C.f. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=603851

When user is calling program with options, it is not an error
condition to run:

	python --version

The output is now sent to stderr. Please change to send to stdout as
in other *nix utilities, in order to collect in shell scrips:

   version=$(python --version)

Your proposal is reasonable. I'm flagging it for Python 3.4+ as it's a backward incompatible modification.

> Your proposal is reasonable. I'm flagging it for Python 3.4+ as it's a backward incompatible modification.

Agree.

Here is a patch with an updated test.

The -v flag also sends the output to stderr. Should that be fixed too? See Modules/main.c:678 and Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py:l47

LGTM.

On 3 July 2013 15:16, Berker Peksag <report@bugs.python.org> wrote:

>
> Berker Peksag added the comment:
>
> Here is a patch with an updated test.
>
> The -v flag also sends the output to stderr. Should that be fixed too? See
> Modules/main.c:678 and Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py:l47
>
> ----------
> keywords: +patch
> nosy: +berker.peksag
> stage: needs patch -> patch review
> Added file: http://bugs.python.org/file30756/issue18338.diff
>
> No, -v is for debugging purposes and should go to stderr IMO.

No, I think that

On 3 July 2013 16:06, Serhiy Storchaka <report@bugs.python.org> wrote:

>
> Serhiy Storchaka added the comment:
>
> LGTM.
>
> ----------
> nosy: +serhiy.storchaka
>
> _______________________________________
> Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue18338>
> _______________________________________
>

Simply replced printout from stderr to stdout.

Patch for issue 18338. Changes output for --version and updates unit test accordingly.

New changeset e6384b8b2325 by Serhiy Storchaka in branch 'default':
Issue #18338: `python --version` now prints version string to stdout, and
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/e6384b8b2325

New changeset 587bdb940524 by Eli Bendersky in branch 'default':
Update whatsnew/3.4 wrt. --version going to stdout. #18338, #18920, #18922
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/587bdb940524

Is there a workaround for python2? The issue is that autotools is checking that installed tools support --help and --version and it expects those to stdout:

bad=0; pid=$$; list="gtkdoc-check gtkdoc-depscan gtkdoc-fixxref gtkdoc-mkdb gtkdoc-mkhtml gtkdoc-mkhtml2 gtkdoc-mkman gtkdoc-mkpdf gtkdoc-rebase gtkdoc-scan gtkdoc-scangobj gtkdocize"; for p in $list; do \
  case '  ' in \
   *" $p "* | *" ../../$p "*) continue;; \
  esac; \
  f=`echo "$p" | sed 's,^.*/,,;s,x,x,'`; \
  for opt in --help --version; do \
    if "/home/ensonic/projects/gnome/gtk-doc/gtk-doc-1.27.1/_inst/bin/$f" $opt >c${pid}_.out \
         2>c${pid}_.err </dev/null \
	 && test -n "`cat c${pid}_.out`" \
	 && test -z "`cat c${pid}_.err`"; then :; \
    else echo "$f does not support $opt" 1>&2; bad=1; fi; \
  done; \
done; rm -f c${pid}_.???; exit $bad
gtkdoc-check does not support --version
gtkdoc-fixxref does not support --version
gtkdoc-mkdb does not support --version
gtkdoc-mkhtml does not support --version
gtkdoc-mkhtml2 does not support --version
gtkdoc-mkman does not support --version
gtkdoc-mkpdf does not support --version
gtkdoc-rebase does not support --version
gtkdoc-scan does not support --version
gtkdoc-scangobj does not support --version
Makefile:637: recipe for target 'installcheck-binSCRIPTS' failed

Sorry need to find the ticket for argparse ..