How to Check ‘click’ Package Version in Python?

In this article, I’ll show you:

💬 How to check the version of the Python module (package, library) click? And how to check if click is installed anyways?

These are the eight best ways to check the installed version of the Python module click:

Method 1: pip show click
Method 2: pip list
Method 3: pip list | findstr click
Method 4: library.__version__
Method 5: importlib.metadata.version
Method 6: conda list
Method 7: pip freeze
Method 8: pip freeze | grep click

Before we go into these ways to check your click version, let’s first quickly understand how versioning works in Python—you’ll be thankful to have spent a few seconds on this topic, believe me!

A Note on Python Version Numbering

💡Python versioning adds a unique identifier to different package versions using semantic versioning. Semantic versioning consists of three numerical units of versioning information in the format major.minor.patch.

In this tutorial, we’ll use the shorthand general version abbreviation like so:

x.y.z

Practical examples would use numerical values for x, y, and z:

1.2.3
4.1.4
1.0.0

This is shorthand for

major.minor.patch

Major releases (0.1.0 to 1.0.0) are used for the first stable release or “breaking changes”, i.e., major updates that break backward compatibility.
Minor releases (0.1.0 to 0.2.0) are used for larger bug fixes and new features that are backward compatible.
Patch releases (0.1.0 to 0.1.1) are used for smaller bug fixes that are backward compatible.

Let’s dive into the meat of this article:

💬 Question: How to check the (major, minor, patch) version of click in your current Python environment?

Method 1: pip show

To check which version of the Python library click is installed, run pip show click or pip3 show click in your CMD/Powershell (Windows), or terminal (macOS/Linux/Ubuntu).

This will work if your pip installation is version 1.3 or higher—which is likely to hold in your case because pip 1.3 was released a decade ago in 2013!!

Here’s an example in my Windows Powershell: I’ve highlighted the line that shows that my package version is a.b.c:

PS C:\Users\xcent> pip show click
Name: click
Version: a.b.c
Summary: ...
Home-page: ...
Author: ...
Author-email: ...
License: ...
Location: ...
Requires: ...
Required-by: ...

In some instances, this will not work—depending on your environment. In this case, try those commands before giving up:

python -m pip show click
python3 -m pip show click
py -m pip show click
pip3 show click

Next, we’ll dive into more ways to check your click version.

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Method 2: pip list

To check the versions of all installed packages, use pip list and locate the version of click in the output list of package versions sorted alphabetically.

This will work if your pip installation is version 1.3 or higher.

Here’s a simplified example for Windows Powershell, I’ve highlighted the line that shows the package version is 1.2.3:

PS C:\Users\xcent> pip list
Package         Version
--------------- ---------
aaa             1.2.3
...
click             1.2.3
...
zzz             1.2.3

In some instances, this will not work—depending on your environment. Then try those commands before giving up:

python -m pip list
python3 -m pip list
py -m pip list
pip3 list

Method 3: pip list + findstr on Windows

To check the versions of a single package on Windows, you can chain pip list with findstr click using the CMD or Powershell command: pip3 list | findstr click to locate the version of click in the output list of package versions automatically.

Here’s an example for click:

pip3 list | findstr click

1.2.3

Method 4: Module version Attribute

To check which version is installed of a given library, you can use the library.__version__ attribute after importing the library (package, module) with import library.

Here’s the code:

import my_library
print(my_library.__version__)
# x.y.z for your version output

Here’s an excerpt from the PEP 8 docs mentioning the __version__ attribute.

“PEP 8 describes the use of a module attribute called __version__ for recording “Subversion, CVS, or RCS” version strings using keyword expansion. In the PEP author’s own email archives, the earliest example of the use of an __version__ module attribute by independent module developers dates back to 1995.”

You can also use the following one-liner snippet to run this from your terminal (macOS, Linux, Ubuntu) or CMD/Powershell (Windows):

python3 -c "import my_library; print(my_library.__version__)"

However, this method doesn’t work for all libraries, so while simple, I don’t recommend it as a general approach for that reason.

Method 5: importlib.metadata.version

The importlib.metadata library provides a general way to check the package version in your Python script via importlib.metadata.version('click') for library click. This returns a string representation of the specific version such as 1.2.3 depending on the concrete version in your environment.

