How to list all installed packages and their versions in Python?

Question

Is there a way in Python to list all installed packages and their versions?

I know I can go inside python/Lib/site-packages and see what files and direc

Answer 1

yes! you should be using pip as your python package manager ( http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip )

with pip installed packages, you can do a

pip freeze

and it will list all installed packages. You should probably also be using virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper. When you start a new project, you can do

mkvirtualenv my_new_project

and then (inside that virtualenv), do

pip install all_your_stuff

This way, you can workon my_new_project and then pip freeze to see which packages are installed for that virtualenv/project.

for example:

➜  ~  mkvirtualenv yo_dude
New python executable in yo_dude/bin/python
Installing setuptools............done.
Installing pip...............done.
virtualenvwrapper.user_scripts creating /Users/aaylward/dev/virtualenvs/yo_dude/bin/predeactivate
virtualenvwrapper.user_scripts creating /Users/aaylward/dev/virtualenvs/yo_dude/bin/postdeactivate
virtualenvwrapper.user_scripts creating /Users/aaylward/dev/virtualenvs/yo_dude/bin/preactivate
virtualenvwrapper.user_scripts creating /Users/aaylward/dev/virtualenvs/yo_dude/bin/postactivate
virtualenvwrapper.user_scripts creating /Users/aaylward/dev/virtualenvs/yo_dude/bin/get_env_details

(yo_dude)➜  ~  pip install django
Downloading/unpacking django
  Downloading Django-1.4.1.tar.gz (7.7Mb): 7.7Mb downloaded
  Running setup.py egg_info for package django

Installing collected packages: django
  Running setup.py install for django
    changing mode of build/scripts-2.7/django-admin.py from 644 to 755

    changing mode of /Users/aaylward/dev/virtualenvs/yo_dude/bin/django-admin.py to 755
Successfully installed django
Cleaning up...

(yo_dude)➜  ~  pip freeze
Django==1.4.1
wsgiref==0.1.2

(yo_dude)➜  ~  

or if you have a python package with a requirements.pip file,

mkvirtualenv my_awesome_project
pip install -r requirements.pip
pip freeze

will do the trick