AttributeError: Module 'distutils' has no attribute 'version'

# AttributeError: Module 'distutils' has no attribute 'version'

The "AttributeError: module 'distutils' has no attribute 'version'" occurs because of a change in setuptools that caused a broken import in PyTorch.

To solve the error, upgrade PyTorch to the latest version or pin your setuptools version to 59.5.0.

The first thing you should try is to upgrade PyTorch to the latest version.

Alternatively, you can pin your setuptools version to 59.5.0.

Open your terminal and run the following command.

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pip install setuptools==59.5.0
pip3 install setuptools==59.5.0

python -m pip install setuptools==59.5.0
python3 -m pip install setuptools==59.5.0
py -m pip install setuptools==59.5.0

When you run the command, you might get an error that states "ERROR: pip's dependency resolver does not currently take into account all the packages that are installed.".

Pinning setuptools to version 59.5.0 should resolve the error.

# Use the correct import statement

Older versions of PyTorch used to access the version attribute on setuptools.distutils.

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# ⛔️ Incorrect import
from setuptools import distutils

print(distutils.version)

The correct import would be to import LooseVersion from distutils.version.

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# ✅ Correct import
from distutils.version import LooseVersion

print(LooseVersion)

However, if you pin your setuptools version to 59.5.0, the old import still works.

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# 👇️ Works if your `setuptools` version is <= 59.5.0
from setuptools import distutils

print(distutils.version)

You can use the pip show setuptools command to check your version of the setuptools module.

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pip show setuptools

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

• ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.util' [Fix]
• ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'setuptools' in Python
• Module 'lib' has no attribute 'X509_V_FLAG_CB_ISSUER_CHECK'