

If we ran the same command on Fedora 28 Server Edition, the contents of the os-release file would reflect that on the VARIANT and VARIANT_ID lines.

PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 28 (Workstation Edition)"ĬPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:28"Īs the example above shows, Fedora's os-release file provides the name of the distribution and the version, but it also identifies the installed variant (the "Workstation Edition"). On Fedora 28, the output looks like this: NAME=Fedora To view the contents of the os-release file, run the following command: cat /etc/os-release The os-release file in some distributions contains more details than in others, but any distribution that includes an os-release file should provide a distribution's name and version. This file provides information about a distribution including, but not limited to, the name of the distribution and its version number. There are several ways to figure out what distribution is running on a system, but the quickest way is the check the contents of the /etc/os-release file. More information about the uname command can be found by running man uname. In this case, the kernel is Linux version 4.16.86_64 running on an x86_64 system. This gives you (in order): the kernel name, the version of the kernel, and the type of hardware the kernel is running on. To find out what version of the Linux kernel is running, run the following command: uname -srmĪlternatively, the command can be run by using the longer, more descriptive, versions of the various flags: uname -kernel-name -kernel-release -machineĮither way, the output should look similar to the following: Linux 4.16.86_64 x86_64 The following will help you find out what version of the Linux kernel and/or what Linux distribution is running on a system. For example, knowing the installed kernel version might help diagnose an issue with proprietary drivers, and identifying what distribution is running will help you quickly figure out if you should be using apt, dnf, yum, or some other command to install packages. Free online course: RHEL Technical Overviewīoth are important, and you may need to know one or both answers to fix a problem with a system.In the above example, the Linux kernel is 5.4. You’ll now see which Linux kernel you’re using. The command “uname -r” shows the version of the Linux kernel that you’re currently using.


Open the terminal application (bash shell).What do Red Hat do? How do I check UNIX version?.What are the two major Unix system versions?.
