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:

ec         


        

Answer 1

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.