What changed on the last kernel update?

By unixsysadminHOWTO

Tux

When working on RPM based distributions like RHEL, Centos or Fedora you will most likely be asked to review the revision history for a package. For example, over time you are likely to be applying kernel updates as part of a patching routine. Say, you install a new kernel but notice a problem – how can you tell what changes were made? Fortunately, the RPM metadata includes a ‘changelog’ so you can view the change history from the command line without requiring access to the Internet. Simply use the “–changelog” argument with rpm you wish to query. For example, to view the changes in the kernel package:


sudo rpm -q --changelog kernel

Here is an example:

[unixsysadmin@fedora ~]$ sudo rpm -q --changelog kernel | head
* Mon Jul 09 2018 Jeremy Cline <jcline@redhat.com> - 4.17.5-200
- Linux v4.17.5
- Fix CVE-2018-13405 (rhbz 1599161 1599162)

* Thu Jul 05 2018 Justin M. Forbes <jforbes@fedoraproject.org>
- Fix CVE-2018-13053 (rhbz 1597747 1597748)
- Fix CVE-2018-12896 (rhbz 1597759 1597760)
- Fix CVE-2018-13093 (rhbz 1597766 1597767)
- Fix CVE-2018-13094 (rhbz 1597771 1597772)
- Fix CVE-2018-13095 (rhbz 1597775 1597777)

Some other useful commands when gathering kernel or package information.

Display the release number of the current running kernel.
uname -r

Example:

[unixsysadmin@fedora ~]$ uname -r
4.17.14-202.fc28.x86_64

Display package information about the kernel, such as it’s source, version, install date, description, etc.

rpm -qi kernel

Example:

[unixsysadmin@fedora ~] rpm -qi kernel
Name : kernel
Version : 4.17.11
Release : 200.fc28
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: Sun 05 Aug 2018 15:31:45 BST
Group : Unspecified
Size : 0
License : GPLv2 and Redistributable, no modification permitted
Signature : RSA/SHA256, Mon 30 Jul 2018 21:37:16 BST, Key ID e08e7e629db62fb1
Source RPM : kernel-4.17.11-200.fc28.src.rpm
Build Date : Mon 30 Jul 2018 17:14:54 BST
Build Host : bkernel01.phx2.fedoraproject.org
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager : Fedora Project
Vendor : Fedora Project
URL : https://www.kernel.org/
Bug URL : https://bugz.fedoraproject.org/kernel
Summary : The Linux kernel