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On a VM running Ubuntu 18.04 Visual Studio Code is installed. When code --version is executed on the command line, the follow info is outputted in the terminal:

knot22@juniper:~/Desktop/pile$ code --version
1.40.2
f359dd69833dd8800b54d458f6d37ab7c78df520
x64

Is there a command that will limit the output only to the version so just 1.40.2 is outputted?

I want just the version number, not all of the data outputted by --version for the code package.

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6
  • Possible duplicate of How do I get the version of an application from the command line?
    – JoKeR
    Dec 3, 2019 at 13:15
  • 1
    That link does not answer this question. I only want the version number, not all the other data that is being outputted.
    – knot22
    Dec 3, 2019 at 15:25
  • dpkg -s code | grep -i version this one is not working either?
    – JoKeR
    Dec 3, 2019 at 20:10
  • @JoKeR That does not give the desired format.
    – knot22
    Dec 3, 2019 at 20:54
  • apt-cache show code | grep -i version should do the trick let me know.
    – JoKeR
    Dec 4, 2019 at 8:48

2 Answers 2

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2

You can simply use head command like that

code --version | head -1

You would get :

knot22@juniper:~/Desktop/pile$ code --version | head -1
1.40.2
knot22@juniper:~/Desktop/pile$

Little explanation :

  • head -number_lines would display the first number_lines, so in your case, it would display just the 1rst line due to -1 option (e.g -3 would display 3 lines)
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7
  • I wouldn't call it a proper solution as it only reads the header, as an example it won't work for vlc
    – JoKeR
    Dec 4, 2019 at 8:52
  • I just do the test with vlc, I got the version number not alone like that : VLC media player 3.0.8 Vetinari (revision 3.0.8-0-gf350b6b5a7) VLC version 3.0.8 Vetinari (3.0.8-0-gf350b6b5a7)
    – damadam
    Dec 4, 2019 at 9:01
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    Exactly, I written much proper check. Apt-cache should do that trick.
    – JoKeR
    Dec 4, 2019 at 9:04
  • the command --version will not always show version printed
    – JoKeR
    Dec 4, 2019 at 9:10
  • but probably OP didn't want to see the word version on result too, probably to get it using some code (an auto update script for example)
    – damadam
    Dec 4, 2019 at 9:17
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To check the proper information about the package you can use apt-cache command for example:

$ apt-cache show netcat

Package: netcat
Priority: optional
Section: universe/net
Installed-Size: 30
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <[email protected]>
Original-Maintainer: Ruben Molina <[email protected]>
Architecture: all
Version: 1.10-40
Depends: netcat-traditional (>= 1.10-39)
Filename: pool/universe/n/netcat/netcat_1.10-40_all.deb
Size: 3340
MD5sum: 37c303f02b260481fa4fc9fb8b2c1004
SHA1: 0371a3950d6967480985aa014fbb6fb898bcea3a
SHA256: eeecb4c93f03f455d2c3f57b0a1e83b54dbeced0918ae563784e86a37bcc16c9
Description-en: TCP/IP swiss army knife -- transitional package
 This is a "dummy" package that depends on lenny's default version of
 netcat, to ease upgrades. It may be safely removed.
Description-md5: 1353f8c1d079348417c2180319bdde09
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu

Just type:

apt-cache show netcat | grep -i version

Version: 1.10-40
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2
  • well there's official deb repository https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/
    – JoKeR
    Dec 4, 2019 at 9:17
  • you can add a sed command to avoid displaying Version:, which would be something like that : apt-cache show netcat | grep -i version | sed "s/Version: //" (even if -cache isn't really useful)
    – damadam
    Dec 5, 2019 at 11:06

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