determining version number

[lint]

Is there a standard or at least very popular way of providing software version information under Linux? For example, right now I need to determine what version of ucspi-tcp is running on a machine, but I don't know how. Sometimes I'll use "appname -version" or appname --version" but I'm just curious if there's a "correct" way to do this. thanks!

[posterboy]

You got the usual way, but, also, we see a lot of just plain -v. Often the app is written so that if it expects something on the command line, and there is nothing, a list of possibilities is printed. Others use -? or -h or --help, etc. etc. It has a lot to do with the C library the writer linked against, his idea of how to handle these things, etc. In short, if there is a standard it has escaped my attention.
Ray


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