How do I check what version of Python is running my script?

Question

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

Answer 1

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, use sys.version_info or sys.hexversion:

>>> 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.