Linux to view the system version (distribution && version)

Sometimes when you log in to the server, you don't know the distribution of Linux, and you need to query it.

Several ways to view linux version information:

1. uname -a
2. cat /proc/version
3. cat /etc/issue
4. lsb_release -a

1. Log in to the server and execute lsb_release -a to list all version information, for example: ( Linux Standards Base )

1. sunxt@linux-ubai:/home/public> lsb_release -a
   LSB Version:	n/a
   Distributor ID:	SUSE LINUX
   Description:	openSUSE 11.4 (i586)
   Release:	11.4
   Codename:	Celadon

   This command works on all linux, including Redhat, SuSE, Debian and other distributions.

2. Log in to linux and execute cat /proc/version , for example as follows

   sunxt@linux-ubai:/home/public> cat /proc/version
   Linux version 2.6.37.1-1.2-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.5.1 20101208
    [gcc-4_5-branch revision 167585] (SUSE Linux) ) #1 SMP 2011-02-21 10:34:10 +0100
   

    

   xin@xin-desktop:~$ cat /proc/version
   Linux version 2.6.32-41-generic (buildd@palmer) (gcc version 4.4.3 (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5.1) ) #88-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 29 13:08:43 UTC 2012
   
   

3. Log in to linux and execute cat /etc/issue , for example as follows

   sunxt@linux-ubai:/home/public> cat /etc/issue
   Welcome to openSUSE 11.4 "Celadon" - Kernel \r (\l).

       4.  uname -a

         

unxt@linux-ubai:/home/public> uname -a
Linux linux-ubai 2.6.37.1-1.2-default #1 SMP 2011-02-21 10:34:10 +0100 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux