Detect python version in shell script

Question

I\'d like to detect if python is installed on a Linux system and if it is, which python version is installed.

How can I do it? Is there something more graceful than

Answer 1

Detection of python version 2+ or 3+ in a shell script:

# !/bin/bash
ver=$(python -c"import sys; print(sys.version_info.major)")
if [ $ver -eq 2 ]; then
    echo "python version 2"
elif [ $ver -eq 3 ]; then
    echo "python version 3"
else 
    echo "Unknown python version: $ver"
fi