Here’s the code:

import importlib.metadata
print(importlib.metadata.version('click'))
# 1.2.3

Method 6: conda list

If you have created your Python environment with Anaconda, you can use conda list to list all packages installed in your (virtual) environment. Optionally, you can add a regular expression using the syntax conda list regex to list only packages matching a certain pattern.

How to list all packages in the current environment?

conda list

How to list all packages installed into the environment 'xyz'?

conda list -n xyz

Regex: How to list all packages starting with 'click'?

conda list '^click'

Method 7: pip freeze

The pip freeze command without any option lists all installed Python packages in your environment in alphabetically order (ignoring UPPERCASE or lowercase). You can spot your specific package click if it is installed in the environment.

pip freeze

Output example (depending on your concrete environment/installation):

PS C:\Users\xcent> pip freeze
aaa==1.2.3
...
click==1.2.3
...
zzz==1.2.3

You can modify or exclude specific packages using the options provided in this screenshot:

Method 8: pip freeze + grep on Linux/Ubuntu/macOS

To check the versions of a single package on Linux/Ubuntu/macOS, you can chain pip freeze with grep click using the CMD or Powershell command: pip freeze | grep click to programmatically locate the version of your particular package click in the output list of package versions.

Here’s an example for click:

pip freeze | grep click
click==1.2.3

Related Questions

Check click Installed Python

How to check if click is installed in your Python script?

To check if click is installed in your Python script, you can run import click in your Python shell and surround it by a try/except to catch a potential ModuleNotFoundError.

try:
    import click
    print("Module click installed")
except ModuleNotFoundError:
    print("Module click not installed")

Check click Version Python

How to check the package version of click in Python?

To check which version of click is installed, use pip show click or pip3 show click in your CMD/Powershell (Windows), or terminal (macOS/Linux/Ubuntu) to obtain the output major.minor.patch.

pip show click  # or pip3 show click
# 1.2.3

Check click Version Linux

How to check my click version in Linux?

To check which version of click is installed, use pip show click or pip3 show click in your Linux terminal.

pip show click  # or pip3 show click
# 1.2.3

Check click Version Ubuntu

How to check my click version in Ubuntu?

To check which version of click is installed, use pip show click or pip3 show click in your Ubuntu terminal.

pip show click  # or pip3 show click
# 1.2.3

Check click Version Windows

How to check my click version on Windows?

To check which version of click is installed, use pip show click or pip3 show click in your Windows CMD, command line, or PowerShell.

pip show click  # or pip3 show click
# 1.2.3

Check click Version Mac

How to check my click version on macOS?

To check which version of click is installed, use pip show click or pip3 show click in your macOS terminal.

pip show click  # or pip3 show click
# 1.2.3

Check click Version Jupyter Notebook

How to check my click version in my Jupyter Notebook?

To check which version of click is installed, add the line !pip show click to your notebook cell where you want to check. Notice the exclamation mark prefix ! that allows you to run commands in your Python script cell.

!pip show click

Output: The following is an example on how this looks for click in a Jupyter Notebook cell:

Package         Version
--------------- ---------
aaa             1.2.3
...
click             1.2.3
...
zzz             1.2.3

Check click Version Conda/Anaconda

How to check the click version in my conda installation?

Use conda list 'click' to list version information about the specific package installed in your (virtual) environment.

conda list 'click'

Check click Version with PIP

How to check the click version with pip?

You can use multiple commands to check the click version with PIP such as pip show click, pip list, pip freeze, and pip list.

pip show click
pip list
pip freeze
pip list

The former will output the specific version of click. The remaining will output the version information of all installed packages and you have to locate click first.

Check Package Version in VSCode or PyCharm

How to check the click version in VSCode or PyCharm?

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as VSCode or PyCharm provide a built-in terminal where you can run pip show click to check the current version of click in the specific environment you’re running the command in.

pip show click
pip3 show click

pip list
pip3 list

pip freeze
pip3 freeze

You can type any of those commands in your IDE terminal like so:

Summary

In this article, you’ve learned those best ways to check a Python package version:

Method 1: pip show click
Method 2: pip list
Method 3: pip list | findstr click
Method 4: library.__version__
Method 5: importlib.metadata.version
Method 6: conda list
Method 7: pip freeze
Method 8: pip freeze | grep click

Thanks for giving us your valued attention — we’re grateful to have you here! 🙂

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