Find Out Linux Distribution Name, Version And Kernel Details

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