What is the prefered way to expose a module version number?

Question

What is the/is there a prefered way to expose a module version number?

• Python itself use the builtins tuple sys.version_info:

  >>> sys.version_info
  sys.version_info(major=3, minor=3, micro=0, releaselevel='final', serial=0)
  

• MySQLdb (for example) use an ordinary tuple:

  >>> MySQLdb.version_info
  (1, 2, 3, 'final', 0)
  

• Some third party library use the string __version__

  >>> requests.__version__
  '1.2.3'
  

• Some frameworks use the tuple VERSION:

  >>> django.VERSION
  (1, 6, 0, 'alpha', 0)
  

... apparently, there are a lot of different usages in that matter!

Answer 1

According to PEP 396, it should be module.__version__. According to that PEP, you should use the Normalized Version style in PEP 386 to decide how it should be written.

It looks like there is a draft version of PEP 440 that will supplant 386.