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I'm on Kubuntu 11.04 and I want to know what KDE Plasma Desktop version I'm using.

Ashkan Kh. Nazary
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    I am writing this comment so everyone can benefit (including me, in case I am wrong), no bad intentions towards the OP nor anyone else. Is it a bit misleading to ask for "KDE version"? KDE is a community. KDE Plasma is a desktop environment. KDE has other projects, in addition to their desktop environment. All of them have their own versions. – Muhamed Huseinbašić Jul 29 '17 at 08:40
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    Contrary as to what Muhamed Huseinbasic wrote above ^^^, I think the question is perfectly reasonable and the whole point of askubuntu is for people to get an answer - which people below did give, as opposed to Muhamed Huseinbasic who did not provide a helpful solution. Personally I tend to rely on "kf5-config --version"; but I have found two problems with it. First, it is not that fast compared to other programs; second, it couples information together such as: "Qt: 5.14.0 KDE Frameworks: 5.66.0" <- here I may not need the qt information but I have no information from easily avoiding this. – shevy Feb 05 '20 at 15:52
  • @MuhamedHuseinbašić thanks for your very polite and constructive criticism. It is true in a strict sense that your point holds and KDE Plasma Desktop is way more precise and accurate than KDE. But I bring the other fact to your attention which is also true : we are not writing software, official standard or specifications here. As is clearly evident from the responses to the question, everyone perfectly understood the intent with no ambiguity. I will edit the question to make it reflect your point though. It is true, after all ;-) – Ashkan Kh. Nazary Feb 07 '20 at 15:17
  • To find out the Plasma version, use KInfoCenter. – Miguel Tomás Feb 18 '22 at 16:44

3 Answers3

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In modern Kubuntu there is an Info Center app which you can find in K menu -> Applications -> System -> Info Center or start from console using kinfocenter. It shows Plasma version, Frameworks version, Qt version and other useful info.

Info Center

A command-line solution for KDE/Plasma 5:

$ plasmashell --version
plasmashell 5.9.4
$ kf5-config --version
Qt: 5.7.1
KDE Frameworks: 5.31.0
kf5-config: 1.0

Previous answer for older KDE versions:

Start any "standard" KDE program, such as Konsole or Kate and select Help - About KDE

enter image description here

If you want to do the same from the command line, you can invoke any "standard" KDE program with --version (or -v) parameter. The program then will print the version and exit:

# kate --version
Qt: 4.8.6
KDE Development Platform: 4.14.2
Kate: 3.14.2
# konsole --version
Qt: 4.8.6
KDE Development Platform: 4.14.2
Konsole: 2.14.2
# plasma-desktop --version
Qt: 4.8.6
KDE Development Platform: 4.13.3
Plasma Desktop Shell: 4.11.11
SebMa
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Sergey
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  • but how about checking it from terminal? – KernelPanic May 04 '15 at 09:24
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    @MarkoFrelih: I've updated my answer to show how to do that from terminal – Sergey May 05 '15 at 04:00
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    with the newer KDE ( 5.4.x and up) they do not show the version in the About KDE anymore for some unknown reason. Upvote for konsole --version. – user283885 Nov 25 '15 at 10:54
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    Please add to the answer that you probably want to know what plasma version you are running (plasmashell --version) that is probably what you really want to know. – Joshua Robison Apr 10 '16 at 13:43
  • Like others have mentioned, the right way to do it now is Help -> About Kate/Konsole/... -> then click the `Version` tab. – Björn Lindqvist Jun 16 '16 at 23:52
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    @BjörnLindqvist: On my machine About Kate - Version only shows Frameworks and Qt version. Plasma version is not shown. I've updated the answer – Sergey Jun 17 '16 at 01:31
  • Different to the claim by Björn Lindqvist, there is not a single "right" answer because it is context-dependent. For example, I specifically would look for commandline-way for use in ruby scripts, so a GUI-only solution is not proper. Right now I am using kf5-config, but perhaps one day the KDE team can add a more generic script that could query all components installed on the computer, too. That would be great. – shevy Feb 05 '20 at 16:01
  • As well as `kf5-config`, you can use `kdeinit5 --version` which only has 2 lines with the Qt and KDE framework versions. – codywohlers May 28 '20 at 15:49
  • KDE keeps making stuff better and better so that the answer is always out of date. My KDE seems to be 5.76.0 or 5.18.6 or something. Hard to tell. Maybe they need a "kdeversion" app and never even think about changing that again. "Last bug fix", you know. – Bruce Apr 07 '22 at 15:13
  • @Bruce: kinfocenter worked for me on my KDE (mentioned at the top of the answer). Perhaps this is the "kdeversion" command you were looking for? – Sergey Apr 10 '22 at 12:05
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On kde5 I have resorted to this in scripts:

dpkg -l | awk -F'[:-]' '/plasma-desktop\s/{print $3}'

Alias for quick lookup for your ~/.bashrc:

alias kdeversion="dpkg -l | awk -F'[:-]' '/plasma-desktop\s/{print \$3}'"
sjas
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Open any KDE related program, like Dolphin, Kmail or even System Monitor, not a program like Chrome or Firefox. Then click on the Help option in the menu and then click on About KDE. That will tell your your version.

lqlarry
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    That no longer says anything about versions as of Kate 20.12.2. – Dan Dascalescu Feb 19 '21 at 21:47
  • I need to find out the KDE version to find out the right command to restart KDE, such that I do not need to log out and lose my 1000+ windows which I have open. The restart is needed, because KDE stopped working, so everything from Menus to KDE window manager no more work (but the windows itself work if I still can access them with the mouse). For the same reason I cannot access "Help" to find out the KDE-Version, sadly. The only things that I have is a login from my text console from which I can restart KDE without using the graphical screen itself. – Tino Jul 07 '21 at 10:33