Table of Contents

About

This article regroups all the way that you have to determine the version your distribution from a Linux software.

To determine the version of the kernel (ie Linux), the section has moved in an article: Linux - How to determine the version of the kernel ?

Distribution version

The distribution is also known as operating system.

hostnamectl

hostnamectl

Static hostname: cana.bytle.net
           Icon name: computer-vm
             Chassis: vm 🖴
          Machine ID: 35aeafa3d1364b24b986b7c18cc22b04
             Boot ID: 0e4d9a59532345b082f0194b220e3a38
      Virtualization: kvm
    Operating System: Fedora Linux 38 (Cloud Edition)
         CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:38
      OS Support End: Tue 2024-05-14
OS Support Remaining: 7month 3w
              Kernel: Linux 6.4.12-200.fc38.x86_64
        Architecture: x86-64
     Hardware Vendor: OpenStack Foundation
      Hardware Model: OpenStack Nova
    Firmware Version: 2:1.10.2-58953eb7
       Firmware Date: Tue 2014-04-01

uname

uname -o

see Linux - Uname (unix name)

/etc/*release

Listing of the release files

ls -A1 /etc/*release

Output example for Centos: 

/etc/centos-release
/etc/os-release
/etc/redhat-release
/etc/system-release

Output example for Fedora: 

/etc/fedora-release
/etc/os-release
/etc/redhat-release
/etc/system-release

Other distribution release files:

  • /etc/SuSE-release
  • /etc/debian_version
  • /etc/slackware-version

Getting the version

  • Fedora
cat /etc/fedora-release

Fedora release 38 (Thirty Eight)
  • Enterprise Release
cat /etc/enterprise-release

Enterprise Linux Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3 (Carthage)
  • Redhat (Centos) release
cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3 (Tikanga)
# or
CentOS Linux release 7.8.2003 (Core)

lsb_release

lsb_release -id

Output:

  • Oracle Linux
Distributor ID: EnterpriseEnterpriseServer
Description:    Enterprise Linux Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3 (Carthage)
  • Debian
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.7 (squeeze)

/etc/issue

cat /etc/issue

Enterprise Linux Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3 (Carthage)
Kernel \r on an \m

The /etc/issue file should not be trusted, the file is intended as a text message to be displayed before login for telnet, or after the username has been entered with SSH. The issue file was never intended for storing a distribution version, the fact most distros put something there is merely coincidental branding (coz it's nice to have something in there)

A better indicator of the distribution is to 'echo /etc/*release'

dmesg

dmesg | head -1

Linux version 2.6.18-128.el5 ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)) 
#1 SMP Wed Jan 21 07:58:05 EST 2009

Proc Version

cat /proc/version

Linux version 2.6.18-128.el5 ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44))
 #1 SMP Wed Jan 21 07:58:05 EST 2009

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