Bash Internal variables $BASH_VERSINFO
Example
An array containing the full version information split into elements, much more convenient than $BASH_VERSION if you're just looking for the major version:
~> $ for ((i=0; i<=5; i++)); do echo "BASH_VERSINFO[$i] = ${BASH_VERSINFO[$i]}"; done
BASH_VERSINFO[0] = 3
BASH_VERSINFO[1] = 2
BASH_VERSINFO[2] = 25
BASH_VERSINFO[3] = 1
BASH_VERSINFO[4] = release
BASH_VERSINFO[5] = x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu
