Check if a Debian package is installed from Python

Question

Is there an elegant and more Python-like way to check if a package is installed on Debian?

In a bash script, I\'d do:

dpkg -s packagename | grep Stat         


        

Answer 1

If you are checking for the existence of a package that installs a Python module, you can test for this from within a dependent Python script - try to import it and see if you get an exception:

import sys
try:
    import maybe
except ImportError:
    print "Sorry, must install the maybe package to run this program."
    sys.exit(1)