- Check Ssh Version Cisco Switch
- Get Ssh Version
- How To Check Ssh Version On Ubuntu
- Check Openssh Version Centos
When you install a Linux distribution on your own, you know which distribution and version it is.
But if you use SSH to log in to a remote Linux server provided by an enterprise or client, you may wonder which Linux distribution and version it is.
The simplest way to check Linux version is to see the content of the /etc/os-release file:
Secure Shell (SSH) is a protocol which provides a secure remote access connection to network devices. Communication between the client and server is encrypted in both SSH version 1 and SSH version 2. Implement SSH version 2 when possible because it uses a more enhanced security encryption algorithm. Configure the router to accept only ssh connection with “transport input ssh” command. Configure ssh to version 2 using “IP ssh version 2” and set the authentication times to 3 with “IP ssh authentication-retries 3” command. Finally set the ssh timeout to 120 seconds with “IP ssh time-out 120” command. Due to SSH-2's superiority and popularity over SSH-1, some implementations such as libssh (v0.8.0+), Lsh and Dropbear support only the SSH-2 protocol. Version 1.99 edit In January 2006, well after version 2.1 was established, RFC 4253 specified that an SSH server which supports both 2.0 and prior versions of SSH should identify its.
It will show an output similar to this:
As you can see, the Linux name is Ubuntu and the version is 20.04.1.
However, that's not the only way to know the Linux distribution details. In this beginner's tip, I'll show you different ways to check which Linux you are running.
Find Linux distribution details
Check Ssh Version Cisco Switch
Method 1: Use /etc/os-release file
If you are familiar with the Linux directory structure, you probably already know that /etc directory contains the core configuration files of the system.
The os-release file in the /etc directory keeps the information about the Linux distribution. It gives you the distribution name, distribution version, release name or ID.
You can use cat command to view the content of the file in Linux terminal:
Here's what it displays for Alpine Linux server running on Linode infrastructure.
Get Ssh Version
As you can see, the name of Linux distribution is Alpine Linux and the distribution version is 3.12.
The content of the /etc/os-release is usually different for different distributions. Distributions often use it to provide additional information like where to get support or file bugs etc.
For example, the /etc/os-release provides more lines for CentOS Linux.
However, all of them provide the Linux distribution name and version so it is a pretty reliable way to know which Linux you are running. In fact, it is the most reliable way.
Method 2: Use hostnamectl command
Most Linux distributions these days use systemd. On such a system, you can use the hostnamectl command to get Linux version detail.
For the same CentOS system that you saw above, hostnamectl provides the following details:
You can see the Linux version detail in the line starting with 'Operating System'.
How To Check Ssh Version On Ubuntu
The hostnamectl command is primarily used for dealing with the hostname but if it provides other details why not use it?
Method 3: Use lsb-release command
This is NOT a command that you'll find in all Linux distributions. I think it is mostly used by Debian/Ubuntu based distributions.
You can use the lsb_release command with option -a and it will provide distribution details:
Don't mind the No LSB modules are available line. It's not an error of any kind.
Bonus Tip: Find Linux kernel version
Now that you know which distribution you are running, perhaps you would also like to know about the Linux kernel version running on the system.
Check Openssh Version Centos
You can get the kernel details using the uname command in any Linux distribution.
The output shows only the Linux kernel version:
No prizes for guessing that the above system is running on Linux kernel version 5.4.43.
I hope you find this quick tip helpful in finding Linux version detail. If you have questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comment section.
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