How I View Linux Distro Version via Command Line

How I View Linux Distro Version via Command Line?
Actually, Many different Linux distro will view their version information in one place or another way by using programs with GUI (Graphic User Interface). If you linux user need to pull information about Linux Distro version quickly, it may just be easier to open a terminal and find it via command line.

Ubuntu user can view distro’s version information using lsb_release command. To view all of the information Version, use option -a

lsb_release -a

This command yields the following information when run on my ubuntu PC:

LSB Version: core-2.0-ia32:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-ia32:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-ia32:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-ia32:core-4.0-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric

Each field can also be extracted with its own switch as well:

-i for Distributor's ID
-d for Description
-r for Release
-c for Codename

Command lsb_release only work on Debian and Ubuntu. for you who are not debian user and ubuntu user, you can use the command:

uname -a

This command yield the following information when run on my computer:

Linux ubuntuportal 3.0.0-14-generic #23-Ubuntu SMP Mon Nov 21 20:34:47 UTC 2011 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

Use this option if you will shown linux system information one by one (ex. kernel,hostname and more..)

-s, --kernel-name print the kernel name
-n, --nodename print the network node hostname
-r, --kernel-release print the kernel release
-v, --kernel-version print the kernel version
-m, --machine print the machine hardware name
-p, --processor print the processor type or "unknown"
-i, --hardware-platform print the hardware platform or "unknown"
-o, --operating-system print the operating system