How do I find out the version of LaTeX on a linux system?

latex --version shows the TeX and kpathsea version but how can


I find the latex version such as latex 2.09 or latex2e.





I need latex 2e or latex 2.09 to work with older tex files.





Right now I see this with latex --version on redhat ws4 system


TeX (Web2C 7.3.1) 3.14159


kpathsea version 3.3.1How do I find out the version of LaTeX on a linux system?
It seems that LaTeX is released by date and not version (though I suppose you could think of it like that). I found the date that my version of LaTeX was built at the end of the manpage:





$ man latex





... usual man page stuff ...


Web2C 7.4.5 29 March 1999 LATEX(1)





And here is another clue, when I run latex I get this:





$ latex foo.tex





This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.4.5)


(./foo.tex


LaTeX2e %26lt;2001/06/01%26gt;


Babel %26lt;v3.7h%26gt; and hyphenation patterns for american, french, german, ngerman, n


ohyphenation, loaded.


(/sw/share/texmf/tex/lat... (and so on, ';foo.text'; had errors)





The ';LaTeX2e %26lt;2001/06/01%26gt;'; seems to be the only meaningful line that I get out of it.





So then I looked over here:


http://www.latex-project.org/ltnews/





It looks like LaTeX is released about once or twice a year. I couldn't find the version for the current release on their website. Wikipedia merely says:


';LaTeX2e is the current version of LaTeX';How do I find out the version of LaTeX on a linux system?
You could typeset a document with the code /latexe and if it shows you the LaTeX2e logo, you've basically got an up to date version.