Check Version of CentOS

CentOS (the unsupported, free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux) is considered one of the most robust Linux distributions around.

Countless medium and large businesses and, increasingly lately, Linux enthusiasts run CentOS.

So it’s worthwhile to understand how to determine the version of CentOS running on your server or desktop via the command line.

There are three ways to find out the version of CentOS running on your system from the terminal.

1. Just run the below ‘echo’ command on the terminal.

$ [root@thomaspc ~]# echo "I am running: `cat /etc/redhat-release` (`arch`)"
I am running: CentOS Linux release 7.1.1503 (Core)  (x86_64)

2. Use the command line system information script Inxi tool.

If you don’t have inxi on your system, I strongly recommend you install this handy tool.

$ [root@thomaspc ~]# inxi -S
System:    Host: mywebsite.com Kernel: 3.10.0-123.8.1.el7.x86_64 x86_64 (64 bit) Console: tty 0
           Distro: CentOS Linux release 7.1.1503 (Core)

3. There is another way to find out the CentOS version but this one won’t give you information whether it’s a 32-bit or 64-bit version.

[root@thomaspc ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS Linux release 7.1.1503 (Core)

I have tested the above commands on a CentOS 7 system and they work fine.