Get a Python Package Version

By  on  

Part of maintaining a Django-based application like MDN's kuma is ensuring Python packages are up to date.  I was recently testing an upgrade on a remote system and needed to ensure that a given Python package was at the version number it should be.  Here's how I retrieved the package version:

import nose   # Nose is a test utility.  Replace with your desired package here.
nose.__version__

# Output:  0.3.1

The __version__ property returns the exact version number for a Python package.  Some Python packages use a VERSION property as well, but __version__ should be the most reliable.

Recent Features

  • By
    7 Essential JavaScript Functions

    I remember the early days of JavaScript where you needed a simple function for just about everything because the browser vendors implemented features differently, and not just edge features, basic features, like addEventListener and attachEvent.  Times have changed but there are still a few functions each developer should...

  • By
    Introducing MooTools Templated

    One major problem with creating UI components with the MooTools JavaScript framework is that there isn't a great way of allowing customization of template and ease of node creation. As of today, there are two ways of creating: new Element Madness The first way to create UI-driven...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Animated AJAX Record Deletion Using jQuery

    I'm a huge fan of WordPress' method of individual article deletion. You click the delete link, the menu item animates red, and the item disappears. Here's how to achieve that functionality with jQuery JavaScript. The PHP - Content & Header The following snippet goes at the...

  • By
    PHP / MooTools 1.2 Accordion Helper

    The MooTools Accordion plugin seems to be the plugin that people seem to have the most problems with. It's an awesome plugin, so I can see why so many people want to use it, but I think that may be part of the problem.

Discussion

  1. Every once in a while a package might not define either VERSION or __version__, since they’re conventions, not required. You can always get the installed version with pkg_resources, though:

    >>> import pkg_resources
    >>> pkg_resources.get_distribution("PIL").version
    '1.1.7'
    
  2. Alfred Tarski

    @James, __version__ is recommended by PEP 396

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!