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How do I determine the version of a CentOS server without access to any graphical interface? I've tried several commands:

# cat /proc/version Linux version 2.6.18-128.el5 ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)) … # cat /etc/issue Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3 (Tikanga)

but which one is correct: 4.1.2-4 from /proc/version or 5.3 from /etc/issue?

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  • cat /etc/system-release Commented Apr 10 at 11:18

10 Answers 10

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182

In cases like CentOS the actual version is usually placed in /etc/*elease.

cat /etc/*elease

granted this file usually holds the version of the entire OS minus the kernel (since you can choose which to load). This file will have the same information as /etc/issue but with CentOS instead of RedHat

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    cat /etc/*release will work too, and you are not omitting a letter of what are you looking for ;) because elease is not always easy to guess. * can be nothing, all, one or more items at time. Thank you, i always forgot the way to get the release version. Commented May 22, 2015 at 17:11
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    The reason I leave the "R" off is because in some cases the "R" in "release" is capitalized. Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 19:08
  • Just to say, doing ls /etc/*elease on my system gives /etc/centos-release /etc/redhat-release /etc/system-release. So I'm guessing from all this that the release files tend to be in /etc/*-release - but possibly with some capitalisation. Commented Aug 7, 2015 at 12:35
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    This is correct. I find at many sites that /etc/issue has been overwritten with an MOTD or security disclaimer for use with the Banner option in sshd_config Commented Oct 6, 2015 at 14:20
  • cat /etc/*os-release should yield more targetted results for CentOS and still work on Ubuntu and others. Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 19:59
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As you can see in /etc/issue, you're using CentOS 5.3. (It says Red Hat because CentOS is based upon the RH sources, and some software checks /etc/issue to identify the distro in use; thus, they'd fail if this was changed to CentOS).

The 4.1.2-4 in /proc/version refers to the version of the gcc C compiler used to build the kernel.

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  • 3
    I'll just add, what You could use uname -a to detect, if it 32 or 64 bit compatible. Commented May 31, 2013 at 9:46
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    On CentOS 7, 'cat /etc/issue' yields gobbledygook: \S Kernel \r on an \m Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 16:09
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    Correct answer should be the one by h3rrmiller... cat /etc/*elease. /etc/issue is often replaced by an organisation's MOTD/disclaimer Commented Oct 7, 2015 at 12:52
  • The /etc/issue file shows that it is RHEL, not CentOS. Commented Jun 18, 2019 at 20:03
  • crappy answer. I dont know why is it accepted Commented Aug 25, 2020 at 18:19
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The most reliable way of finding MAJOR version of CentOS (5 or 6 etc) is:

# rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' centos-release 6

For RHEL do this:

# rpm -q --queryformat '%{RELEASE}' redhat-release-server | awk -F. '{print $1}' 7

The only portable way of finding out a version without lsb_release or other tools is:

# grep -oE '[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' /etc/redhat-release 6.5
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    Can be simplified to: cat /etc/redhat-release | grep -o '[0-9]\.[0-9]' Commented Jul 31, 2015 at 23:22
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    +1 rpm -q centos-release is the only way I have yet found to get the minor version on older CentOS5 releases where /etc/redhat-release only contains the major version. Thanks for the hint. Commented Nov 19, 2015 at 6:54
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    To get the major version: cat /etc/redhat-release | grep -oP '(?<= )[0-9]+(?=\.)' Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 7:16
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    Just curious: why "cat file | grep pattern" instead of "grep pattern file"? Commented Jun 17, 2017 at 15:36
  • Right, digged that from shell history and was able to correct this. Fixed. Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 6:48
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You can determine it by just calling the following command:

hostnamectl

Which will return as the following:

Static hostname: mgbcctli01 Icon name: computer-vm Chassis: vm Machine ID: de14d80a0900427894dbcf6137e058e7 Boot ID: 6865f9839c064bc9be32281d0f262cc8 Virtualization: vmware Operating System: CentOS Linux 7 (Core) CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:centos:centos:7 Kernel: Linux 3.10.0-514.2.2.el7.x86_64 Architecture: x86-64

You can also use rpm to find details about CentOS version:

rpm --query centos-release

Which will return in my case:

centos-release-7-3.1611.el7.centos.x86_64
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    hostnamectl only returns the major release number Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 11:48
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    That's right, using rpm, you can get a detailed version Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 11:49
6

Correct way is lsb_release -d.

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    On CentOS 7: lsb_release: Command not found. Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 0:42
  • yum install redhat-lsb-core ... Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 17:13
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    Sure, but I meant: I'm not sure is valuable to have to install a new package to get the current version. Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 19:07
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    If you want some command which is able to do so across multiple distributions it may still be worth installing. Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 9:49
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The most truly reliable (and short) way to get MAJOR version of either CentOS or RHEL is:

rpm -E %{rhel}

Will give you a value of e.g. 6, 7, or 8 (now that RHEL 8 is out).

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# echo "I am running: `cat /etc/redhat-release` (`arch`)"

Outputs the following:

I am running: CentOS release 6.7 (Final) (x86_64)
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It can be found at the location /etc, inside the file os-release. So type in:

cat /etc/os-release
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  • Was this backported to CentOS 5 or 6? If not, this is mostly useful going forward.... Commented Aug 17, 2017 at 23:52
  • CentOS made this available starting with CentOS 7 - I've not seen a backport. Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 19:54
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Run rpm --eval '%{centos_ver}' to get MAJOR version of centos.

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Here is some command I collected through google, may help someone:

https://forum.directadmin.com/showthread.php?t=15878

cat /etc/*release* cat /etc/centos-release

http://www.liquidweb.com/kb/how-to-check-your-centos-version/

cat /etc/redhat-release

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-check-centos-version

# the later two may need some package to install rpm --query centos-release hostnamectl lsb_release -d

I created a gist to record this, too.

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