This package will install Python 3.4.4 for Mac OS X 10.

6 or later for the

following architecture(s): i386, x86_64.

Which installer variant should I use?

Python.org provides two installer variants for download: one that

installs a 64-bit/32-bit Intel Python capable of running on Mac OS X
10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later; and one that installs a 32-bit-only (Intel
and PPC) Python capable of running on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or
later. This ReadMe was installed with the 10.6 or later variant. Unless
you are installing to an 10.5 system or you need to build applications
that can run on 10.5 systems, use the 10.6 variant if possible. There
are some additional operating system functions that are supported
starting with 10.6 and you may see better performance using 64-bit
mode. By default, Python will automatically run in 64-bit mode if your
system supports it. Also see Certificate verification and OpenSSL
below. The Pythons installed by these installers are built with private
copies of some third-party libraries not included with or newer than
those in OS X itself. The list of these libraries varies by installer
variant and is included at the end of the License.rtf file.

Update your version of Tcl/Tk to use IDLE or other Tk applications

To use IDLE or other programs that use the Tkinter graphical user
interface toolkit, you need to install a newer third-party version of the
Tcl/Tk frameworks. Visit https://www.python.org/download/mac/tcltk/
for current information about supported and recommended versions of
Tcl/Tk for this version of Python and of Mac OS X.

Installing on OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or later systems

[CHANGED for Python 3.4.2]

As of Python 3.4.2, installer packages from python.org are now

compatible with the Gatekeeper security feature introduced in OS X
10.8. Downloaded packages can now be directly installed by double-
clicking with the default system security settings. Python.org installer
packages for OS X are signed with the Developer ID of the builder, as
identified on the download page for this release. To inspect the digital
signature of the package, click on the lock icon in the upper right
corner of the Install Python installer window. Refer to Apple’s support
pages for more information on Gatekeeper.

Simplified web-based installs

[NEW for Python 3.4.2]

With the change to the newer flat format installer package, the
download file now has a .pkg extension as it is no longer necessary to
embed the installer within a disk image (.dmg) container. If you
download the Python installer through a web browser, the OS X
installer application may open automatically to allow you to perform
the install. If your browser settings do not allow automatic open,
double click on the downloaded installer file.

New Installation Options and Defaults

[NEW for Python 3.4.0]

The Python installer now includes an option to automatically install or

upgrade pip, a tool for installing and managing Python packages. This
option is enabled by default and no Internet access is required. If you
do not want the installer to do this, select the Customize option at the
Installation Type step and uncheck the Install or ugprade pip option.

To make it easier to use scripts installed by third-party Python

packages, with pip or by other means, the Shell profile updater option
is now enabled by default, as has been the case with Python 2.7.x
installers. You can also turn this option off by selecting Customize and
unchecking the Shell profile updater option. You can also update your
shell profile later by launching the Update Shell Profile command
found in the /Applications/Python 3.4 folder. You may need to start a new
terminal window for the changes to take effect.

For other changes in this release, see the Release Notes link for this
release at https://www.python.org/downloads/.

Certificate verification and OpenSSL

[CHANGED for Python 3.4.3]

Python 3.4.3 includes a number of network security enhancements

that have been approved for inclusion in Python 3.4 maintenance
releases. PEP 476 changes several standard library modules, like
httplib, urllib, and xmlrpclib, to by default verify certificates presented
by servers over secure (TLS) connections. The verification is
performed by the OpenSSL libraries that Python is linked to. Prior to
3.4.3, the python.org installers dynamically linked with Apple-supplied
OpenSSL libraries shipped with OS X. OS X provides a multiple level
security framework that stores trust certificates in system and user
keychains managed by the Keychain Access application and the
security command line utility.

For OS X 10.5, Apple provides OpenSSL 0.9.7 libraries. This version of

Apple's OpenSSL does not use the certificates from the system
security framework, even when used on newer versions of OS X.
Instead it consults a traditional OpenSSL concatenated certificate file
(cafile) or certificate directory (capath), located in
/System/Library/OpenSSL. These directories are typically empty and not
managed by OS X; you must manage them yourself or supply your own
SSL contexts. OpenSSL 0.9.7 is obsolete by current security
standards, lacking a number of important features found in later
versions. Among the problems this causes is the inability to verify
higher-security certificates now used by python.org services, including
the Python Package Index, PyPI. To solve this problem, as of 3.4.3 the
10.5+ 32-bit-only python.org variant is linked with a private copy of
OpenSSL 1.0; it consults the same default certificate directory,
/System/Library/OpenSSL. As before, it is still necessary to manage
certificates yourself when you use this Python variant and, with
certificate verification now enabled by default, you may now need to
take additional steps to ensure your Python programs have access to
CA certificates you trust. If you use this Python variant to build
standalone applications with third-party tools like py2app, you may
now need to bundle CA certificates in them or otherwise supply non-
default SSL contexts.

For OS X 10.6+, Apple also provides OpenSSL 0.9.8 libraries. Apple's

0.9.8 version includes an important additional feature: if a certificate
cannot be verified using the manually administered certificates in
/System/Library/OpenSSL, the certificates managed by the system
security framework In the user and system keychains are also
consulted (using Apple private APIs). For this reason, for 3.4.3 the 64-
bit/32-bit 10.6+ python.org variant continues to be dynamically linked
with Apple's OpenSSL 0.9.8 since it was felt that the loss of the
system-provided certificates and management tools outweighs the
additional security features provided by newer versions of OpenSSL.
This will likely change in future releases of the python.org installers as
Apple has deprecated use of the system-supplied OpenSSL libraries. If
you do need features from newer versions of OpenSSL, there are third-
party OpenSSL wrapper packages available through PyPI.

The bundled pip included with 3.4.3 has its own default certificate
store for verifying download connections.

Python 3 and Python 2 Co-existence

Python.org Python 3.4 and 2.7.x versions can both be installed on your
system and will not conflict. Command names for Python 3 contain a 3
in them, python3 (or python3.4), idle3 (or idle3.4), pip3 (or pip3.4), etc.
Python 2.7 command names contain a 2 or no digit: python2 (or
python2.7 or python), idle2 (or idle2.7 or idle), etc.