Identifying Your Linux Kernel with "uname"

When using a Linux dedicated server, it can be very helpful to know exactly what distribution and kernel version you are running. While there are a few ways to accomplish this, using the command “uname” is the easiest. To identify the kernel type just enter: uname with no flags.

To find out the kernel release, enter:

uname -r

To find out everything you can possibly know about your kernel with uname, enter:

uname -a
It should print something like:

Linux hostname 2.6.27-8-eeepc #1 SMP Sun Nov 16 12:02:12 MST 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

To find out more about “uname”, type “man uname”.

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Linux Dedicated Server Logs

Question: Where do I view logs on my dedicated server?

Answer: Most of the logs on a Linux operating system are kept in the /var/log directory. There you will find logs for the main system, kernel, network, hardware, Apache, MySQL, and often times other third-party applications that you might happen to install.

There are several ways to view the logs. For example, if you want to view the “messages” log:

tail -f /var/log/messages
This will show you the last few lines of the log (i.e. the latest information).

less /var/log/messages
will give you a scrollable view of the log, controlled with the arrow keyes.

more -f /var/log/messages
will give you a paged view. Pressing enter or the space bar will show more of the text, which is all loaded at once.