How to Find Your Ubuntu Version – Smart Web Developer

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To get your version of Ubuntu, run either of these commands from a terminal session.

To start a terminal session in Ubuntu’s graphical desktop go to the Applications menu and choose the Terminal item).

There are at least two ways to get the Ubuntu version.

### Find the Ubuntu Version from the /etc/issue File

List the contents of the `/etc/issue` file to see the Ubuntu version.

    taz@tasman-desktop:~$ cat /etc/issue
    Ubuntu 8.10 \n \l

Note that the contents of the `/etc/issue` file is displayed for local terminal logins to Ubuntu. If you don’t see Ubuntu version information like that above, then the system administrator may have edited this file. You can try the next method.

### Check the Ubuntu Version from the /etc/lsb-release File

Displaying the contents of the `/etc/lsb-release` file will tell you the version of Ubuntu you’re running.

    taz@tasman-desktop:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release
    DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
    DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.10
    DISTRIB_CODENAME=intrepid
    DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 8.10"

These methods were tested on Ubuntu 8.10.

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