Check if Python Package is installed

Question

What\'s a good way to check if a package is installed while within a Python script? I know it\'s easy from the interpreter, but I need to do it within a script.

I g

Answer 1

You can use the pkg_resources module from setuptools. For example:

import pkg_resources

package_name = 'cool_package'
try:
    cool_package_dist_info = pkg_resources.get_distribution(package_name)
except pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound:
    print('{} not installed'.format(package_name))
else:
    print(cool_package_dist_info)

Note that there is a difference between python module and a python package. A package can contain multiple modules and module's names might not match the package name.