Use DescribeDBEngineVersions with an Amazon SDK or CLI

    /// <summary>
    /// Get a list of DB engine versions for a particular DB engine.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="engine">Name of the engine.</param>
    /// <param name="dbParameterGroupFamily">Optional parameter group family name.</param>
    /// <returns>List of DBEngineVersions.</returns>
    public async Task<List<DBEngineVersion>> DescribeDBEngineVersions(string engine,
        string dbParameterGroupFamily = null)
    {
        var response = await _amazonRDS.DescribeDBEngineVersionsAsync(
            new DescribeDBEngineVersionsRequest()
            {
                Engine = engine,
                DBParameterGroupFamily = dbParameterGroupFamily
            });
        return response.DBEngineVersions;
    }

        Aws::Client::ClientConfiguration clientConfig;
        // Optional: Set to the AWS Region (overrides config file).
        // clientConfig.region = "us-east-1";

    Aws::RDS::RDSClient client(clientConfig);


//! Routine which gets available DB engine versions for an engine name and
//! an optional parameter group family.
/*!
 \sa getDBEngineVersions()
 \param engineName: A DB engine name.
 \param parameterGroupFamily: A parameter group family name, ignored if empty.
 \param engineVersionsResult: Vector of 'DBEngineVersion' objects returned by the routine.
 \param client: 'RDSClient' instance.
 \return bool: Successful completion.
 */
bool AwsDoc::RDS::getDBEngineVersions(const Aws::String &engineName,
                                      const Aws::String &parameterGroupFamily,
                                      Aws::Vector<Aws::RDS::Model::DBEngineVersion> &engineVersionsResult,
                                      const Aws::RDS::RDSClient &client) {
    Aws::RDS::Model::DescribeDBEngineVersionsRequest request;
    request.SetEngine(engineName);
    if (!parameterGroupFamily.empty()) {
        request.SetDBParameterGroupFamily(parameterGroupFamily);
    }

    engineVersionsResult.clear();
    Aws::String marker; // Used for pagination.

    do {
        if (!marker.empty()) {
            request.SetMarker(marker);
        }


        Aws::RDS::Model::DescribeDBEngineVersionsOutcome outcome =
                client.DescribeDBEngineVersions(request);

        if (outcome.IsSuccess()) {
            auto &engineVersions = outcome.GetResult().GetDBEngineVersions();
            engineVersionsResult.insert(engineVersionsResult.end(), engineVersions.begin(),
                                        engineVersions.end());
            marker = outcome.GetResult().GetMarker();
        }
        else {
            std::cerr << "Error with RDS::DescribeDBEngineVersionsRequest. "
                      << outcome.GetError().GetMessage()
                      << std::endl;
            return false;
        }

    } while (!marker.empty());


    return true;
}

To describe the DB engine versions for the MySQL DB engine

The following describe-db-engine-versions example displays details about each of the DB engine versions for the specified DB engine.

aws rds describe-db-engine-versions \
    --engine mysql

Output:

{
    "DBEngineVersions": [
        {
            "Engine": "mysql",
            "EngineVersion": "5.5.46",
            "DBParameterGroupFamily": "mysql5.5",
            "DBEngineDescription": "MySQL Community Edition",
            "DBEngineVersionDescription": "MySQL 5.5.46",
            "ValidUpgradeTarget": [
                {
                    "Engine": "mysql",
                    "EngineVersion": "5.5.53",
                    "Description": "MySQL 5.5.53",
                    "AutoUpgrade": false,
                    "IsMajorVersionUpgrade": false
                },
                {
                    "Engine": "mysql",
                    "EngineVersion": "5.5.54",
                    "Description": "MySQL 5.5.54",
                    "AutoUpgrade": false,
                    "IsMajorVersionUpgrade": false
                },
                {
                    "Engine": "mysql",
                    "EngineVersion": "5.5.57",
                    "Description": "MySQL 5.5.57",
                    "AutoUpgrade": false,
                    "IsMajorVersionUpgrade": false
                },
                ...some output truncated...
            ]
        }

For more information, see What Is Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)? in the Amazon RDS User Guide.

type DbInstances struct {
	RdsClient *rds.Client
}



// GetEngineVersions gets database engine versions that are available for the specified engine
// and parameter group family.
func (instances *DbInstances) GetEngineVersions(engine string, parameterGroupFamily string) (
	[]types.DBEngineVersion, error) {
	output, err := instances.RdsClient.DescribeDBEngineVersions(context.TODO(),
		&rds.DescribeDBEngineVersionsInput{
			Engine:                 aws.String(engine),
			DBParameterGroupFamily: aws.String(parameterGroupFamily),
		})
	if err != nil {
		log.Printf("Couldn't get engine versions for %v: %v\n", engine, err)
		return nil, err
	} else {
		return output.DBEngineVersions, nil
	}
}

    public static void describeDBEngines(RdsClient rdsClient) {
        try {
            DescribeDbEngineVersionsRequest engineVersionsRequest = DescribeDbEngineVersionsRequest.builder()
                    .defaultOnly(true)
                    .engine("mysql")
                    .maxRecords(20)
                    .build();

            DescribeDbEngineVersionsResponse response = rdsClient.describeDBEngineVersions(engineVersionsRequest);
            List<DBEngineVersion> engines = response.dbEngineVersions();

            // Get all DBEngineVersion objects.
            for (DBEngineVersion engineOb : engines) {
                System.out.println("The name of the DB parameter group family for the database engine is "
                        + engineOb.dbParameterGroupFamily());
                System.out.println("The name of the database engine " + engineOb.engine());
                System.out.println("The version number of the database engine " + engineOb.engineVersion());
            }

        } catch (RdsException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
            System.exit(1);
        }
    }

class InstanceWrapper:
    """Encapsulates Amazon RDS DB instance actions."""

    def __init__(self, rds_client):
        """
        :param rds_client: A Boto3 Amazon RDS client.
        """
        self.rds_client = rds_client

    @classmethod
    def from_client(cls):
        """
        Instantiates this class from a Boto3 client.
        """
        rds_client = boto3.client("rds")
        return cls(rds_client)


    def get_engine_versions(self, engine, parameter_group_family=None):
        """
        Gets database engine versions that are available for the specified engine
        and parameter group family.

        :param engine: The database engine to look up.
        :param parameter_group_family: When specified, restricts the returned list of
                                       engine versions to those that are compatible with
                                       this parameter group family.
        :return: The list of database engine versions.
        """
        try:
            kwargs = {"Engine": engine}
            if parameter_group_family is not None:
                kwargs["DBParameterGroupFamily"] = parameter_group_family
            response = self.rds_client.describe_db_engine_versions(**kwargs)
            versions = response["DBEngineVersions"]
        except ClientError as err:
            logger.error(
                "Couldn't get engine versions for %s. Here's why: %s: %s",
                engine,
                err.response["Error"]["Code"],
                err.response["Error"]["Message"],
            )
            raise
        else:
            return versions