Check AlmaLinux Version

The objective of this guide is to show how to check what version of AlmaLinux a system is running. Whether you’ve migrated from CentOS to AlmaLinux or performed a fresh install, it’s important to keep tabs on the state of your system. This includes information such as the version number of the operating system, kernel version, and other release information.

AlmaLinux is a fork of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which releases a new major version every few years. Finding your system’s version will inform you whether or not you’ve fallen behind on the latest updates. It’s always recommended to update AlmaLinux for the latest security patches and features.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to check AlmaLinux version from command line and GUI
  • How to check Linux kernel version
How to check AlmaLinux version

How to check AlmaLinux version

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System AlmaLinux
Software N/A
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to check AlmaLinux version



As you’ll see below, AlmaLinux stores release information in quite a few different places. We’ll show you several ways to find this information on your system.

  1. The hostnamectl command is one of the easiest ways to see basic information about AlmaLinux’s release, as well as other information about the machine itself.
    $ hostnamectl
       Static hostname: localhost.localdomain
             Icon name: computer-vm
               Chassis: vm
            Machine ID: abeb8e24781744f789b0fcaad0bb3c40
               Boot ID: 1230a6ad61a64c67a8dacfdbb8943bb1
        Virtualization: vmware
      Operating System: AlmaLinux 8.3 (Purple Manul)
           CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:almalinux:almalinux:8.3
                Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-240.el8.x86_64
          Architecture: x86-64
    
  2. To see more detailed information about the AlmaLinux version, use the following rpm command to see the full version number.
    $ rpm -q almalinux-release
    almalinux-release-8.3-2.el8.x86_64
    
  3. To see concise information about the AlmaLinux version, including its codename, try looking at the following file.
    $ cat /etc/almalinux-release
    AlmaLinux release 8.3 (Purple Manul)
    
  4. The following command will require you to install the redhat-lsb-core package first, if you don’t already have it installed. This gives us some easy to view information about our system, which could be parsed by a bash script, for example.


    $ lsb_release -a
    LSB Version:	:core-4.1-amd64:core-4.1-noarch
    Distributor ID:	AlmaLinux
    Description:	AlmaLinux release 8.3 (Purple Manul)
    Release:	8.3
    Codename:	PurpleManul
    
  5. To see the version of AlmaLinux’s kernel, use the uname command.
    $ uname -r
    4.18.0-240.el8.x86_64
    
  6. You can also see version information for AlmaLinux from GUI. On GNOME, open settings and navigate to the Details > About tab.
    Checking the AlmaLinux version information from GNOME GUI

    Checking the AlmaLinux version information from GNOME GUI

Closing Thoughts

In this guide, we saw several methods for checking the version of AlmaLinux, as well as the Linux kernel version and other pertinent information. There are even more ways to check this information than what we’ve listed here, but these are the most convenient and should give you all the details you need. Use whichever methods are most relevant for finding the information you need about your system.