Unix system version information

Print the current Unix system version information.

Syntax:

unix-system-version-information

Example:

$ unix-system-version-information
Unix System Version Information
timestamp: 2016-09-04T19:32:43Z

uname -a
Darwin host.example.com
16.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 16.0.0: Thu Aug 18 18:25:11 PDT 2016;
root:xnu-3789.1.29~5/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

sw_vers
ProductName:       Mac OS X
ProductVersion:    10.12
BuildVersion:      16A304a

Goals

This script has three goals:

Print the OS name, version, build, and related information.
Run cross platform on many Unix systems and Unix-like systems.
Print information that may be useful for diagnostics and debugging.

This script prints a timestamp, which can be useful for snapshotting system information during an upgrade process, or at differing times, etc.

This implementation looks for information in these places:

The uname command.
The sw_vers command on macOS.
The pkginfo command on Solaris.
The lsb_release command on Linux.
Files with names including release, version, issue, etc.
We welcome more ways of finding information.

This implementation is intended to work on current versions of many Unix systems and Unix-like systems, using POSIX shell commands.

This implementation looks for commands and files suitable for Annvix, Arch Linux, Arklinux, Aurox Linux, BlackCat, BSD Cobalt, Chakra, Conectiva, Debian, Fedora / Fedora Core, FreeBSD, FreeEOS, Gentoo Linux, HLFS, HPUX, Immunix, IYCC, Knoppix, Linux-From-Scratch / LFS, Linux-PPC, Linux Mint, Apple Macintosh macOS / OS X / Darwin, Mageia, Mandrake, Mandriva/Mandrake Linux, MkLinux, Novell Linux Desktop, PLD Linux, RHEL / RHAS / Red Hat Linux, Rubix, Scientific Linux / ScientificSL / ScientificCERNSLC / ScientificFermiLTS / ScientificSLF, Slackware, SME Server (Formerly E-Smith), Solaris SPARC, Sun JDS, SUSE Linux, SUSE Linux ES9, Synology, Tiny Sofa, Trustix, TurboLinux, Ubuntu Linux, UltraPenguin, UnitedLinux, VA-Linux/RH-VALE, Yellow Dog.

uname command

This script calls the uname command, which prints the operating system name plus more system information.

Example on Apple macOS:

$ uname -a
Darwin hostname 14.0.0
Darwin Kernel Version 14.0.0:
Fri Sep 19 00:26:44 PDT 2014;
root:xnu-2782.1.97~2/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

Example on Oracle Solaris:

$ uname -a
SunOS sndcc02.sanjose.ibm.com 5.10 Generic sun4u sparc
SUNW,Sun-Fire-V490

Example on Ubuntu Linux:

$ uname -a
Linux hostname 2.6.35.4-rscloud #8 SMP
Mon Sep 20 15:54:33 UTC 2010
x86_64 GNU/Linux

sw_vers command

The macOS sw_vers command prints software version information, such as the product name and build version.

Example of sw_vers running on macOS:

$ sw_vers
ProductName:Mac OS X
ProductVersion:10.10
BuildVersion:14A389

lsb_release command

The Linux lsb_release command prints distribution information, such as the release name, codename, description, etc.

Example of lsb_release running on Ubuntu Linux:

$ lsb_release -a 
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:       Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
Release:           16.04
Codename:          xenial

release version files

Some systems put release version information in a plain text file.

The file is often called "release", "version", "issue", or similar.

The file is stored in a typical location, such as /etc/version, or similar.

Examples:

$ cat /etc/release
Solaris 10 5/08 s10x_u5wos_10 X86 ...
Solaris 10 10/09 (Update 8) Patch Bundle applied.

$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 4.4.0-34-generic (buildd@lgw01-20) 
(gcc version 5.3.1 20160413 (Ubuntu 5.3.1-14ubuntu2.1) )
#53-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 27 16:06:39 UTC 2016

$ cat /etc/issue.net
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS

Thanks

Thanks for guidance, advice, and improvements:

Tracking

Command: unix-system-info
Version: 3.4.0
Created: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2016-09-05
License: BSD, MIT, GPL
Contact: Joel Parker Henderson (joel@joelparkerhenderson.com)

r2g/unix-system-version-information