How to uninstall Python 2.7 on a Mac OS X 10.6.4?

Do not attempt to remove any Apple-supplied system Python which are in /System/Library and /usr/bin, as this may break your whole operating system.


NOTE: The steps listed below do not affect the Apple-supplied Python 2.7; they only remove a third-party Python framework, like those installed by python.org installers.


The complete list is documented here. Basically, all you need to do is the following:

  1. Remove the third-party Python 2.7 framework

     sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7
    
  2. Remove the Python 2.7 applications directory

     sudo rm -rf "/Applications/Python 2.7"
    
  3. Remove the symbolic links, in /usr/local/bin, that point to this Python version. See them using

     ls -l /usr/local/bin | grep '../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7' 
    

and then run the following command to remove all the links:

    cd /usr/local/bin/
    ls -l /usr/local/bin | grep '../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7' | awk '{print $9}' | tr -d @ | xargs rm
  1. If necessary, edit your shell profile file(s) to remove adding /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7 to your PATH environment file. Depending on which shell you use, any of the following files may have been modified: ~/.bash_login, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.cshrc, ~/.profile, ~/.tcshrc, ~/.zshrc, and/or ~/.zprofile.

This one works:

cd /usr/local/bin/
ls -l /usr/local/bin | grep '../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7' | awk '{print $9}' | tr -d @ | xargs rm

Description: It list all the links, removes @ character and then removes them.


Create the symlink to latest version

 ln -s -f /usr/local/bin/python3.8 /usr/local/bin/python

Close and open a new terminal

and try

 python --version