconda-3.9.1
  miniconda-3.10.1
  miniconda-3.16.0
  miniconda-3.18.3
  miniconda2-latest
  miniconda2-3.18.3
  miniconda2-3.19.0
  miniconda2-4.0.5
  miniconda2-4.1.11
  miniconda2-4.3.14
  miniconda2-4.3.21
  miniconda2-4.3.27
  miniconda2-4.3.30
  miniconda3-latest
  miniconda3-2.2.2
  miniconda3-3.0.0
  miniconda3-3.0.4
  miniconda3-3.0.5
  miniconda3-3.3.0
  miniconda3-3.4.2
  miniconda3-3.7.0
  miniconda3-3.8.3
  miniconda3-3.9.1
  miniconda3-3.10.1
  miniconda3-3.16.0
  miniconda3-3.18.3
  miniconda3-3.19.0
  miniconda3-4.0.5
  miniconda3-4.1.11
  miniconda3-4.2.12
  miniconda3-4.3.11
  miniconda3-4.3.14
  miniconda3-4.3.21
  miniconda3-4.3.27
  miniconda3-4.3.30
  pypy-c-jit-latest
  pypy-c-nojit-latest
  pypy-dev
  pypy-stm-2.3
  pypy-stm-2.5.1
  pypy-1.5-src
  pypy-1.5
  pypy-1.6
  pypy-1.7
  pypy-1.8
  pypy-1.9
  pypy-2.0-src
  pypy-2.0
  pypy-2.0.1-src
  pypy-2.0.1
  pypy-2.0.2-src
  pypy-2.0.2
  pypy-2.1-src
  pypy-2.1
  pypy-2.2-src
  pypy-2.2
  pypy-2.2.1-src
  pypy-2.2.1
  pypy-2.3-src
  pypy-2.3
  pypy-2.3.1-src
  pypy-2.3.1
  pypy-2.4.0-src
  pypy-2.4.0
  pypy-2.5.0-src
  pypy-2.5.0
  pypy-2.5.1-src
  pypy-2.5.1
  pypy-2.6.0-src
  pypy-2.6.0
  pypy-2.6.1-src
  pypy-2.6.1
  pypy-4.0.0-src
  pypy-4.0.0
  pypy-4.0.1-src
  pypy-4.0.1
  pypy-5.0.0-src
  pypy-5.0.0
  pypy-5.0.1-src
  pypy-5.0.1
  pypy-5.1-src
  pypy-5.1
  pypy-5.1.1-src
  pypy-5.1.1
  pypy-5.3-src
  pypy-5.3
  pypy-5.3.1-src
  pypy-5.3.1
  pypy-5.4-src
  pypy-5.4
  pypy-5.4.1-src
  pypy-5.4.1
  pypy-5.6.0-src
  pypy-5.6.0
  pypy-5.7.0-src
  pypy-5.7.0
  pypy-5.7.1-src
  pypy-5.7.1
  pypy2-5.3-src
  pypy2-5.3
  pypy2-5.3.1-src
  pypy2-5.3.1
  pypy2-5.4-src
  pypy2-5.4
  pypy2-5.4.1-src
  pypy2-5.4.1
  pypy2-5.6.0-src
  pypy2-5.6.0
  pypy2-5.7.0-src
  pypy2-5.7.0
  pypy2-5.7.1-src
  pypy2-5.7.1
  pypy2.7-5.8.0-src
  pypy2.7-5.8.0
  pypy2.7-5.9.0-src
  pypy2.7-5.9.0
  pypy2.7-5.10.0-src
  pypy2.7-5.10.0
  pypy3-dev
  pypy3-2.3.1-src
  pypy3-2.3.1
  pypy3-2.4.0-src
  pypy3-2.4.0
  pypy3.3-5.2-alpha1-src
  pypy3.3-5.2-alpha1
  pypy3.3-5.5-alpha-src
  pypy3.3-5.5-alpha
  pypy3.5-c-jit-latest
  pypy3.5-5.7-beta-src
  pypy3.5-5.7-beta
  pypy3.5-5.7.1-beta-src
  pypy3.5-5.7.1-beta
  pypy3.5-5.8.0-src
  pypy3.5-5.8.0
  pypy3.5-5.9.0-src
  pypy3.5-5.9.0
  pypy3.5-5.10.0-src
  pypy3.5-5.10.0
  pyston-0.5.1
  pyston-0.6.0
  pyston-0.6.1
  stackless-dev
  stackless-2.7-dev
  stackless-2.7.2
  stackless-2.7.3
  stackless-2.7.4
  stackless-2.7.5
  stackless-2.7.6
  stackless-2.7.7
  stackless-2.7.8
  stackless-2.7.9
  stackless-2.7.10
  stackless-2.7.11
  stackless-2.7.12
  stackless-2.7.14
  stackless-3.2.2
  stackless-3.2.5
  stackless-3.3.5
  stackless-3.3.7
  stackless-3.4-dev
  stackless-3.4.1
  stackless-3.4.2
  stackless-3.4.7
  stackless-3.5.4

Installing

Mac OS X

Fortunately, pyenv is available through Homebrew on Mac OS X.

brew install pyenv

Debian

To install pyenv on Debian, use the pyenv-installer script provided by the author of pyenv.

Link: https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv-installer

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pyenv/pyenv-installer/master/bin/pyenv-installer | bash

Basic Usage

To set a python version from the list above, start by installing it. For example:

pyenv install anaconda-5.0.1

To set that particular python distribution as the global python version, use the global command:

pyenv global anaconda-5.0.1



Advanced Topics

Using virtualenv with pyenv

See pyvenv: