Checking version of rEFInd installed.

[Maurice Batey]

What is the simplest way to check which verison of rEFInd is installed?

[Roderick W. Smith]

The most reliable way is to check in rEFInd's information/about screen, when rEFInd is running. Unless the REFIND_VERSION constant in the version.h file was modified by whoever compiled the binary, this information should be accurate.

If you installed via a Linux package, you can check with the packaging system; for instance dpkg -s refind | grep Version for a Debian package. This approach, though, will tell you what version is installed in the OS; what the EFI actually runs could be different if you installed something else in another OS, or via another method in the first OS.

Another approach is to use a utility like strings to scan the rEFInd binary for its version string. To date, every rEFInd version has been beta, and so includes a version string that begins with 0.. Thus, you can grep on that string (using --encoding=l with the strings command to search for UTF-16 strings):

$ strings --encoding=l /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind_x64.efi | grep 0\\.
0.11.4

This approach may be unreliable for any of several reasons, though. Most important, you might search on the wrong binary, since it's easy to accidentally install rEFInd multiple times in multiple locations. There's also a chance that a future version, or even a current version built with an unusual compiler or on an unusual platform, will change how the version string is encoded. Also, if and when rEFInd goes out of beta, that first version digit will change from 0 to 1, necessitating a change in the grep search term.

[Maurice Batey]

The most reliable way is to check in rEFInd's
information/about screen, when rEFInd is running.

OK - thank you for the prompt reply , Rod - much appreciated!

So I've added "about" to the 'tools' line in refind.conf and its "i" icon provides the version number etc., though - as you say - it is only available whilst rEFInd is running.

Regards,
/\/\aurice