This short tutorial is intended to help newbies who don’t know how to find out the Linux distribution name, version and kernel details via command line.
Method 1 – Finding Distribution & Version Details
Command:
cat /etc/*-release
Sample Output On CentOS 6.4:
CentOS release 6.4 (Final)
Sample Output On Ubuntu 13.04:
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=13.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=raring DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 13.04" NAME="Ubuntu" VERSION="13.04, Raring Ringtail" ID=ubuntu ID_LIKE=debian PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 13.04" VERSION_ID="13.04" HOME_URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/" SUPPORT_URL="http://help.ubuntu.com/" BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
Sample Output On Debian 7:
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 7 (wheezy)" NAME="Debian GNU/Linux" VERSION_ID="7" VERSION="7 (wheezy)" ID=debian ANSI_COLOR="1;31" HOME_URL="http://www.debian.org/" SUPPORT_URL="http://www.debian.org/support/" BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.debian.org/"
Method 2 – Finding Distribution & Version Details
Command:
lsb_release -a
Sample Output On Debian 7:
No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Debian Description: Debian GNU/Linux 7.1 (wheezy) Release: 7.1 Codename: wheezy
Sample Output On Ubuntu 13.04:
No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 13.04 Release: 13.04 Codename: raring
Method 3 – Finding Kernel Version
Command:
cat /proc/version
Sample Output On CentOS 6.4:
Linux version 2.6.32-358.11.1.el6.centos.plus.i686 (mockbuild@c6b8.bsys.dev.centos.org) (gcc version 4.4.6 20120305 (Red Hat 4.4.6-4) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Wed Jun 12 17:07:23 UTC 2013
Sample Output On Debian 7:
Linux version 3.2.0-4-486 (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc version 4.6.3 (Debian 4.6.3-14) ) #1 Debian 3.2.46-1
Sample Output On Ubuntu 13.04:
Linux version 3.8.0-29-generic (buildd@roseapple) (gcc version 4.7.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.7.3-1ubuntu1) ) #42-Ubuntu SMP Tue Aug 13 19:40:39 UTC 2013
Method 4 – Finding Kernel Version
Command:
uname -a
Sample Output On CentOS 6.4:
Linux server.unixmen.com 2.6.32-358.11.1.el6.centos.plus.i686 #1 SMP Wed Jun 12 17:07:23 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linuxm
Sample output On Debian 7:
Linux server 3.2.0-4-486 #1 Debian 3.2.46-1 i686 GNU/Linux
Sample Output On Ubuntu 13.04:
Linux sk 3.8.0-29-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Tue Aug 13 19:40:39 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Method 5 – Finding Distribution Name
Command:
cat /etc/redhat-release
Sample Output On CentOS 6.4/RHEL 6.4:
CentOS release 6.4 (Final)
Method 6 – Finding Distribution version
Command:
cat /etc/debian_version
Sample Output On Debian 7:
7.1
Sample Output On Ubuntu 13.04:
wheezy/sid
Method 7 – Finding Distribution name & Version
Command:
cat /etc/issue
Sample Output On Ubuntu 13.04:
Ubuntu 13.04 \n \l
Sample Output On Debian 7:
Debian GNU/Linux 7 \n \l
Sample Output On CentOS 6.4:
CentOS release 6.4 (Final) Kernel \r on an \m
For other distributons
I didn’t not check the following commands yet, because i don’t have the respective systems at the time writing this. I gathered these details on various websites. Hope it helps you.
Novel SUSE:
cat /etc/SuSE-release
Fedora:
cat /etc/fedora-release
Slackware:
cat /etc/slackware-release cat /etc/slackware-version
Mandrake:
cat /etc/mandrake-release
Yellow dog:
cat /etc/yellowdog-release
Sun JDS:
cat /etc/sun-release
Solaris/Sparc:
cat /etc/release
Gentoo:
cat /etc/gentoo-release
