Werk #11080: Port Checkmk to Python 3

Most of Checkmk is written in Python. We have been developing on Python 2 for over 10 years now and are now taking the big step of porting Checkmk to Python 3 with Checkmk 2.0.

This is a very big change in the software which has cost us a lot of time. But this step is necessary to continue to develop Checkmk efficiently and safely.

In the past, Python 2.7 with all necessary 3rd party modules have been shipped in Checkmk for a long time. This Python 2.7 will no longer be shipped with Checkmk 2.0. Instead we now ship Python 3.8 with all necessary 3rd party modules.

This is especially important if you use your own plugins or scripts. You have to consider the following things.

If you have a script that is called directly from a cronjob or the core, e.g. a notification script, you have often used the shebang "#!/usr/bin/env python" in the past. By doing so, you have used the Python 2.7 that we shipped. Since this no longer exists, "python" of the operating system is used without further adaptation. This can be a Python 2.7, it depends on your system.

We recommend changing the shebang to "#!/usr/bin/env python3". This will allow you to use the Python that comes with Checkmk again.

After you have done this, you may need to adjust some things in your scripts to change your code from Python 2 to 3. We will publish more information about the conversion of plugins and scripts soon.

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