six ☆

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Description:
Python 2 and 3 compatibility utilities

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: python compatibility library development utilities

Install: brew install six

About:
Six is a Python 2 and 3 compatibility library designed to smooth over the differences between the two major Python versions. It provides a unified module that allows developers to write Python 3-style code that runs on Python 2, and Python 2-style code that runs on Python 3. This tool is essential for maintaining codebases that need to support both environments during a transition period.

Key Features:

Provides a single codebase for Python 2 and 3
Wraps over the standard library changes
Handles text and binary data type differences
Compatible with PyPy, Jython, and IronPython

Use Cases:

Maintaining legacy Python 2 applications while adding Python 3 support
Writing new libraries that must support both Python versions
Refactoring large codebases to be Python 3 compatible

Alternatives:

python-future – Similar goal, but uses a different API approach; six is generally considered more lightweight.
2to3 – A standard library tool that converts Python 2 code to 3; six allows running the same code on both versions.

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Dec 4, 2024 9:04pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	46fda04c
Oct 9, 2024 4:50pm		5	VERSION_BUMP	2cf8457a