How can I get the version defined in setup.py (setuptools) in my package?

Question

How could I get the version defined in setup.py from my package (for --version, or other purposes)?

Answer 1

With a structure like this:

setup.py
mymodule/
        / __init__.py
        / version.py
        / myclasses.py

where version.py contains:

__version__ = 'version_string'

You can do this in setup.py:

import sys

sys.path[0:0] = ['mymodule']

from version import __version__

This won't cause any problem with whatever dependencies you have in your mymodule/__init__.py