Determine Linux version

Contributor Icon Contributed by qmchenry Date Icon October 5, 2004  
Tag Icon Tagged: Linux

When visiting a new Linux system, it may not be known which of the many flavors and versions the system is. This recipe describes a couple of techniques for determining the version of Linux running on a host.


The command uname -a will generate output like

Linux poly.tech-recipes.com 2.6.5-1.358 #1 Sat May 8 09:04:50 EDT 2004 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

This can be interpreted as:

kernel name: Linux
hostname: poly.tech-recipes.com
kernel release: 2.6.5-1.358
kernel version: #1 Sat May 8 09:04:50 EDT 2004

The specific distribution information is missing from the uname output. Many distributions put this information in a file in /etc like /etc/redhat-release, /etc/debian_version, /etc/gentoo-release, and so on. For the system described by the uname output above, the file /etc/fedora-release contains the following text:

Fedora Core release 2 (Tettnang)

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  • Thanks for the second part of the info :)
  • reader
    exactly what I was looking for. It's useful to be able to determine this kind of information for automated scripts that connect to and perform tasks on multiple machines of various flavors, versions and distros.
  • Lexa Puzikoff
    cat /proc/version
    cat /etc/issue
  • jringoot
    I like this output a lot better than "uname -a"output.
    Ideal for reports/inventory/presentations.

    Thanks a lot!
  • uellue
    Thx, short and useful info. :-)
  • junaidahmed
    It works better than uname -a for me
    cat /proc/version

    I can get more accurate information, correct?
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