My python doesn't work

Question

I accidentally replace python binary files located at /usr/local/bin/. Since then, I can't run any python script or even run the interactive mode of python. ``` $ python Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 562, in <module> main() File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 544, in main known_paths = addusersitepackages(known_paths) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 271, in addusersitepackages user_site = getusersitepackages() File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 246, in getusersitepackages user_base = getuserbase() # this will also set USER_BASE File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 236, in getuserbase USER_BASE = get_config_var('userbase') File "/usr/lib/python2.7/sysconfig.py", line 558, in get_config_var return get_config_vars().get(name) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/sysconfig.py", line 457, in get_config_vars _init_posix(_CONFIG_VARS) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/sysconfig.py", line 303, in _init_posix makefile = _get_makefile_filename() File…

Accepted Answer

The problem is that you're hitting `/usr/local/bin/python` instead of `/usr/bin/python`.

You can either move it out of the way by running something like...

```
mv /usr/local/bin/python /usr/local/bin/python.old
```

...as root, or if you're sure you don't need it, then just delete it with...

```
rm /usr/local/bin/python
```

If bash still tries to run `/usr/local/bin/python`, and running `type python` prints...

```
python is hashed (/usr/local/bin/python)
```

...then do `hash -r` to clear the hash table.

It's not a good idea to copy `/usr/bin/python` to `/usr/local/bin/python`, otherwise you may get problems the next time you update python with `apt-get upgrade`, i.e. it'll update `/usr/bin/python`, but `/usr/local/bin/python` will still be run by default.

My python doesn't work

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