Version

Version

Print the Fastfetch version and build information

Module type	version
Default order	71 (only used by --gen-config)
Module source	src/modules/version/version.c
Detection source	src/detection/version/ (build constants), src/detection/libc/

Prints the project name, the version, the commit-count tweak, the architecture, and — with a format string — everything else that was baked in at compile time.

Version: fastfetch 2.69.0-104 (aarch64)
Version: fastfetch 2.69.0-103-debug (aarch64)

Platform support

The module itself is platform independent. Only the libc field is detected per platform, and that detection is entirely compile-time:

Platform	Libc source	Reports
Linux	libc_linux.c	glibc <major>.<minor>, uClibc <major>.<minor>.<patch> or musl <version>
Android	libc_android.c	ndk-bionic <major>.<minor>.<build> when built with the NDK
FreeBSD / DragonFly	libc_bsd.c	FBSD <version> or DF <version>
GNU/Hurd	libc_linux.c	Same glibc branch as Linux
macOS	libc_apple.c	libSystem <version>
Windows	libc_windows.cpp	ucrt <version> or msvcrt <version>
NetBSD / OpenBSD / Solaris / Haiku	libc_nosupport.c	Unknown, with no version

Every platform has a file, so the module has no "unsupported" state — the four platforms listed with libc_nosupport.c still print something rather than failing.

Configuration

Key	Type	Default	Description
key	string	module name	Module key. A single space hides the key and the separator.
keyColor	color	–	Overrides display.color.keys.
keyWidth	integer	–	Overrides display.key.width.
keyIcon	string	built-in glyph	Printed when display.key.type includes the icon bit. Any glyph works; "" prints none.
outputColor	color	–	Overrides display.color.output.
format	string	–	Custom output format (see below).
condition	object	–	Show the module only if the conditions match.

There are no module-specific keys, and this is the one module that ignores general.detectVersion: nothing here is detected at runtime, so there is nothing to disable.

Format string

Run fastfetch -h version-format for the authoritative list.

Variable	Description
{project-name}	Project name (fastfetch)
{version}	Version without the tweak (2.69.0)
{version-tweak}	The commit-count suffix, including the leading dash (-104)
{build-type}	debug or release, derived from NDEBUG
{sysname}	Build target name (Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, …)
{arch}	Build target architecture (aarch64, x86_64, …)
{cmake-built-type}	CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE as passed to CMake (Debug, Release, …)
{compile-time}	__DATE__ and __TIME__ of the translation unit
{compiler}	Compiler name and version
{libc}	Libc name and version, from the table above

JSON output

{
    "type": "Version",
    "result": {
        "projectName": "fastfetch",
        "sysName": "macOS",
        "architecture": "aarch64",
        "version": "2.69.0",
        "versionGit": "2.68.1-104-gfe49a9624",
        "cmakeBuiltType": "Release",
        "compileTime": "Sep 22 2026, 11:30:18",
        "compiler": "Apple clang 21.0.0 (21000334)",
        "debugMode": false,
        "libc": "libSystem 1359.0.0"
    }
}

libc is null when the libc detection failed, which on this module only happens on Android built without the NDK.

Examples

{ "type": "version", "format": "{version}{version-tweak}" }

{ "type": "version", "key": "Built", "format": "{compiler} · {cmake-built-type}" }

Pitfalls

• The default output is not {version}. It is {project-name} {version}{version-tweak} {arch}, with -debug inserted after the tweak in debug builds. So 2.69.0-104 is a version plus a tweak, not a four-component version, and a script that parses the line as <name> <semver> (<arch>) will mis-read it.
• {version-tweak} includes its dash. It is -104, not 104. The field is empty when the build has no commit count, so {version}{version-tweak} degrades to the bare version.
• {version} and {versionGit} disagree. {version} is the release number from CMakeLists.txt (2.69.0); versionGit is git describe output (2.68.1-104-gfe49a9624) and can name an older release. The two are separate values and neither is derived from the other.
• versionGit has no format variable. It is present in the JSON result but is not in -h version-format, so {version-git} is printed literally. Read it from --format json if you need it.
• {libc} describes the build toolchain, not the running system. Every implementation reads preprocessor macros (__GLIBC__, _UCRT, FF_LIBSYSTEM_VERSION, …), so a binary copied to a different machine keeps reporting the libc it was compiled against.
• {libc} is Unknown rather than empty on four platforms. NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris and Haiku have no libc detection at all, and the stub reports success with the literal name Unknown. A format like {libc} · {compiler} therefore always has something in the first slot.
• {compiler} reports the compiler that built this file. On Windows with clang it reads clang-cl <version>; on Apple clang it appends the Apple build number in parentheses, so the string has a space and a (...) in it that naive parsing trips over.
• {compile-time} is the build timestamp of version.c, not of the binary. With incremental builds the module can report a time older than the linked executable.
• {arch} and {sysname} are compile-time guesses. They come from a hand-written #if-chain over compiler predefined macros, and anything unrecognised becomes Unknown — including architectures the chain has no branch for. They describe the build target, which is not necessarily the machine the binary runs on.

Implementation

src/detection/version/version.c contains no detection code at all: it is one static initializer for ffVersionResult, filled from the FASTFETCH_PROJECT_* macros that CMake generates into fastfetch_config.h, plus __DATE__ ", " __TIME__ for the timestamp and an #if-chain for sysName, architecture and compiler.

sysName and architecture are resolved at compile time from predefined macros. The architecture chain covers x86_64, i386, ia64, aarch64, arm, mips, powerpc, riscv, s390x, loongarch, sparc, alpha, hppa, sh and m68k. The system chain covers Android, Linux, DragonFly, MidnightBSD, FreeBSD, macOS, Windows, SunOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Haiku and GNU; note that these are exactly the values accepted by condition.system.

debugMode is #ifndef NDEBUG, so {build-type} follows the CMake build type only indirectly — a Release build configured with -UNDEBUG would still print debug.

The module reads no options in ffPrintVersion(); it prints either the fixed default line or the format string. The only work it does at runtime is the {libc} field, which calls ffDetectLibc() and renders <name> <version> — the error return is ignored, so a failed detection leaves the field empty rather than printing an error.