Linux kernel is the core of the Linux based operating systems we call them simply Linux. But sometimes they called Linux Distributions. Kernel initialize system with hardware. Manages hardware to provide services for upper layer operating system application. Kernel do memory management which means allot memory for applications or frees the memory. Manages processes by creating, forking or killing them. Now some little Linux kernel history.

Release History

• 1.0 kernel released 1994
• 2.0 kernel released 1996
• 3.0 kernel released 2011
• 4.0 kernel released 2015

Generally version exist major,minor numbers.

How To Get Kernel Version With uname

We can get kernel related information with uname . One of information uname provides is kernel version.

$uname -a

• We provide -a to the uname  to get all information

$uname -r 
3.10.0-327.36.3.el7.x86_64

• -r parameter will provide kernel version
• 3 is the major version number
• 10 is minor version number
• other part is build number
• x86_64 is architecture of the kernel which is x86 64 bit

Print Kernel Version From /proc/version File

/proc directory provides different information about the Linux system. Linux kernel version is also provided from /proc/version file. We will use cat command in order to print Linux kernel version.

Get Kernel Version From dmesg

dmesg is a tool used to print kernel level logs. Especially from system startup different type of logs are provided. During to the the kernel is loaded and the version information also provided to the dmesg log. We can use dmesg to print Linux kernel version information.

$ dmesg | grep version

How To Get Linux Kernel Version? Infografic