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

If you need to check if version is at least 'some version', then I prefer solution which doesn't make assumptions about number of digits in version parts.

VERSION=$(python -V 2>&1 | cut -d\  -f 2) # python 2 prints version to stderr
VERSION=(${VERSION//./ }) # make an version parts array 
if [[ ${VERSION[0]} -lt 3 ]] || [[ ${VERSION[0]} -eq 3 && ${VERSION[1] -lt 5 ]] ; then
    echo "Python 3.5+ needed!" 1>&2
    return 1
fi

This would work even with numbering like 2.12.32 or 3.12.0, etc. Inspired by this answer.