running 'git-filter-repo --version' and '<full path>/git-filter-repo --version' returns hexadecimal value on WSL

[ate26x]

python version: 3.10.12
git-filter-repo version : 2.38.0 (according to the system message when package installed successfully)
OS : windows 11
editor: WSL (ubuntu) on VS Code

Tried uninstalling and reinstalling, it returns the same. Why would these commands return a hexadecimal value instead of 2.38.0 ?

[ate26x]

this works:
pip3 show git-filter-repo | grep "Version:"

these commands don't:
git-filter-repo --version

cat /path/to/git-filter-repo/METADATA | grep "Version:"

cd /path/to/git-filter-repo
cat __init__.py | grep "__version__"

[gdlxn-ibm]

I'm also seeing this on my Ubuntu 20.04 system.