You can print the version with this magical incantation: $ python -c 'import sys, struct; print(struct.unpack(">I", open(sys.argv[1], "rb").read()[96:100])

You can print the version with this magical incantation: $ python -c 'import sys, struct; print(struct.unpack(">I", open(sys.argv[1], "rb").read()[96:100])[0])' foo.db