Sysadmin Python 2.7 will reach the end of its life on January 1st, 2020. Running out of time

CentOS Python 2.7 usually gets backported updates to same version. So that message is just cosmetic - you do not overwrite and upgrade system Python 2.7 on CentOS otherwise you break CentOS and possibly YUM itself so won't be able to update via YUM and break any system dependencies on Python 2.7.

You can install Python 3.6 side by side with Python 2.7 via Centmin Mod 123.09beta01's addons/python36_install.sh and you'd have pip3.6 and python3.6 access to 3.6 version

Code (Text):

python --version
Python 2.7.5

python3.6 --version
Python 3.6.8

then if your python app needs python 3.6, you can use virtualenv to setup sandbox for python 3.6 similar to outline at How to install the latest version of Python on CentOS - Daniel Eriksson under Create your first isolated Python environment header instead though of pip2.7 it's just pip for 1st step.

virtualenv and pipenv are 2 was of creating sandboxes see Pipenv & Virtual Environments — The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python along with virtualenvwrapper

example for virtualenv using python3.6 interpreter

Code (Text):

pip install virtualenv
mkdir -p /home/python_projects
cd /home/python_projects
virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3.6 venv1
source venv1/bin/activate

# pip doesn't like ccache so disable it
export CC='gcc'
export CXX="g++"

# pip needs a tmp directory that doesn't have noexec restrictions
mkdir -p /home/piptmp
chmod 1777 /home/piptmp
export TMPDIR=/home/piptmp

# update pip defined by -p flag to use python3.6 binary
pip install -U pip
pip --version

Code (Text):

virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3.6 venv1
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python3.6
Already using interpreter /usr/bin/python3.6
Using base prefix '/usr'
  No LICENSE.txt / LICENSE found in source
New python executable in /home/python_projects/venv1/bin/python3.6
Also creating executable in /home/python_projects/venv1/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...
done.

Code (Text):

source venv1/bin/activate
pip install -U pip
Requirement already up-to-date: pip in ./venv1/lib/python3.6/site-packages (19.3.1)
(venv1)

pip --version
pip 19.3.1 from /home/python_projects/venv1/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip (python 3.6)

python/pip binaries installed in virtual environment called venv1 in bin directory at /home/python_projects/venv1/bin

Code (Text):

ls -lah /home/python_projects/venv1/bin/
total 84K
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Dec  7 19:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4.0K Dec  7 19:54 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.2K Dec  7 19:54 activate
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5K Dec  7 19:54 activate.csh
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3.1K Dec  7 19:54 activate.fish
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.8K Dec  7 19:54 activate.ps1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5K Dec  7 19:54 activate_this.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.2K Dec  7 19:54 activate.xsh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  245 Dec  7 19:55 cygdb
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  266 Dec  7 19:55 cython
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  246 Dec  7 19:55 cythonize
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  255 Dec  7 19:54 easy_install
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  255 Dec  7 19:54 easy_install-3.6
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  242 Dec  7 19:54 pip
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  242 Dec  7 19:54 pip3
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  242 Dec  7 19:54 pip3.6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    9 Dec  7 19:54 python -> python3.6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    9 Dec  7 19:54 python3 -> python3.6
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  12K Dec  7 19:54 python3.6
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2.3K Dec  7 19:54 python-config
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  233 Dec  7 19:54 wheel

Direct access to venv1 sandbox's version of python 3.6 and pip 3.6 to install python packages will end up in /home/python_projects/venv1/ sandbox directory not to polute system python 2.7

Code (Text):

/home/python_projects/venv1/bin/python3.6 --version
Python 3.6.8

/home/python_projects/venv1/bin/pip3.6 --version
pip 19.3.1 from /home/python_projects/venv1/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip (python 3.6)

/home/python_projects/venv1/bin/pip --version
pip 19.3.1 from /home/python_projects/venv1/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip (python 3.6)

 

FYI Redhat and CentOS Python 2 support after 2020 statement How is Python 2 supported in RHEL after 2020? - Red Hat Customer Portal

 

CentOS doesn't support in place major version upgrades. To upgrade from CentOS 7.7 to 8.0/8.1, need to reinstall OS or install CentOS 8/8.1 on another server and migrate data. Just as well as in place upgrades would rely on 3rd party YUM repo haven't equivalent YUM pages but CentOS 7.7 vs 8.x EPEL do not have equivalent packages and EPEL 8 has some missing and some renamed.

 

No ETA, you'd have to watch and subscribe to thread at https://community.centminmod.com/threads/centmin-mod-centos-8-compatibility-worklog.18372/ for Centmin Mod's CentOS 8 compatibility progress as a large part is waiting on 3rd part YUM package parity with their CentOS 7 equivalents. Especially for EPEL 8.