how do I check coreutils version?

Question

How do i check the version of coreutils? gnu coreutils says they are at version 5. Im sure Ubuntu is a variation on that. I tried:

info coreutils
File: coreutils.info,  Node: coreutils invocation,  Prev: Standards conformance,  Up: Common options

2.14 ‘coreutils’: Multi-call binary

is the version really 2.14? that seem really dated. Is that right? Or am I checking the wrong thing?

Answer 1

Short answer - check the Installed field in the output of apt-cache policy :

testdir:$ apt-cache policy coreutils
coreutils:
  Installed: 8.21-1ubuntu5.1
  Candidate: 8.21-1ubuntu5.1
      Version table:
 *** 8.21-1ubuntu5.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     8.21-1ubuntu5 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages