1 root root 14 /etc/redhat-release -> centos-release 2. In fact, if you look at the /etc/redhat-release file on a CentOS server closely, you’ll notice that it is a symbolic link to /etc/centos-release: :~ $ ls -ald /etc/redhat-release That’s okay and the good news is this will still work in CentOS: :~ $ cat /etc/redhat-release Interesting: if you’re coming from RedHat infrastructure, you’d normally be looking for /etc/redhat-release file. Now that we’re sure it’s CentOS, let’s look into the /etc/centos-release file – this will show you the full release version of your operating system: :~ $ cat /etc/centos-release As shown below, it will help you with confirming your Linux distro and its major release version (CentOS and 7 in my case): :~ $ cat /etc/os-release Just to be super sure that you’re actually looking at a CentOS distribution of Linux, I suggest you start with the /etc/os-release file. This article introduces 5 of the most common ways to do just that. With CentOS being a rather popular server grade Linux distro, I can see that many visitors of my blog look for the same guidance quite regularly: check CentOS version. Knowing release helps with highlighting software dependencies and compatibilities, confirms availability of certain features in your OS and simplifies the process of system administration – certain releases have a preferred set of commands for day-to-day management. One of the very first questions a Linux user asks is about confirming the release (OS version) in use.

Centos current version