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versions

Purpose

Show versions of arbitrary commands.

Syntax

Syntax: versions [-d | --version] [-v] target [target ...]

Options and arguments

Option Description Default
-d, --dumb Do not try to parse out version Attempts are made to parse out the version. See the examples
--version Print out only version - only one argument allowed The name of the target, location, and version are printed
-v Enable verbose debugging Debugging is not enabled

Example

The madness of various commands

Here are examples of the different ways executables can present their version. Not only does the output differ greatly but the option can vary! Some commands like --version but some like -version or version. Occasionaly, you'll run across a helpful command that supports more than one method but that's not very typical. Sometimes the method is different depending on the operating system you're using.

$ java -version
openjdk 11.0.8 2020-07-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu118.04.1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu118.04.1, mixed mode, sharing)
$

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.4.20(1)-release (x86_64-pc-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.
$

$ ansible --version
ansible 2.5.1
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/home/mrbruno/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.17 (default, Jul 20 2020, 15:37:01) [GCC 7.5.0]
$

$ python --version
Python 2.7.17
$

$ docker --version
Docker version 17.09.0-ce, build afdb6d4
$

$ packer version
Packer v1.5.1

Your version of Packer is out of date! The latest version
is 1.6.1. You can update by downloading from www.packer.io/downloads.html
$

Simple use of the tool

$ versions java bash ansible python docker packer
Name     Location                 Version
java     /usr/bin                 11.0.8
bash     /bin                     4.4.20(1)-release
ansible  /usr/bin                 2.5.1
python   /usr/bin                 2.7.17
docker   /usr/bin                 17.09.0-ce
packer   /home/centos/.local/bin  1.5.1
$

Note that annoying trailing characters are removed from the "version token" such as the comma from docker.

Using --dumb option

$ versions --dumb java bash ansible python
Name     Location  Version
java     /usr/bin  openjdk 11.0.8 2020-07-14 OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu118.04.1) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu118.04.1, mixed mode, sharing)
bash     /bin      GNU bash, version 4.4.20(1)-release (x86_64-pc-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.
ansible  /usr/bin  ansible 2.5.1   config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg   configured module search path = [u'/home/mrbruno/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']   ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible   executable location = /usr/bin/ansible   python version = 2.7.17 (default, Jul 20 2020, 15:37:01) [GCC 7.5.0]
python   /usr/bin  Python 2.7.17
$

Using --version option

$ versions --version java
11.0.8
$

git-based example

I honestly don't use the tool much on my own tools but maybe I should! I haven't provided a --version option for any of my tools and I don't really want to have to maintain a version level either. But I figured I could mine the information from git:

$ versions versions
Name      Location           Version
versions  /home/mrbruno/bin  2020.07.06-124824 77fb213 [email protected] Correcting test for --version
$

The version is made up of the output from git log -1 executable:

  1. The date and time of the last change: YYYY.mm.dd-HHMMSS
  2. The short SHA1 of the commit
  3. The user who made the change - that's my work email at the time I made the change
  4. The remainder is the first line of the comment from the commit

Relative & absolute paths

If you use a slash in a target name, it is taken as a relative or absolute path and the tool will not search $PATH:

$ versions bin/versions
Name      Location           Version
versions  /home/mrbruno/bin  2020.07.06-124824 77fb213 [email protected] Correcting test for --version
$

Notes

  • The tool gets the version from:
    1. Output from executable --version
    2. Output from executable -version - I can't recall an example of an executable that works this way but it is supported
    3. An attempt is made to generate information from git if the executable is part of a repository. I did that mostly for my tools but honestly don't use it very much (see above example)
  • See also the pythons tool