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Display which distro is installed

Terminal - Display which distro is installed
cat /etc/issue
2009-02-03 09:59:24
User: root
Functions: cat
58
Up
Down
Display which distro is installed
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Alternatives

There is 1 alternative - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
cat /etc/*release
2010-05-26 11:58:34
User: dog
Functions: cat
8
Up
Down
Display which distro is installed

Works on nearly all linux distros

Comments (2) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
lsb_release -a
2010-05-26 10:42:52
User: maedox
2
Up
Down
Display which distro is installed

Works on Ubuntu

Show sample output | Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
lsb_release -a
2012-03-27 15:47:29
User: ShaneEaston
Tags: Ubuntu
-4
Up
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Check your running Ubuntu version
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test `uname` = Linux && lsb_release -a || ( test `uname` = SunOS && cat /etc/release || uname -rms )
2009-07-07 20:51:30
User: virtualshock
Functions: cat test uname
Tags: distribution version
-7
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Display which distro is installed

Found in comments section works on most Linux flavors.

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rpm -qf /etc/*-release
2010-03-01 01:24:07
User: megacoder
Functions: rpm
-10
Up
Down
Display which distro is installed

This should work on any RPM-based distribution. It's more reliable than trying to parse the content of the files.

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Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

Doesn't work with Gentoo

Comment by scottix 223 weeks ago

Is lsb_release a better command for this?

Comment by int19h 222 weeks and 4 days ago

ls /etc/*release

is better IMO, "issue" contais welcome message

Comment by unixmonkey1054 222 weeks and 4 days ago
ls /etc/*release

ls: /etc/*release: No such file or directory

cat /etc/issue

cat: /etc/issue: No such file or directory

uname -rms

FreeBSD 7.1-STABLE i386

uname works better

Comment by grep 222 weeks and 4 days ago

How about this one, does it work for everybody?

grep -qs "" /etc/lsb-release && lsb_release -a | grep -v n/a | grep -v none; uname -rms

Comment by int19h 222 weeks and 3 days ago

Checked it on Solaris, and noted that no such info was printed - it was a custom message set by the admin.

Comment by rommelsharma 222 weeks and 2 days ago

Hrm.. How about

test `uname` = Linux && lsb_release -a || ( test `uname` = SunOS && cat /etc/release || uname -rms )
Comment by mulad 222 weeks and 2 days ago

Here's a csh script I use to find the OS version. Works on various Linuxes and Mac OS X:

#!/bin/csh -f

if(-r /etc/fedora-release) then

cat /etc/fedora-release

else if(-r /etc/lsb-release) then

perl -ne 'if(/DESCRIPTION/) { s/.*="(.*)"/$1/; print; }' /etc/lsb-release

else if(-r /etc/debian_version) then

echo "Debian `cat /etc/debian_version`"

else if(-d /System/Library) then

set version_plist=System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist

foreach vol (/Volumes/*)

if(-r "$vol/$version_plist") then

set name=`defaults read "$vol/${version_plist:r}" ProductName`

set build=`defaults read "$vol/${version_plist:r}" ProductBuildVersion`

set version=`defaults read "$vol/${version_plist:r}" ProductUserVisibleVersion`

printf "%-16s %10s %-10s %10s\n" "${vol:t}" "$name" "$version" "(build $build)"

endif

end

else

uname -s -r

endif

Comment by rae 222 weeks and 1 day ago

rpm -qf /etc/*-release

Comment by megacoder 168 weeks and 5 days ago

This is the best alternative, but it's not bullet proof. /etc/issue can be any custom message provided by the administrator. While it might work on home machines, or small business servers, it's unlikely to give you anything useful in schools, government organizations, large corporate enterprises, etc.

Fact of the matter is, when you're using an operating system, for whatever purpose, you should know what it is long before you start using it.

FYI.

Comment by atoponce 156 weeks and 1 day ago

Your point of view

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