How do I check what version of Python is running m

Question

How can I check what version of the Python Interpreter is interpreting my script?

Answer 1

sys.version_info doesn't seem to return a tuple as of 3.7. Rather, it returns a special class, so all of the examples using tuples don't work, for me at least. Here's the output from a python console:

>>> import sys
>>> type(sys.version_info)
<class 'sys.version_info'>

I've found that using a combination of sys.version_info.major and sys.version_info.minor seems to suffice. For example,...

import sys
if sys.version_info.major > 3:
    print('Upgrade to Python 3')
    exit(1)

checks if you're running Python 3. You can even check for more specific versions with...

import sys
ver = sys.version_info
if ver.major > 2:
    if ver.major == 3 and ver.minor <= 4:
        print('Upgrade to Python 3.5')
        exit(1)

can check to see if you're running at least Python 3.5.

Answer 2

This information is available in the sys.version string in the sys module:

>>> import sys

Human readable:

>>> print(sys.version)  # parentheses necessary in python 3.       
2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jul 31 2008, 17:28:52) 
[GCC 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)]

For further processing:

>>> sys.version_info
(2, 5, 2, 'final', 0)
# or
>>> sys.hexversion
34014192

To ensure a script runs with a minimal version requirement of the Python interpreter add this to your code:

assert sys.version_info >= (2, 5)

This compares major and minor version information. Add micro (=0, 1, etc) and even releaselevel (='alpha','final', etc) to the tuple as you like. Note however, that it is almost always better to "duck" check if a certain feature is there, and if not, workaround (or bail out). Sometimes features go away in newer releases, being replaced by others.

Answer 3

If you are working on linux just give command python output will be like this

Python 2.4.3 (#1, Jun 11 2009, 14:09:37)

[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)] on linux2

Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

Answer 4

Your best bet is probably something like so:

>>> import sys
>>> sys.version_info
(2, 6, 4, 'final', 0)
>>> if not sys.version_info[:2] == (2, 6):
...    print "Error, I need python 2.6"
... else:
...    from my_module import twoPointSixCode
>>> 

Additionally, you can always wrap your imports in a simple try, which should catch syntax errors. And, to @Heikki's point, this code will be compatible with much older versions of python:

>>> try:
...     from my_module import twoPointSixCode
... except Exception: 
...     print "can't import, probably because your python is too old!"
>>>

Answer 5

Several answers already suggest how to query the current python version. To check programmatically the version requirements, I'd make use of one of the following two methods:

# Method 1: (see krawyoti's answer)
import sys
assert(sys.version_info >= (2,6))

# Method 2: 
import platform
from distutils.version import StrictVersion 
assert(StrictVersion(platform.python_version()) >= "2.6")

Answer 6

If you want to detect pre-Python 3 and don't want to import anything...

...you can (ab)use list comprehension scoping changes and do it in a single expression:

is_python_3_or_above = (lambda x: [x for x in [False]] and None or x)(True)