basic ubuntu question

[Avi Greenbury]

Rajeev Prasad wrote:

> hello,
> 
> just by looking at this how would you know whether it is a server or
> client version??

Well, that depends on your definition of 'sever' and 'client'. There is
a 'server' and a 'client' installer, but all they do is define the
default packages and some default configuration - every possible system
configuration is possible both from a server and a client install.

You can't tell from the uname command. There are differences in the
default kernel that the server and the client versions ship; the
easiest way there is probably to use dpkg:

dpkg -l | grep linux-image

Will list all the linux kernel images you have installed; if you've
ones whose names end in '-server' then you're running a server kernel.
But it's entirely possible to install this kernel onto a client.

What's the problem you're trying to solve here - for what do you need
to discern between servers and clients? Perhaps there's a more
appropriate way for the particular task you're working on.

> also how would you know which version of server is installed and running?

If you run

cat /etc/lsb-release

You'll get the version data (which is saved into the
file /etc/lsb-release) printed to screen.

-- 
Avi