poetry-about

Display global information about Poetry, including the current version

$ poetry about

poetry about [-h|--help]

-h
    Displays help for the `about` subcommand.

--help
    Displays help for the `about` subcommand.

The `poetry about` command is a subcommand of the Poetry dependency management tool for Python. Its primary function is to display concise yet comprehensive information regarding the Poetry project itself. This typically includes the current version of Poetry installed, its license (usually MIT), official project URLs (like the homepage, GitHub repository, and documentation), and sometimes a list of its primary contributors.

It serves several useful purposes:
1. Quick Diagnostics: When troubleshooting issues or reporting bugs, knowing the exact Poetry version and relevant project links is crucial.
2. Project Overview: It offers a quick reference for developers and users to understand the tool's foundational details.
3. Compliance: Easily check the licensing information for compliance reasons.

Essentially, `poetry about` acts as an informational panel, providing essential metadata about the `poetry` tool without requiring an internet connection or navigating external documentation, making it a handy utility for anyone working with Poetry.

The command `poetry about` is not a standalone Linux command. It is a subcommand of the Poetry Python dependency manager. Therefore, Poetry must be installed and accessible in the system's PATH for this command to function. Attempting to run `poetry-about` directly (with a hyphen) will typically result in a "command not found" error unless an alias or script specifically creates such a command.

The output of `poetry about` usually includes:

• Poetry version (e.g., `Poetry (version 1.8.2)`)
• License information (e.g., `License: MIT`)
• Official project URLs (e.g., `Homepage: https://python-poetry.org/`, `GitHub: https://github.com/python-poetry/poetry`)
• A brief description of what Poetry is.

Poetry was created by Sébastien Eustace to provide a more robust and pleasant dependency management experience for Python projects, inspired by tools like `composer` (PHP) and `cargo` (Rust). It aims to replace `pip`, `venv`, `setup.py`, and `requirements.txt` with a single, coherent tool. The `about` subcommand has been a fundamental part of Poetry since its early versions, serving as a standard way for users to quickly retrieve essential information about the tool they are using. Its presence reflects a common practice in well-designed command-line interfaces to provide easy access to self-descriptive metadata.

poetry(1), pip(1), python(1)