How to Check ‘setuptools’ Package Version in Python? – Be on the Right Side of Change (2023)

In this article, I’ll show you:

💬 How to check the version of the Python module (package, library) setuptools? And how to check if setuptools is installed anyways?

These are the eight best ways to check the installed version of the Python module setuptools:

• Method 1: pip show setuptools
• Method 2: pip list
• Method 3: pip list | findstr setuptools
• Method 4: library.__version__
• Method 5: importlib.metadata.version
• Method 6: conda list
• Method 7: pip freeze
• Method 8: pip freeze | grep setuptools

Before we go into these ways to check your setuptools version, let’s first quickly understand how versioning works in Python—you’ll be thankful to have spent a few seconds on this topic, believe me!

A Note on Python Version Numbering

💡Python versioning adds a unique identifier to different package versions using semantic versioning. Semantic versioning consists of three numerical units of versioning information in the format major.minor.patch.

In this tutorial, we’ll use the shorthand general version abbreviation like so:

x.y.z

Practical examples would use numerical values for x, y, and z:

• 1.2.3
• 4.1.4
• 1.0.0

This is shorthand for

major.minor.patch

• Major releases (0.1.0 to 1.0.0) are used for the first stable release or “breaking changes”, i.e., major updates that break backward compatibility.
• Minor releases (0.1.0 to 0.2.0) are used for larger bug fixes and new features that are backward compatible.
• Patch releases (0.1.0 to 0.1.1) are used for smaller bug fixes that are backward compatible.

Let’s dive into the meat of this article:

💬 Question: How to check the (major, minor, patch) version of setuptools in your current Python environment?

Method 1: pip show

To check which version of the Python library setuptools is installed, run pip show setuptools or pip3 show setuptools in your CMD/Powershell (Windows), or terminal (macOS/Linux/Ubuntu).

This will work if your pip installation is version 1.3 or higher—which is likely to hold in your case because pip 1.3 was released a decade ago in 2013!!

Here’s an example in my Windows Powershell: I’ve highlighted the line that shows that my package version is a.b.c:

PS C:\Users\xcent> pip show setuptoolsName: setuptoolsVersion: a.b.cSummary: ...Home-page: ...Author: ...Author-email: ...License: ...Location: ...Requires: ...Required-by: ...

In some instances, this will not work—depending on your environment. In this case, try those commands before giving up:

python -m pip show setuptoolspython3 -m pip show setuptoolspy -m pip show setuptoolspip3 show setuptools

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Method 2: pip list

To check the versions of all installed packages, use pip list and locate the version of setuptools in the output list of package versions sorted alphabetically.

This will work if your pip installation is version 1.3 or higher.

Here’s a simplified example for Windows Powershell, I’ve highlighted the line that shows the package version is 1.2.3:

PS C:\Users\xcent> pip listPackage Version--------------- ---------aaa 1.2.3...setuptools 1.2.3...zzz 1.2.3

In some instances, this will not work—depending on your environment. Then try those commands before giving up:

python -m pip listpython3 -m pip listpy -m pip listpip3 list 

Method 3: pip list + findstr on Windows

To check the versions of a single package on Windows, you can chain pip list with findstr setuptools using the CMD or Powershell command: pip3 list | findstr setuptools to locate the version of setuptools in the output list of package versions automatically.

Here’s an example for setuptools:

pip3 list | findstr setuptools1.2.3

Method 4: Module __version__ Attribute

To check which version is installed of a given library, you can use the library.__version__ attribute after importing the library (package, module) with import library.

Here’s the code:

import my_libraryprint(my_library.__version__)# x.y.z for your version output

Here’s an excerpt from the PEP 8 docs mentioning the __version__ attribute.

“PEP 8 describes the use of a module attribute called __version__ for recording “Subversion, CVS, or RCS” version strings using keyword expansion. In the PEP author’s own email archives, the earliest example of the use of an __version__ module attribute by independent module developers dates back to 1995.”

You can also use the following one-liner snippet to run this from your terminal (macOS, Linux, Ubuntu) or CMD/Powershell (Windows):

python3 -c "import my_library; print(my_library.__version__)"

However, this method doesn’t work for all libraries, so while simple, I don’t recommend it as a general approach for that reason.

Method 5: importlib.metadata.version

The importlib.metadata library provides a general way to check the package version in your Python script via importlib.metadata.version('setuptools') for library setuptools. This returns a string representation of the specific version such as 1.2.3 depending on the concrete version in your environment.

Here’s the code:

import importlib.metadataprint(importlib.metadata.version('setuptools'))# 1.2.3

Method 6: conda list

If you have created your Python environment with Anaconda, you can use conda list to list all packages installed in your (virtual) environment. Optionally, you can add a regular expression using the syntax conda list regex to list only packages matching a certain pattern.

