How can I tell which python implementation I'm using?

Question

Python has a few different implementations: CPython, Jython, PyPy, etc. I want to programmatically determine which implementation my code is running on. How can I do that?

To be specific, I'm looking for a function, say, get_implementation_name(), that could be used like so:

impl_name = get_implementation_name() if impl_name == "CPython": print "I can abuse CPython implementation details. (I'm a bad, bad man.)" elif impl_name == "PyPy": print "Can't count on reference-counting garbage collection here..." else: print "I better be careful..."

wjandrea · Accepted Answer · 2023-10-17 16:28:24Z

158

In [50]: import platform In [52]: platform.python_implementation() Out[52]: 'CPython'

Docs: platform.python_implementation

edited Oct 17, 2023 at 16:28

wjandrea

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answered Feb 5, 2013 at 22:25

unutbu

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Jakob Bowyer · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-05 22:26:32Z

18

How about platform

it gives you

platform.python_implementation()

answered Feb 5, 2013 at 22:26

Jakob Bowyer

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