# v5.8.1 build only finds /usr system python3

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/v5-8-1-build-only-finds-usr-system-python3/5916
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Tags:** python
**Created:** [November 27, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/v5-8-1-build-only-finds-usr-system-python3/5916 "2020-11-27T16:43:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![kschau](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@kschau](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kschau)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/v5-8-1-build-only-finds-usr-system-python3/5916/1 "2020-11-27T16:43:58Z")

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I am building a CANONICAL edition of v5.8.1 with python support, however I am struggling to set the python3 library, executable, include dir, etc. away from the system python3. As a result, all my downstream scripts fail bc there is no numpy, etc found. I am on ubuntu 20.04 so it finds

```auto
Python3_LIBRARY_RELEASE:FILEPATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython3.8.so

```

Manually changing the python3 CMake variables gets over written with each configuration.

Setting any and all hints from FindPython{3}.cmake does not work either.

How can I point CMake to my own install of python with all the module I need?

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/v5-8-1-build-only-finds-usr-system-python3/5916/2 "2021-05-15T18:30:08Z")

</div>

As mentioned in the [`FindPython3`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/FindPython3.html) docs, setting `Python3_FIND_STRATEGY` to `LOCATION` will make it prefer finding a Python in a given location. Otherwise the behavior is to find the newest Python and then use that for everything.