how to tell what version you are running

invader44 · 10-12-2009, 03:45 PM

Hi,
When you want to figure out what version a program is that you are running, you can do, example programname -v and this will display the program name and the version number it is. This will also display any options they used when they installed the program(if they insalled any options), correct? If they just ran the ./configure without any options when installing the program, it will just show the program name and version number, correct?
thanks vadder

kbp · 10-12-2009, 04:28 PM

Hi,

'-v' = 'version' may usually occur but not necessarily always, plus the information provided would be up to the coder and may change from version to version. Generalisations are fine as a starting point/ first guess but you should always check the man pages for each app,

cheers

kbp

eci2_rich · 10-12-2009, 04:39 PM

"-v" or "--version" of sometimes just _programme_ by itself will reveal version if the programmer/versioning-software has set it correctly. If you are trying to ascertain if the binary matches something you already have (e.g. the version number is not actually important), try something like `md5sum` (1) or `sum` (1).

Martinezio · 10-13-2009, 02:54 AM

If You need check version just like ./configure script does, try this command:

Code:

pkg-config --modversion "appname"

Not allways working, but it may be combined with appname variable - for exact name of package grep the names of .pc files in /usr/lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX}/pkgconfig/

You may also cat appname.pc file from this directory for more information about this app

These .pc files are the sources for pkg-config tool and shows You most of applications, even these, that was installed from sources by hand, not t?z packages.

invader44 · 10-13-2009, 12:29 PM

hey,
Thanks for the replies. The question was if you do programname -v will this show you what options were run at configuring time? For example I did this for a squid and it showed me what version and the extra option that was configured when they installed the program.
Thanks

Martinezio · 10-14-2009, 02:42 AM

Well, only few programs show the configure options. Sometimes this info is also available with pkg-config files. But not always, and not usual

For most programs You should remember all used options for future, or before run ./configure script always study ./configure --help