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

There's a thousand ways to skin a cat -- here's mine:

# Copied from (and hacked):
# https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/blob/develop/setup.py#L42
def get_version(filename):
    import os
    import re

    here = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
    f = open(os.path.join(here, filename))
    version_file = f.read()
    f.close()
    version_match = re.search(r"^__version__ = ['\"]([^'\"]*)['\"]",
                              version_file, re.M)
    if version_match:
        return version_match.group(1)
    raise RuntimeError("Unable to find version string.")