How to list all packages in the current environment?

conda list

How to list all packages installed into the environment 'xyz'?

conda list -n xyz

Regex: How to list all packages starting with 'setuptools'?

conda list '^setuptools'

Method 7: pip freeze

The pip freeze command without any option lists all installed Python packages in your environment in alphabetically order (ignoring UPPERCASE or lowercase). You can spot your specific package setuptools if it is installed in the environment.

pip freeze

Output example (depending on your concrete environment/installation):

PS C:\Users\xcent> pip freezeaaa==1.2.3...setuptools==1.2.3...zzz==1.2.3

You can modify or exclude specific packages using the options provided in this screenshot:

Method 8: pip freeze + grep on Linux/Ubuntu/macOS

To check the versions of a single package on Linux/Ubuntu/macOS, you can chain pip freeze with grep setuptools using the CMD or Powershell command: pip freeze | grep setuptools to programmatically locate the version of your particular package setuptools in the output list of package versions.

Here’s an example for setuptools:

pip freeze | grep setuptoolssetuptools==1.2.3

Related Questions

Check setuptools Installed Python

How to check if setuptools is installed in your Python script?

To check if setuptools is installed in your Python script, you can run import setuptools in your Python shell and surround it by a try/except to catch a potential ModuleNotFoundError.

try: import setuptools print("Module setuptools installed")except ModuleNotFoundError: print("Module setuptools not installed")

Check setuptools Version Python

How to check the package version of setuptools in Python?

To check which version of setuptools is installed, use pip show setuptools or pip3 show setuptools in your CMD/Powershell (Windows), or terminal (macOS/Linux/Ubuntu) to obtain the output major.minor.patch.

pip show setuptools # or pip3 show setuptools# 1.2.3

Check setuptools Version Linux

How to check my setuptools version in Linux?

To check which version of setuptools is installed, use pip show setuptools or pip3 show setuptools in your Linux terminal.

pip show setuptools # or pip3 show setuptools# 1.2.3

Check setuptools Version Ubuntu

How to check my setuptools version in Ubuntu?

To check which version of setuptools is installed, use pip show setuptools or pip3 show setuptools in your Ubuntu terminal.

pip show setuptools # or pip3 show setuptools# 1.2.3

Check setuptools Version Windows

How to check my setuptools version on Windows?

To check which version of setuptools is installed, use pip show setuptools or pip3 show setuptools in your Windows CMD, command line, or PowerShell.

pip show setuptools # or pip3 show setuptools# 1.2.3

Check setuptools Version Mac

How to check my setuptools version on macOS?

To check which version of setuptools is installed, use pip show setuptools or pip3 show setuptools in your macOS terminal.

pip show setuptools # or pip3 show setuptools# 1.2.3

Check setuptools Version Jupyter Notebook

How to check my setuptools version in my Jupyter Notebook?

To check which version of setuptools is installed, add the line !pip show setuptools to your notebook cell where you want to check. Notice the exclamation mark prefix ! that allows you to run commands in your Python script cell.

!pip show setuptools

Output: The following is an example on how this looks for setuptools in a Jupyter Notebook cell:

Package Version--------------- ---------aaa 1.2.3...setuptools 1.2.3...zzz 1.2.3

Check setuptools Version Conda/Anaconda

How to check the setuptools version in my conda installation?

Use conda list 'setuptools' to list version information about the specific package installed in your (virtual) environment.

conda list 'setuptools'

Check setuptools Version with PIP

How to check the setuptools version with pip?

You can use multiple commands to check the setuptools version with PIP such as pip show setuptools, pip list, pip freeze, and pip list.

pip show setuptoolspip listpip freezepip list

The former will output the specific version of setuptools. The remaining will output the version information of all installed packages and you have to locate setuptools first.

Check Package Version in VSCode or PyCharm

How to check the setuptools version in VSCode or PyCharm?

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as VSCode or PyCharm provide a built-in terminal where you can run pip show setuptools to check the current version of setuptools in the specific environment you’re running the command in.

pip show setuptoolspip3 show setuptoolspip listpip3 listpip freezepip3 freeze

You can type any of those commands in your IDE terminal like so:

Summary

In this article, you’ve learned those best ways to check a Python package version:

• Method 1: pip show setuptools
• Method 2: pip list
• Method 3: pip list | findstr setuptools
• Method 4: library.__version__
• Method 5: importlib.metadata.version
• Method 6: conda list
• Method 7: pip freeze
• Method 8: pip freeze | grep setuptools

Thanks for giving us your valued attention — we’re grateful to have you here! 🙂

Programmer Humor

There are only 10 kinds of people in this world: those who know binary and those who don’t.
👩🧔‍♂️
~~~

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand trinary, those who don’t, and those who mistake it for binary.

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