Find: UNIX Operating System Release and Version Number

last updated July 15, 2011 in UNIX

How do I find Unix version and release number using command line options? What version, release, and maintenance level of Unix is running on my system?

You can use the following commands to find out information about Unix operating systems.

uname Command

Type the following command:
$ uname -a
Sample outputs:

SunOS solaris 5.11 snv_151a i86pc i386 i86pc Solaris

This command works with Linux, BSD and other Unix like operating systems:
$ uname -a
Sample outputs:

Linux wks01 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Tue Jun 14 09:42:28 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

IBM AIX Unix Specific Command

Type the following command
# oslevel -r

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

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1 comment

bitlord says:
December 28, 2012 at 5:18 pm
The uname command is nice, but looking at the release file is needed as well. The release file gives the version of the OS the uname command gives the patch level.
For example
Solaris:
cat /etc/release
Solaris 10 10/09 s10s_u08a SPARC
uname -a
SunOS servername 5.10 Generic_147440-25 sun4v sparc sun4v
RHEL:
cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.8 (Tikanga)
uname -a
Linux servername 2.6.18-308.e15 #1 SMP Fri Jan 27 17:17:51 EST 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
For Suse the release file is /etc/SuSE-release
Anyway I hope this helps.

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