check Redhat version

The objective of this guide is to provide you with some hints on how to check system version of your Redhat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). There exist multiple ways on how to check the system version, however, depending on your system configuration, not all examples described below may be suitable. For a CentOS specific guide visit How to check CentOS version guide.

Requirements

Privileged access to to your RHEL system may be required.

Difficulty

EASY

Conventions

• # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
• $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Instructions

Using hostnamectl

hostnamectl is most likely the first and last command you need to execute to reveal your RHEL system version:

$ hostnamectl 
   Static hostname: localhost.localdomain
Transient hostname: status
         Icon name: computer-vm
           Chassis: vm
        Machine ID: d731df2da5f644b3b4806f9531d02c11
           Boot ID: 384b6cf4bcfc4df9b7b48efcad4b6280
    Virtualization: xen
  Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7.3 (Maipo)
       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.3:GA:server
            Kernel: Linux 3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

Query Release Package

Use rpm command to query Redhat’s release package:

RHEL 7
$ rpm --query redhat-release-server
redhat-release-server-7.3-7.el7.x86_64
RHEL 8
$ rpm --query redhat-release
redhat-release-8.0-0.34.el8.x86_64

Common Platform Enumeration

Check Common Platform Enumeration source file:

$ cat /etc/system-release-cpe 
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.3:ga:server

LSB Release

Depending on whether a redhat-lsb package is installed on your system you may also use lsb_release -d command to check Redhat’s system version:

$ lsb_release -d
Description:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3 (Maipo)

Alternatively install redhat-lsb package with:

# yum install redhat-lsb

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Check Release Files

There are number of release files located in the /etc/ directory. Namely os-release, redhat-release and system-release:

$ ls /etc/*release
os-release  redhat-release  system-release

Use cat to check the content of each file to reveal your Redhat OS version. Alternatively, use the below for loop for an instant check:

$ for i in $(ls /etc/*release); do echo ===$i===; cat $i; done

Depending on your RHEL version, the output of the above shell for loop may look different:

===os-release===
NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server"
VERSION="7.3 (Maipo)"
ID="rhel"
ID_LIKE="fedora"
VERSION_ID="7.3"
PRETTY_NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7.3 (Maipo)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.3:GA:server"
HOME_URL="https://www.redhat.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"

REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=7.3
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="7.3"
===redhat-release===
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3 (Maipo)
===system-release===
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3 (Maipo)

Grub Config

The least reliable way on how to check Redhat’s OS version is by looking at Grub configuration. Grub configuration may not produce a definitive answer, but it will provide some hints on how the system booted. 

The default locations of grub config files are /boot/grub2/grub.cfg and /etc/grub2.cfg. Use grep command to check for menuentry keyword:

# grep -w menuentry /boot/grub2/grub.cfg /etc/grub2.cfg

An another alternative is to check the value of the “GRUB Environment Block”:

# grep saved_entry /boot/grub2/grubenv 
saved_entry=Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64) 7.3 (Maipo)