[QUESTION] how to expose the version of pybind11 that a package is built with (to be readable from Python)

[slayoo]

In a pybind11-based project (PyPartMC), we have a couple of build-time dependencies that are either header-only C++ libs (incl. pybind11 itself) as well as some statically linked codes (C, Fortran, C++). All of the dependencies are linked as git submodules in the project repo. We are trying to figure out a best practice to make the versions (i.e., git hashes) of all these dependencies accessible from Python by the package users.

Something like:

import XXX as pkg
print(pkg.__version__)
print(pkg.__versions_of_build_time_dependencies__['pybind11'])

Any suggestions how to best construct it from the Python front? (i.e., how to name such version attributes, and would a dict suggested above be a good choice?)

Thanks,
Sylwester

[evguran]

I believe it is up to you to choice in which container to store the data, and what you suggested is good for a "versioning" of a big number of C++ libs. You named only few though, so in this case I would prefer string attributes __version_of_pybind11__ etc.

[slayoo]

Thanks! The key rationale for an iterable container would be to enable user code to iterate over it, e.g., to store the version information along the simulation output.

[slayoo]

for the record, here's how we applied it: open-atmos/PyPartMC#310