Frequently Asked Question

How do I find out which kernel version I'm running?

uname -r prints the running kernel's release string (e.g. 6.8.0-31-generic). uname -a prints everything: kernel name, hostname, release, version (build timestamp), machine, and operating system. The version string is also visible at /proc/version.

If you want to know what version a kernel image on disk is without booting it, file /boot/vmlinuz-* will tell you, and on most distributions the version is in the filename. To see what other kernels are installed, list /boot/ (Debian/ Ubuntu) or use rpm -q kernel (Fedora/RHEL) or pacman -Q linux (Arch).