Linux how to find python version

How to Check Python Version for Mac, Windows, and Linux

Web developers, engineers, and other software professionals need to know how to check Python version installed on their machines. Although the process is simple, some beginners may find it hard to figure out how to check Python version.

If you’re new to Python, we suggest taking a Python course to become familiar with the syntax and subtleties of the language.

In this article, we’ll guide you through a few easy steps to check Python version on your Mac, Windows, or Linux machine. All you need to begin is a computer with a Python release installed.

What is Python?

Python is a programming language used in web development, machine learning, and automation tasks. It is object-oriented, interpreted, and has a clear, simple syntax that makes it easy to learn and use.

It is one of the most popular and widely used languages, rivaling Javascript, Java, and C.

Python’s core library is extensive and freely distributed. These libraries and packages extend Python’s standard functionality.

The #1 Reason You Need to Know How to Check Python Version

There are many different versions of Python, and each version operates slightly differently with other dependencies and packages you have installed. Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure you have the correct version of Python installed to support the other dependencies in your project.

It is possible to have more than one version of Python installed on your computer. If you are a serious developer, you might simultaneously work on several applications requiring different Python versions.

For this reason, developers often run Python inside a virtual environment. In addition, it’s common to run a separate virtual environment for each Python project you work on.

A virtual environment is like a virtual machine that runs on your computer and keeps all the Python interpreters, versions, packages, dependencies, and scripts isolated from other Python projects on your computer.

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How to Check Python Version in Linux, Mac, & Windows

Python is a popular programming language. Like many other programming languages, there can be several different versions organized by release date. Certain applications may require a specific version of Python.

In this tutorial, learn how to check the Python version on Windows, Linux, or macOS systems.

Access to a command-line/terminal window:

• Linux: Ctrl-Alt-T, Ctrl-Alt-F2
• Windows: Win+R > type powershell > Enter/OK
• MacOS: Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal

There are different versions of Python, but the two most popular ones are Python 2.7.x and Python 3.7.x. The x stands for the revision level and could change as new releases come out.

When looking at the version number, there are usually three digits to read:

While major releases are not fully compatible, minor releases generally are. Version 3.6.1 should be compatible with 3.7.1 for example. The final digit signifies the latest patches and updates.

Python 2.7 and 3.7 are different applications. Software that’s written in one version often will not work correctly in another version. When using Python, it is essential to know which version an application requires, and which version you have.

Python 2 will stop publishing security updates and patches after 2020. They extended the deadline because of the large number of developers using Python 2.7. Python 3 includes a 2 to 3 utility that helps translate Python 2 code into Python 3.

How to Check Python Version in Linux

Most modern Linux distributions come with Python pre-installed.

To check the version installed, open a terminal window and entering the following:

How to Check Python Version in Windows

Most out-of-the-box Windows installations do not come with Python pre-installed. However, it is always a good idea to check.

Open Windows Powershell, and enter the following:

If you have Python installed, it will report the version number.

Alternately, use the Windows Search function to see which version of Python you have:

Press the Windows key to start a search, then type Python. The system will return any results that match. Most likely a match will show something similar to:

This defines which major and minor revision (3.x or 2.x) you are using.

How to Check Python Version in MacOS

If using a MacOS, check the Python version by entering the following command in the terminal:

The system will report the version.

Note: In some cases, this will return a screen full of information. If that happens, just scan through the file locations for the word python with a number after it. That number is the version.

Checking a System with Multiple Versions of Python

Python2 and Python3 are different programs. Many programs upgrade from the older version to the newer one. However, Python 2.7.x installations can be run separately from the Python 3.7.x version on the same system.

Python 3 is not entirely backward compatible.

To check for Python 2.7.x:

To check the version of Python 3 software:

Most systems differentiate Python 2 as python and Python 3 as python3. If you do not have Python 2, your system may use the python command in place of python3 .

Note: Python does not have a built-in upgrade system. You’ll need to download the latest version and install it.

How to Check Python Version in Script

When writing an application, it is helpful to have the software check the version of Python before it runs to prevent crashes and incompatibilities.

Use the following code snippet to check for the correct version of Python:

if not sys.version_info.major == 3 and sys.version_info.minor >= 6: print("Python 3.6 or higher is required.") print("You are using Python <>.<>.".format(sys.version_info.major, sys.version_info.minor)) sys.exit(1)

When this script runs, it will test to see if Python 3.6 is installed on the system. If not, it will send a notification and displays the current Python version.

Note: One of the common issues in working with Python and datasets is missing data. Learn how to handle missing data in Python.

You should now have a solid understanding of how to check for the version of Python installed in several different operating systems. Python is a powerful programming language, thus it’s important to understand its different versions.

If you want to learn how to upgrade Python to a newer version on Wondows, macOs, and Linux, check our article how to upgrade Python to 3.9.

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What version of Python do I have?

@TejasKale Better to run ls /usr/bin/python* (or ls /usr/bin/*python* if you really want files with python anywhere in the name). That way, ls still formats its output for a terminal (and you get multiple columns and, with the default ls alias in Ubuntu, colorization).

9 Answers 9

You can use python -V (et al.) to show you the version of Python that the python command resolves to. If that’s all you need, you’re done. But to see every version of python in your system takes a bit more.

In Ubuntu we can check the resolution with readlink -f $(which python) . In default cases in 14.04 this will simply point to /usr/bin/python2.7 .

We can chain this in to show the version of that version of Python:

$ readlink -f $(which python) | xargs -I % sh -c 'echo -n "%: "; % -V' /usr/bin/python2.7: Python 2.7.6 

But this is still only telling us what our current python resolution is. If we were in a Virtualenv (a common Python stack management system) python might resolve to a different version:

$ readlink -f $(which python) | xargs -I % sh -c 'echo -n "%: "; % -V' /home/oli/venv/bin/python: Python 2.7.4 

The fact is there could be hundreds of different versions of Python secreted around your system, either on paths that are contextually added, or living under different binary names (like python3 ).

If we assume that a Python binary is always going to be called python and be a binary file, we can just search the entire system for files that match those criteria:

$ sudo find / -type f -executable -iname 'python*' -exec file -i '<>' \; | awk -F: '/x-executable; charset=binary/ ' | xargs readlink -f | sort -u | xargs -I % sh -c 'echo -n "%: "; % -V' /home/oli/venv/bin/python: Python 2.7.4 /media/ned/websites/venvold/bin/python: Python 2.7.4 /srv/chroot/precise_i386/usr/bin/python2.7: Python 2.7.3 /srv/chroot/trusty_i386/usr/bin/python2.7: Python 2.7.6 /srv/chroot/trusty_i386/usr/bin/python3.4: Python 3.4.0 /srv/chroot/trusty_i386/usr/bin/python3.4m: Python 3.4.0 /usr/bin/python2.7: Python 2.7.6 /usr/bin/python2.7-dbg: Python 2.7.6 /usr/bin/python3.4: Python 3.4.0 /usr/bin/python3.4dm: Python 3.4.0 /usr/bin/python3.4m: Python 3.4.0 /web/venvold/bin/python: Python 2.7.4 

It’s obviously a pretty hideous command but this is again real output and it seems to have done a fairly thorough job.

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