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Possible Duplicate:
How do I find out what version of Linux I'm running?

I purchased a web server recently and have got access to shell on it. I dont know the linux version on the server. I am not used to running linux commands, so can anybody help me in determining the linux version using the shell commands.

Community
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6 Answers6

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It depends on what you mean by "linux version". You can get a lot of information from:

$ uname -a

If you want specifics about the distribution, it will depend on the distro. For example:

$ cat /etc/redhat-release

will give information if you're on a red hat box, but not much if you're on Debian.

You can also try any of:

$ cat /proc/version
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
$ cat /etc/issue
$ cat /etc/debian_version
$ cat /etc/*version
$ cat /etc/slackware-version
$ cat /etc/SuSE-release
$ cat /etc/*release

I'm sure the list is endless, but /etc/*version or /etc/*release should (probably) do it.

William Pursell
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3

You can use:

uname -a

or

cat /proc/version
Gareth
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Phil
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3

Some distros come with lsb_release. Try

lsb_release -a
Nodebody
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the uname command should help. to get all information about a system type :

uname -a

to get more info about the command you can type:

man uname

the command man is a linux staple and provides documentation about most if not all commands available.

hope that helps

olly_uk
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Try uname:

f0725470@g0:~$ uname --all
Linux g0 2.6.30-perfctr #1 SMP Wed Sep 16 15:56:16 CEST 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
millimoose
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/*

Try this command it will show kernal name (-s) , kernel release (-r) and kernel version (-v)

For details do $man uname
*/

$uname -s -r -v
Akhil Thayyil
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