You can specify the version of Python for the driver by setting the appropriate environment variables in the ./conf/spark-env.sh file. If it doesn’t already exist, you can use the spark-env.sh.template file provided which also includes lots of other variables.

Here is a simple example of a spark-env.sh file to set the relevant Python environment variables:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# This file is sourced when running various Spark programs.
export PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3       
export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/ipython

In this case it sets the version of Python used by the workers/executors to Python3 and the driver version of Python to iPython for a nicer shell to work in.

If you don’t already have a spark-env.sh file, and don’t need to set any other variables, this one should do what you want, assuming that paths to the relevant python binaries are correct (verify with which). I had a similar problem and this fixed it.

Setting both PYSPARK_PYTHON=python3 and PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=python3 works for me.

I did this using export in my .bashrc. In the end, these are the variables I create:

export SPARK_HOME="$HOME/Downloads/spark-1.4.0-bin-hadoop2.4"
export IPYTHON=1
export PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3
export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=ipython3
export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON_OPTS="notebook"

I also followed this tutorial to make it work from within Ipython3 notebook:
http://ramhiser.com/2015/02/01/configuring-ipython-notebook-support-for-pyspark/

Helped in my case:

import os

os.environ["SPARK_HOME"] = "/usr/local/Cellar/apache-spark/1.5.1/"
os.environ["PYSPARK_PYTHON"]="/usr/local/bin/python3"

I was running it in IPython (as described in this link by Jacek Wasilewski ) and was getting this exception; Added PYSPARK_PYTHON to the IPython kernel file and used jupyter notebook to run, and started working.

vi  ~/.ipython/kernels/pyspark/kernel.json

{
 "display_name": "pySpark (Spark 1.4.0)",
 "language": "python",
 "argv": [
  "/usr/bin/python2",
  "-m",
  "IPython.kernel",
  "--profile=pyspark",
  "-f",
  "{connection_file}"
 ],

 "env": {
  "SPARK_HOME": "/usr/local/spark-1.6.1-bin-hadoop2.6/",
  "PYTHONPATH": "/usr/local/spark-1.6.1-bin-hadoop2.6/python/:/usr/local/spark-1
.6.1-bin-hadoop2.6/python/lib/py4j-0.8.2.1-src.zip",
  "PYTHONSTARTUP": "/usr/local/spark-1.6.1-bin-hadoop2.6/python/pyspark/shell.py
",
  "PYSPARK_SUBMIT_ARGS": "--master spark://127.0.0.1:7077 pyspark-shell",
  "PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON":"ipython2",
   "PYSPARK_PYTHON": "python2"
 }

Error

“Exception: Python in worker has different version 2.6 than that in driver 
2.7, PySpark cannot run with different minor versions”. 

Fix (for Cloudera environment)

• Edit this file: /opt/cloudera/parcels/cdh5.5.4.p0.9/lib/spark/conf/spark-env.sh

• Add these lines:

  export PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python
  export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=python
  

I am using the following environment

? python --version; ipython --version; jupyter --version
Python 3.5.2+
5.3.0
5.0.0

and the following aliases work well for me

alias pyspark="PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python3 PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=ipython ~/spark-2.1.1-bin-hadoop2.7/bin/pyspark --packages graphframes:graphframes:0.5.0-spark2.1-s_2.11"    
alias pysparknotebook="PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3 PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=jupyter PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON_OPTS='notebook' ~/spark-2.1.1-bin-hadoop2.7/bin/pyspark --packages graphframes:graphframes:0.5.0-spark2.1-s_2.11"

In the notebook, I set up the environment as follows

from pyspark.context import SparkContext
sc = SparkContext.getOrCreate()

In case you only want to change the python version for current task, you can use following pyspark start command:

    PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=/home/user1/anaconda2/bin/python PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/local/anaconda2/bin/python pyspark --master ..

I came across the same error message and I have tried three ways mentioned above. I listed the results as a complementary reference to others.

1. Change the PYTHON_SPARK and PYTHON_DRIVER_SPARK value in spark-env.sh does not work for me.
2. Change the value inside python script using os.environ["PYSPARK_PYTHON"]="/usr/bin/python3.5"
os.environ["PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON"]="/usr/bin/python3.5" does not work for me.
3. Change the value in ~/.bashrc works like a charm~

I just faced the same issue and these are the steps that I follow in order to provide Python version. I wanted to run my PySpark jobs with Python 2.7 instead of 2.6.

1. Go to the folder where $SPARK_HOME is pointing to (in my case is /home/cloudera/spark-2.1.0-bin-hadoop2.7/)

2. Under folder conf, there is a file called spark-env.sh. In case you have a file called spark-env.sh.template you will need to copy the file to a new file called spark-env.sh.

