This computer is Debian 9.4

Why does every version of linux seem to have its own favorite way to discovering which version of the system is running? And why doesn’t any of them have a simple command like “version” to do that?
And lacking that, why is it that none of my searches for finding how to discover a version yield a tool that someone has made and can be installed on all versions and flavors of Linux so that I can always and easily discover what version my computer is running?

And no need to reply to those specific questions. They are rhetorical and the purpose is, hopefully, obvious. And if anyone wants to chew me out so very thoroughly over this, …, I will read your reply and probably concede the point.

And yes, I do understand that as noted in multiple people’s signatures, since I don’t want to spend the time and effort to figure out how to do this then I am part of the problem. So be it. I take that hit.

Enough for that rant. Still, I do ask: Will someone please create a common utility for all Linux systems that will tell the user exactly which brand of Linux they are running and which version. I suggest that command should be, …, wait for it, …, you will never guess this one, …,

Just type in version into any console window and the response should take the format:

That is the name, followed by a space, followed by a decimal dotted version number, followed by the build date, followed by what ever the coder(s) of that flavor of Linux wants displayed. Some people may want the time but since a full build of the system probably takes several hours and I presume that few distributions are updated and re-released two or more times in one day, the time is probably irrelevant. The date should be sufficient.

And hey, if you want 17 command line options that display all types of information that you might like to see, then go for it.

If so, please keep this request in mind: When I type in the characters “version” with no options, and press Enter, I get the one line response noted above and nothing else.

It's pretty standard (I can't say universal) to store version information in /etc/release. I find that

generally works to display version information.

Afterthought:

Posting your suggestion here does not guarantee that the decision-makers who need to see it will do so. I wish it did . . . .

1 members found this post helpful.

Sounds like a great little project for you As frankbell points out, there is a reasonably standard way, but feel free to contact all the major suppliers and get them to agree on a standard
and then throw in your 'version' command to show them how it will get the necessary information.

I wish you luck

The cat /etc/release command should work on most Linux systems although some don't have that file but do have /etc/issue so either of those commands should get you the information you want on almost any Linux system. Slackware has an /etc/issue but its contents are rather cryptic. It does have a slackware-version file in the /etc directory which is pretty obvious as to contents. Every other Linux system I have used would give the version with one of those two commands. Admittedly, given there are well ove 500 Linux distributions, I'v still got a few hundred to check out.

I (usually) know what version I am running, so yeah, but thanks I learned something today.
how to get that using cat... in case I forget. as long as I do not forget this.

And cat /etc/*release as already mentioned.

If the distro doesn't have an indicator in the kernel, I either already know why I'm using that specific kernel build, or I'm not touching it in the first place.

"Major, Minor:Micro" from back in the day.
Lately it seems to stand for "Major,Minor:Patch"

has nothing to do with Debian 9.4
It's free and I still bought the book. I don't even use Debian and the last thing I need is another computer book.
It is very concise.

http://www.fifi.org/doc/debian-polic...-versions.html may help.