Upgrading to 1.0.0¶

getmac 1.0.0 has a few changes that can break code written for 0.9.x. This page covers what you may need to change in your code or environment. The full list of changes is in the Changelog.

Python versions¶

getmac 1.0.0 requires Python 3.9 or newer, on CPython or PyPy. Support for Python 2.7 through 3.8, Jython, and IronPython was removed. If you’re stuck on one of those, pin to an older version, e.g. getmac<1.0.0. Installation lists the last version that works with each old Python.

Settings¶

In 0.9.x, the settings were module-level variables in getmac.getmac. In 1.0.0, they’re attributes of the getmac.settings object. If your code changes a setting, you’ll need to update it.

0.9.x	1.0.0
`getmac.getmac.DEBUG`	`getmac.settings.DEBUG`
`getmac.getmac.PORT`	`getmac.settings.PORT`
`getmac.getmac.OVERRIDE_PLATFORM`	`getmac.settings.OVERRIDE_PLATFORM`
`getmac.getmac.FORCE_METHOD`	`getmac.settings.FORCE_METHOD`

For example, this 0.9.x code:

from getmac import getmac

getmac.PORT = 44444

becomes:

from getmac import settings

settings.PORT = 44444

The platform constants (WINDOWS, PLATFORM, etc.) are now attributes of getmac.variables.consts, and the helper functions (check_command(), etc.) are in getmac.utils. Architecture covers where everything lives.

Exceptions¶

In 1.0.0, get_mac_address() raises a RuntimeError when no method can do the lookup. That means either no methods match the type of request and platform, or all of them fail their test (in other words, none of them work). In 0.9.x, getmac logged a critical message, showed a RuntimeWarning, and returned None. The RuntimeWarning is still shown in 1.0.0 when getmac falls back to the generic other methods on a platform it doesn’t know.

This should almost never happen unless you’re on an exotic platform or have an unusual configuration (see Troubleshooting). If your code has to keep going regardless, catch it:

from getmac import get_mac_address

try:
    mac = get_mac_address(interface="eth0")
except RuntimeError:
    mac = None

get_mac_address() also raises a ValueError for IPv4Network and IPv6Network objects (they’re networks, not hosts), and for arguments of an unsupported type.

Removed methods¶

The UuidArpGetnode and UuidLanscan methods were removed. If you set FORCE_METHOD (or --force-method) to one of them, use ArpVariousArgs or LanscanIface instead.

Changes in results¶

Some lookups return different results in 1.0.0:

get_mac_address() with no arguments no longer guesses interface names like eth0 or en0, and no longer falls back to the loopback interface’s 00:00:00:00:00:00. If the default interface can’t be found or doesn’t have a MAC, the first non-loopback interface with a MAC is used, and None if there isn’t one. See Usage.
On Windows, get_mac_address() with no arguments uses the actual default interface, instead of assuming it’s named “Ethernet”.
On Windows, interface names must match the whole name or description (case-insensitive). In 0.9.x, part of a name was enough, so “Wi-Fi” could return the MAC of the “Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter”.
On Linux, incomplete, failed, and proxy ARP entries in /proc/net/arp are ignored, so an IP that’s no longer in use returns None instead of a stale MAC.
Commands that getmac runs are stopped after 15 seconds (COMMAND_TIMEOUT), and the next method is tried. Before, a command that never finished would hang the lookup forever.

Removed packaging¶

RPM packaging was removed, since it hadn’t been maintained since 0.6.0.