Update (26 January, 2026): Munki (which had its own MunkiLooseVersion) no longer uses Python, and Apple no longer appears to be using Rapid Security Responses, so I would recommend using the Version from packaging.version for most version comparisons in Python (test, of course, to make sure you’re getting the results you want).

At some point in a Python script, you may want to compare macOS versions (or, really, any software versions) to each other.

Back in the day, you could use Python’s LooseVersion from distutils.version, but that’s now deprecated:

>>> from distutils.version import LooseVersion
>>> LooseVersion('14.0.0') > LooseVersion('14.0')
True
>>> LooseVersion('14.0.0') == LooseVersion('14.0')
False
>>> LooseVersion('14.0') > LooseVersion('13.5.2')
True
>>> LooseVersion('13.4.1 (c)') > LooseVersion('13.4.1 (a)')
True

The non-deprecated Version can run into issues, though, for Rapid Security Responses (thanks to @elios on the MacAdmins Slack for pointing this out):

>>> from packaging.version import Version
>>> Version('14.0.0') > Version('14.0')
False
>>> Version('14.0.0') == Version('14.0')
True
>>> Version('14.0') > Version('13.5.2')
True
>>> Version('13.4.1 (c)') > Version('13.4.1 (a)')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in
File "/Library/ManagedFrameworks/Python/Python3.framework/Versions/3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages/packaging/version.py", line 197, in __init__
raise InvalidVersion(f"Invalid version: '{version}'")
packaging.version.InvalidVersion: Invalid version: '13.4.1 (c)'

Python’s own built-in comparisons (at least for macOS versions) oddly seem to work better for RSRs than Version from packaging.version:

>>> '14.0.0' > '14.0'
True
>>> '14.0.0' == '14.0'
False
>>> '14.0' > '13.5.2'
True
>>> '13.4.1 (c)' > '13.4.1 (a)'
True