I want to install a package, and it has different versions for different OSes. The description in the package site is like this
X86-64 Linux 3.0 Kernel
I looked it up and found people saying to use
uname -r
uname -m
I tried it and got this:
3.2.0-24-generic
x86_64
Does this tell me the Linux I'm using is x86_64 and 3.2.0 Kernel? What does -24-generic mean?
3.2.0 is the version of the source code used to compile this kernel. These can be four numbers long (e.g. 2.6.32.55) indicating a patch level on that version. However, this four digit system was only used for version 2.6 kernels starting at 2.6.8. I.e., it is not used with 3.x kernels, which are the 3 numbers, release-major-minor. Note the subtle difference from the three number major-minor-patch level system commonly used with software.
-24-generic indicates a patch level and configuration used by the distro, 24 being their patch level, and generic being the configuration used in compiling. This patch level does not necessarily reset/change for different kernel source versions; the distro either applies the patches unchanged (so, e.g., 3.2.1-24-generic) or they increment the patch level (3.2.1-25-generic).
The most significant aspects are the source version number and the configuration style. The later is important because it indicates significant differences in the way the kernel was actually configured for build.
This doesn't reveal which architecture the kernel was built for -- e.g., x86_64 -- but the uname -m output does.
That means that you have a 64bit linux kernel. And the version is 3.2.
Precisely it is the 24th release of this kernel. And it is the generic one. This means that the kernel can be used for desktop as well as server systems.
