Find out Linux distro and version

If you need to find out which "flavour" (or distro) Linux you are using just type the following command at the prompt:


[definenull@hm1446 ~]$ cat /etc/*-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3 (Tikanga)


This might not work on all distros, so a more general approach would be running the command:


[definenull@hm1446 ~]$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version: :core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.1-ia32:graphics-3.1-noarch
Distributor ID: RedHatEnterpriseServer
Description: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3 (Tikanga)
Release: 5.3
Codename: Tikanga


If you need to find out which Linux version you are using, just type:


[definenull@hm1446 ~]$ uname -a
Linux hm1446 2.6.18-92.1.13.el5PAE #1 SMP Thu Sep 4 04:05:54 EDT 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux


The output for this command is not much clear, so you could try another approach, which is not that better but shows more detailed info:


[definenull@hm1446 ~]$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.18-92.1.13.el5PAE (xxxxxxxxxxxx@hs20-bc2-4.build.redhat.com) (gcc version 4.1.2 20071124 (Red Hat 4.1.2-42)) #1 SMP Thu Sep 4 04:05:54 EDT 2008


If you have other suggestions, please leave a comment!
Cheers