How to determine CentOS version?

Question

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?

h3rrmiller · Answer 1 · 2012-11-06T13:12:59.607

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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

edited Nov 06 '12 at 13:12

answered Nov 06 '12 at 13:07

h3rrmiller

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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. – m3nda May 22 '15 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. – h3rrmiller Jun 01 '15 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. – mwfearnley Aug 07 '15 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` – batfastad Oct 06 '15 at 14:20
`cat /etc/*os-release` should yield more targetted results for CentOS and still work on Ubuntu and others. – webaholik Apr 15 '19 at 19:59
This. My boss kept asking me, "what's the file called?" on a Debian system and I could not answer him. I just kept answering "just cat etsy star lease." This tends to work on most current/common Linux systems. – Toby May 21 '19 at 15:48

score 43 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 06 '12 at 12:18

43

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.

answered Nov 06 '12 at 12:18

Renan

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I'll just add, what You could use uname -a to detect, if it 32 or 64 bit compatible. – Fedir RYKHTIK May 31 '13 at 09:46
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On CentOS 7, 'cat /etc/issue' yields gobbledygook: `\S Kernel \r on an \m` – Urhixidur Jul 08 '15 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 – batfastad Oct 07 '15 at 12:52
The `/etc/issue` file shows that it is RHEL, not CentOS. – Michael Hampton Jun 18 '19 at 20:03
crappy answer. I dont know why is it accepted – swift2geek Aug 25 '20 at 18:19

lzap · Answer 3 · 2018-08-30T16:05:54.880

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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
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For RHEL do this:

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

edited Aug 30 '18 at 16:05

answered Nov 27 '13 at 15:09

lzap

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Can be simplified to: `cat /etc/redhat-release | grep -o '[0-9]\.[0-9]'` – Dave Johansen Jul 31 '15 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. – PolyTekPatrick Nov 19 '15 at 06:54
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To get the major version: `cat /etc/redhat-release | grep -oP '(?<= )[0-9]+(?=\.)'` – Rockallite Feb 08 '17 at 07:16
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Just curious: why "cat file | grep pattern" instead of "grep pattern file"? – Jun 17 '17 at 15:36
Right, digged that from shell history and was able to correct this. Fixed. – lzap Jul 03 '17 at 06:48

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 24 '17 at 11:38

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

`hostnamectl` only returns the major release number – fpmurphy Jan 24 '17 at 11:48 — fpmurphy, Jan 24 '17 at 11:48
That's right, using rpm, you can get a detailed version – hd84335 Jan 24 '17 at 11:49 — hd84335, Jan 24 '17 at 11:49

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 06 '15 at 11:31

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Correct way is lsb_release -d.

answered Oct 06 '15 at 11:31

gena2x

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On CentOS 7: lsb_release: Command not found. – Dereckson Feb 17 '16 at 00:42
yum install redhat-lsb-core ... – gena2x Feb 17 '16 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. – Dereckson Feb 17 '16 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. – gena2x Feb 18 '16 at 09:49

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered May 21 '19 at 15:41

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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).

answered May 21 '19 at 15:41

Danila Vershinin

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score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 06 '15 at 10:30

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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)

edited Oct 06 '15 at 10:30

X Tian

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answered Oct 06 '15 at 10:01

Ivan Novikov

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score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 07 '16 at 13:34

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It can be found at the location /etc, inside the file os-release. So type in:

cat /etc/os-release

edited Sep 07 '16 at 13:34

Anthony Geoghegan

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answered Sep 07 '16 at 13:17

Lijo George

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Was this backported to CentOS 5 or 6? If not, this is mostly useful going forward.... – mattdm Aug 17 '17 at 23:52
CentOS made this available starting with CentOS 7 - I've not seen a backport. – webaholik Apr 15 '19 at 19:54

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 07 '17 at 09:21

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Run rpm --eval '%{centos_ver}' to get MAJOR version of centos.

answered Aug 07 '17 at 09:21

tvorog

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score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Aug 17 '17 at 23:32

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.

How to determine CentOS version?

10 Answers10

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