How can I find my shell version using a Linux command?

Question

I would like to know about my shell version using a Linux command. I tried the following command, but it shows the type of the shell I am in.

Command:

echo $SHELL

Result:

/bin/bash

Notice that you could use some strange shell, even one which is not POSIX compliant (e.g. [fish](http://fishshell.com/) or [es](https://wryun.github.io/es-shell/)...). You should know what shell you are using. If it is `bash`, indeed try `bash --version`. Or use your package management system (`dpkg -l bash` on Debian or Ubuntu) — Basile Starynkevitch, Jul 07 '16 at 07:32

score 64 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 07 '16 at 05:15

64

This will do it:

$SHELL --version

In my case, the output is:

zsh 5.0.2 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

answered Jul 07 '16 at 05:15

Muhammad Sumon Molla Selim

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Not all shells have a `--version` option, but more do than don't, so this is probably your best bet. – torek Jul 07 '16 at 05:55
I have some quibbles about this; see [my answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/38240328/827263). – Keith Thompson Jan 29 '18 at 19:47
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The shell you're in doesn't necessarily matches your `$SHELL` variable. Use `/proc/self/exe --version`. – x-yuri Dec 16 '20 at 20:12
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This reflects your login shell -- not the currently running shell. – dawg Jan 03 '21 at 16:53

Keith Thompson · Answer 2 · 2019-08-27T03:57:46.000

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It depends on whether you want to know the version of your default login shell, or the version of the shell you're currently running. They're not necessarily the same.

For your default login shell, as the accepted answer says, $SHELL --version is likely to work. Most (but not all) shells accept a --version option. (dash does not.) And this assumes that the value of $SHELL hasn't been changed (there can be valid reasons to do so).

For the shell you're currently running, if it happens to be bash you can type:

echo $BASH_VERSION

For tcsh:

echo $version

For zsh:

echo $ZSH_VERSION
echo $ZSH_PATCHLEVEL # shows more detailed information

For ksh:

echo $KSH_VERSION

For fish:

echo $version

Again, this assumes that the relevant variable hasn't been modified (there's rarely any non-malicious reason to change it).

Bash in particular has an array variable $BASH_VERSINFO that gives more information in a form that's easier to process programmatically. Printing $BASH_VERSINFO only prints the first element; to print all elements:

echo "${BASH_VERSINFO[@]}"

edited Aug 27 '19 at 03:57

answered Jul 07 '16 at 07:59

Keith Thompson

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This is a better answer. – Jan 29 '18 at 18:14
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What about /bin/sh or /bin/dash? (On Debian, /bin/sh is symlinked to dash. – HankB Mar 01 '19 at 17:21
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@HankB: `dash` doesn't seem to have a version command-line option or command.On Debian or Ubuntu, `dpkg -l dash` will tell you which version is installed, but not necessarily the version you're running. – Keith Thompson Mar 01 '19 at 19:38
`/bin/dash` on Debian Buster contains the string `6323dd0fe3ec5af388e4ea4217a1f0092961d2.debug` which looks like some sort of commit ID maybe. This corresponds to Dash version 0.5.10.2-5. – tripleee Dec 22 '20 at 12:11
@tripleee It looks like it could be, but the hex string is 2 characters shorter than a git commit id, and there's there's no such commit in https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/dash/dash.git (or any commit whose id contains `6323dd0fe3ec5af388e4ea4217a1f0092961d2`). Ubuntu 20.04 has `2a16ad1517b3d714e7b3bdb5470b2c82eb25ff.debug`, same story. – Keith Thompson Dec 22 '20 at 18:30

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 24 '19 at 09:19

There is a case when your shell does not have a command line parameter to determine the version directly. This case is Bourne shell. For Bourne shell I would recommend to use a script: https://www.in-ulm.de/~mascheck/various/whatshell/whatshell.sh. The script is pretty small so that it is not a big trouble to review it and understand how it is working. I have tested this script inside different shells on Linux and Solaris and it always gave the shell version for me.

Some examples:

Ubuntu 18.04

$ sh -c './whatshell.sh'
ash (Busybox 1.x)
$ bash -c './whatshell.sh'
bash 4.4.19(1)-release

CentOS 4

$sh -c './whatshell.sh'
bash 3.00.15(1)-release

Solaris 10

~> sh -c './whatshell.sh'
ksh88 Version (..-)11/16/88i (posix octal base)
~> bash -c './whatshell.sh'
bash 4.1.7(3)-release
~> csh -c './whatshell.sh' 
SVR4 Bourne shell (SunOS 5 variant)

AIX 6.1

~> sh -c './whatshell.sh'
ksh88 Version (..-)11/16/88f
~> bash -c './whatshell.sh'
bash 4.2.0(1)-release

This is also answers for the question Bourne shell version which was marked as off topic.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 22 '20 at 11:54

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Just use command

echo $BASH_VERSION

It must give you the version of shell. BASH_VERSION is the environment variable which contains version of shell.

answered Dec 22 '20 at 11:54

gaurav cmd

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This is obviously only relevant if you are running Bash. – tripleee Dec 22 '20 at 12:05
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Run "ps -p $$" to determine which shell you're using (without the quotes) – Michael Dec 22 '20 at 12:29

How can I find my shell version using a Linux command?

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