3. Edit the file and write the next three lines

   export PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python2.7

   export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python2.7

   export SPARK_YARN_USER_ENV=”PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python2.7″

4. Save it and launch your application again 🙂

In that way, if you download a new Spark standalone version, you can set the Python version which you want to run PySpark to.

If you’re running Spark in a larger organization and are unable to update the /spark-env.sh file, exporting the environment variables may not work.

You can add the specific Spark settings through the --conf option when submitting the job at run time.

pyspark --master yarn --[other settings] 
  --conf "spark.pyspark.python=/your/python/loc/bin/python" 
  --conf "spark.pyspark.driver.python=/your/python/loc/bin/python"

Ran into this today at work. An admin thought it prudent to hard code Python 2.7 as the PYSPARK_PYTHON and PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON in $SPARK_HOME/conf/spark-env.sh. Needless to say this broke all of our jobs that utilize any other python versions or environments (which is > 90% of our jobs). @PhillipStich points out correctly that you may not always have write permissions for this file, as is our case. While setting the configuration in the spark-submit call is an option, another alternative (when running in yarn/cluster mode) is to set the SPARK_CONF_DIR environment variable to point to another configuration script. There you could set your PYSPARK_PYTHON and any other options you may need. A template can be found in the spark-env.sh source code on github.

I got the same issue on standalone spark in windows.
My version of fix is like this:
I had my environment variables setting as bellow

PYSPARK_SUBMIT_ARGS="pyspark-shell"
PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=jupyter
PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON_OPTS='notebook' pyspark

With this setting I executed an Action on pyspark and got the following exception:

Python in worker has different version 3.6 than that in driver 3.5, PySpark cannot run with different minor versions.
Please check environment variables PYSPARK_PYTHON and PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON are correctly set.

To check with which python version my spark-worker is using hit the following in the cmd prompt.

python --version
Python 3.6.3

which showed me Python 3.6.3. So clearly my spark-worker is using system python which is v3.6.3.

Now as I set my spark-driver to run jupyter by setting PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=jupyter so I need to check the python version jupyter is using.

To do this check open Anaconda Prompt and hit

python --version
Python 3.5.X :: Anaconda, Inc.

Here got the jupyter python is using the v3.5.x. You can check this version also in any Notebook (Help->About).

Now I need to update the jupyter python to the version v3.6.6. To do that open up the Anaconda Prompt and hit

conda search python

This will give you a list of available python versions in Anaconda. Install your desired one with

conda install python=3.6.3

Now I have both of the Python installation of same version 3.6.3 Spark should not comply and it didn’t when I ran an Action on Spark-driver. Exception is gone.
Happy coding …

Please look at the below snippet:

#setting environment variable for pyspark in linux||ubuntu
#goto --- /usr/local/spark/conf
#create a new file named spark-env.sh copy all content of spark-env.sh.template to it
#then add below lines to it, with path to python

PYSPARK_PYTHON="/usr/bin/python3"
PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON="/usr/bin/python3"
PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON_OPTS="notebook --no-browser"
#i was running python 3.6 ||run - 'which python' in terminal to find the path of python

In my case (Ubuntu 18.04), I ran this code in terminal:

sudo vim ~/.bashrc

and then edited SPARK_HOME as follows:

export SPARK_HOME=/home/muser/programs/anaconda2019/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyspark
export PATH=$PATH:$SPARK_HOME/bin:$SPARK_HOME/sbin

By doing so, my SPARK_HOME will refer to the pyspark package I installed in the site-package.

To learn how to use vim, go to this link.

Run:

ls -l /usr/local/bin/python*

The first row in this example shows the python3 symlink. To set it as the default python symlink run the following:

ln -s -f /usr/local/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/python

then reload your shell.

I had the same problem, just forgot to activate my virtual environment.

If you are working on mac, use the following commands

export SPARK_HOME=`brew info apache-spark | grep /usr | tail -n 1 | cut -f 1 -d " "`/libexec
export PYTHONPATH=$SPARK_HOME/python:$PYTHONPATH

export HADOOP_HOME=`brew info hadoop | grep /usr | head -n 1 | cut -f 1 -d " "`/libexec
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HADOOP_HOME/lib/native/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PYSPARK_PYTHON=python3

If you are using another OS, check the following link:
https://github.com/GalvanizeDataScience/spark-install

I was facing same issue working with pycharm and spark.
to fix this error I have followed given below steps to fix it.

1. Click on Run option in pycharm menu bar.

2. Click on Edit Configurations option.

3. Click on Environment Variables and write down given below lines
   as per your location.

   PYSPARK_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3.6;
   PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3.6;
   SPARK_HOME=/home/xxxxxx/Desktop/xxxx/spark