[Python-Dev] PEP 396, Module Version Numbers

[exarkun at twistedmatrix.com]

On 04:02 am, pje at telecommunity.com wrote:
>At 08:52 AM 4/10/2011 +1000, Ben Finney wrote:
>>This is an often-overlooked case, I think. The unspoken assumption is
>>often that ``setup.py`` is a suitable place for the overall version
>>string, but this is not the case when that string must be read by
>>non-Python programs.
>
>If you haven't used the distutils a lot, you might not realize that you 
>can do this:
>
>$ python setup.py --version
>0.6c12
>
>(The --name option also works, and they can be used together -- the 
>answers will be on two separate lines.)

This only works as long as setup.py is around - which it typically no 
longer is after installation is complete.

And though it's common and acceptable enough to launch a child process 
in a shell script in order to get some piece of information, it isn't as 
pleasant in a Python program.  Can you get this version information out 
of setup.py without running a child process and without monkey-patching 
sys.argv and sys.stdout?

Jean-Paul