How would I build python myself from source code on Ubuntu?

1. At a shell prompt (in a terminal), run

   sudo apt-get install build-essential 
   

   This will fetch all the common packages you need to build anything (e.g. the compiler etc.).

2. Then run

   sudo apt-get build-dep python2.7
   

   This will fetch all the libraries you need to build python.

3. Then download the source code for python and decompress it into a directory.

4. go there and run

   ./configure --prefix=/path/where/you/want/python/installed
   

5. Then make and then make install to get it built and installed:

   make && make install
   

If you hit snags on the way, ask back here and I’ll try to offer some guidance.