Determine Linux version

Contributed by qmchenry  
Tagged: Linux  

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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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6 Comments -

1. Miladinoski said on December 26, 2008

   Thanks for the second part of the info :)

2. reader said on February 20, 2009

   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.

3. Lexa Puzikoff said on April 20, 2009

   cat /proc/version
   cat /etc/issue

4. uellue said on April 20, 2009

   Thx, short and useful info. :-)

5. Anonymous said on October 8, 2009

   I like this output a lot better than “uname -a”output.
   Ideal for reports/inventory/presentations.

   Thanks a lot!

6. Anonymous said on February 3, 2010

   It works better than uname -a for me
   cat /proc/version

   I can get more accurate information, correct?

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