Are you curious to know what Bash version you are using on your Linux system? In this article, we will show you how to check Bash version in Linux. We will also explain the different types of Bash versions and provide some tips on how to upgrade your Bash version.
Understanding bash in Linux
Bash (short for Bourne-Again Shell) is a Unix shell and command language. It was created in 1989 by Brian Fox as a free software replacement for the Bourne shell. Bash is widely used as the default shell on most Linux distributions.
Check bash version using bash command
The easiest way to check the Bash version is using the bash command. open a terminal window and type: bash –version. The output of this command includes the bash version number as well as some information about the copyright and license.
You should see something like this: GNU bash, version 4.4.19(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
As you can see the bash version is 4.4.19 in our example.The first number (4) represents the major version of Bash. The second number (4) represents the minor version of Bash. The third number (19) represents the patch level of Bash. In this example, the major version is 4, the minor version is 4, and the patch level is 19.
The release number (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) indicates which platform Bash is running on. In this case, it is running on a 64-bit Linux platform.The copyright information indicates that Bash is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation and that it is released under the GNU GPL version X or later.
Check bash version using echo command
The $BASH_VERSION variable stores the Bash version number in your Linux system. You can check the content of this variable using the echo command. open a terminal window and type: echo $BASH_VERSION. The output of this command will show the Bash version number.
As you can see, the Bash version number is 4.4.19 in our example.
echo $BASH_VERSION
4.4.19(1)-release
different types of Bash versions
Now that you know how to check your Bash version, let’s take a look at the different types of Bash versions.Bash has two main branches: stable and development. The stable branch is used for production systems, while the development branch is used for testing new features.
New features are added to the development branch and then backported to the stable branch after they have been thoroughly tested. This ensures that new features do not introduce bugs into production systems.
how to upgrade bash in Linux
To upgrade your Bash version, you can either install the latest stable version or the latest development version. We recommend that you install the latest stable version to ensure that your system is stable and secure.
If you are using a Linux distribution, you can usually find the latest Bash version in your distribution’s package repository. For example, on Debian and Ubuntu systems, you can use apt to install the latest Bash version: sudo apt-get install bash
On Red Hat and CentOS systems, you can use yum to install the latest Bash version: sudo yum update bash
FAQ about bash
What is the difference between bash and other shells?
The main difference between bash and other shells is that bash is a complete programming language, while other shells are just interpreters for commands. Bash can do everything that other shells can do, plus a lot more. For example, you can use bash to write scripts that automate tasks or to create complex pipelines of commands.
Bash also has features that other shells do not, such as job control, command history, and brace expansion.
How to run a bash script?
To run a bash script, you need to have the bash interpreter installed on your system. To check if you have the bash interpreter installed, type: which bash.If the output of this command is /usr/bin/bash, then you have the bash interpreter installed and you can proceed to running your script.
To run a bash script, type: bash path/to/script.sh at the command prompt. Replace path/to/script.sh with the actual path to your script file.If your script is in the current directory, you can just type: ./script.sh to execute it.
We hope this article has helped you learn how to check Bash version in Linux. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Thanks for reading!