How to confirm RedHat Enterprise Linux version? [c

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I am a bit confused by the fact that although I installed RHEL 5.1 from DVD (RedHat/5.1.x86_64), when I issue command:

cat /etc/redhat-release

I got:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.5 (Tikanga)

What does this mean? is this to be the release version or kernel version? Is there another way to confirm the real version of RHEL?

I am asking this question because there will be certain applications that would depend on this.

Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I assume that you've run yum upgrade. That will in general update you to the newest minor release.

Your main resources for determining the version are /etc/redhat_release and lsb_release -a

Answer 2

Avoid /etc/*release* files and run this command instead, it is far more reliable and gives more details:

rpm -qia '*release*'

Answer 3

That is the release version of RHEL, or at least the release of RHEL from which the package supplying /etc/redhat-release was installed. A file like that is probably the closest you can come; you could also look at /etc/lsb-release.

It is theoretically possible to have packages installed from a mix of versions (e.g. upgrading part of the system to 5.5 while leaving other parts at 5.4), so if you depend on the versions of specific components you will need to check for those individually.

Answer 4

That's the RHEL release version.

You can see the kernel version by typing uname -r. It'll be 2.6.something.