kernels/pr_871/en/cli-variants.md

kernels variants

Use kernels variants to list the build variants of the latest kernel version on the Hub, together with compatibility decisions for your current system. Accepted variants are marked as compatible, the preferred variant is identified, and rejected variants include the reason they cannot be used.

Usage

kernels variants <repo_id> [--all-versions | --version VERSION | --revision REVISION] [--only-compatible]

Option	Description
--all-versions	Show variants and decisions for every available version, in ascending version order.
--only-compatible	Only show variants compatible with the current system, including the preferred variant. Can be combined with any version or revision selector.
--version VERSION	Show variants for a specific integer kernel version, including version 0, or use latest for the highest available version.
--revision REVISION	Show variants for a specific branch, tag, or commit, including repositories without numbered versions.

--all-versions, --version, and --revision are mutually exclusive. Without a selector, the command uses the highest available version number; it does not fall back to an older version when no variants are compatible. If the repository has no numbered versions, use --revision to select a revision.

Examples

List variants and compatibility decisions for the latest version:

kernels variants kernels-community/activation

You can also select the latest version explicitly:

kernels variants kernels-community/activation --version latest

List variants for every version (the previous kernels versions behavior):

kernels variants kernels-community/activation --all-versions

Show only compatible variants for version 1:

kernels variants kernels-community/activation --version 1 --only-compatible

Inspect variants on a branch:

kernels variants kernels-community/activation --revision main

Example Output

The variants and decisions depend on the repository and your current system. For example, on a Linux CPU system with Torch 2.10:

Version 1:

torch210-cpu-x86_64-linux compatible, preferred ✅
torch-cpu compatible ✅

With --only-compatible, the command prints No compatible variants found. when none match the current system.

Migration from kernels versions

kernels versions <repo_id> is deprecated and will be removed in kernels 0.20. It continues to list all versions and prints a deprecation message to stderr. Replace it with kernels variants <repo_id> --all-versions to preserve that behavior.

See Also

• kernels info - Describe a kernel
• kernels lock - Lock kernel versions in your project
• kernels download - Download locked kernels