code: public String getServerVersion() throws IOException {
          // only do this once -- future invocations will use the known value
          if (m_serverVersion == null) {
              // Make the APIA call for describe repository
              // and make sure that HTTP 302 status is handled.
              String desc = getResponseAsString("/describe?xml=true", true, true);
              logger.debug("describeRepository response:\n" + desc);
              String[] parts = desc.split("<repositoryVersion>");
              if (parts.length < 2) {
                  throw new IOException("Could not find repositoryVersion element in content of /describe?xml=true");
              }
              int i = parts[1].indexOf("<");
              if (i == -1) {
                  throw new IOException("Could not find end of repositoryVersion element in content of /describe?xml=true");
              }
              m_serverVersion = parts[1].substring(0, i).trim();
              logger.debug("Server version is " + m_serverVersion);
          }
          return m_serverVersion;
      }
docs: Get the version reported by the remote Fedora server.