How do I check the version of Ubuntu I am running? [duplicate]

How can I check my current Ubuntu version through the command-line and GUI?

4 Answers

As said in the official page, use:

lsb_release -a

Your version appears on the "Description" line. If you just want that line, type lsb_release -d.

If you want to check it through your desktop environment, you can check System Settings → Details, which shows the data like this:

Alternatives are:

• hostnamectl
• cat /etc/*ease

See a sample output of lsb_release, hostnamectl, and cat /etc/*ease calls:

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS # <-- here
Release: 16.04
Codename: xenial
$ lsb_release -d
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS

$ hostnamectl Static hostname: XXX Icon name: computer-desktop Chassis: desktop Machine ID: 3d6dcfdd7b9f41dbb62b0e8cd75014ae Boot ID: 4ff04a6baed54e719592f3255005a235 Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS # <-- here Kernel: Linux 4.10.0-38-generic Architecture: x86-64

$ cat /etc/*ease
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS" # <--- here
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="16.04.2 LTS (Xenial Xerus)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS"
VERSION_ID="16.04"
HOME_URL=""
SUPPORT_URL=""
BUG_REPORT_URL=""
VERSION_CODENAME=xenial
UBUNTU_CODENAME=xenial

Use:

cat /etc/*release

In my case it produced the following output:

DISTRIB_ID=LinuxMint
DISTRIB_RELEASE=17.2
DISTRIB_CODENAME=rafaela
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="14.04.3 LTS, Trusty Tahr"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS"
VERSION_ID="14.04"
HOME_URL=""
SUPPORT_URL=""
BUG_REPORT_URL=""

Use this in the terminal to show the details about the installed Ubuntu "version":

lsb_release -a

This may be more verbose than you need - maybe you just wanted to see 15.4? It can be shown separately by the option -r (--release):

$ lsb_release -r
Release: 15.04

Add -s (--short) for use in a script:

$ lsb_release -r -s
15.04

See the further examples for the more useful options -c (--codename) and -d (--description), and both combined:

$ lsb_release -c
Codename: vivid
$ lsb_release -d
Description: Ubuntu 15.04
$ lsb_release -dc
Description: Ubuntu 15.04
Codename: vivid

Note you can get similar information about the currently running kernel, and the hardware by the similar command:

$ uname -a
Linux mybox 3.19.0-31-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 15:04:02 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Executing this in Terminal will give you all of the information you could possibly need:

lsb_release -a

And you can access it in the GUI by going System Settings > Details: