How to set Python version by default in FreeBSD?

Question

I'm trying to install the application node, but by default in my environment is python 3, and requires python 2.6. How can I change the default python version in FreeBSD?

# cd /usr/local/bin
# ls -l | grep python
-r-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel  1246256 Jul 12  2011 python
-r-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     1401 Jul 12  2011 python-config
-r-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     6060 Jul 12  2011 python-shared
-r-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     1408 Jul 12  2011 python-shared-config
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root  wheel     3720 Jul 12  2011 python-shared2.6
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root  wheel     1431 Jul 12  2011 python-shared2.6-config
-r-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     6060 Jul 12  2011 python-shared3.1
-r-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     1408 Jul 12  2011 python-shared3.1-config
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root  wheel  1182056 Jul 12  2011 python2.6
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root  wheel     1424 Jul 12  2011 python2.6-config
-r-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel  1246256 Jul 12  2011 python3.1
-r-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     1401 Jul 12  2011 python3.1-config

Answer 1

You should remove the python meta-port /usr/ports/lang/python. Then set the following variable in /etc/make.conf:

PYTHON_DEFAULT_VERSION='python3.2'

(If you want the latest version. Alternatively you can also use python3.1. Currently, the default is python2.7.)

Now install /usr/ports/lang/python again. Note that ports can request another version of python!

Update: Since October 2013, there is a new way of setting default versions;

20131003:
  AFFECTS: users of lang/python* and ports
  AUTHOR: [email protected]

  The default versions of lang/python* have been changed to support the
  new DEFAULT_VERSIONS variable.

  PYTHON_DEFAULT_VERSION, PYTHON2_DEFAULT_VERSION and
  PYTHON3_DEFAULT_VERSION are deprecated. If you have set them in your
  make.conf, you should change them something like

  DEFAULT_VERSIONS=python=2.7 python2=2.7 python3=3.3