Detecting Linux distribution name and version
Just execute lsb_release -a.
On Debian:
$ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Debian Description: Debian GNU/Linux testing (stretch) Release: testing Codename: stretch
On Ubuntu:
$ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS Release: 14.04 Codename: trusty
In case when you don’t have lsb_release installed you may want to try some guessing, for example, there is a file
/etc/issue that often contains distribution name. For example, on ubuntu:
$ cat /etc/issue Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS \n \l
Don’t use file /etc/debian_version because its contents do not match distribution name!
Detect what systemd-based distribution you are using
This method will work on modern versions of Arch, CentOS, CoreOS, Debian, Fedora, Mageia, openSUSE, Red Hat
Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Ubuntu, and others. This wide applicability makes it an ideal as a
first approach, with fallback to other methods if you need to also identify older systems.
Look at /etc/os-release. In specific, look at variables NAME, VERSION, ID, VERSION_ID, and PRETTY_NAME.
On Fedora, this file might look like:
NAME=Fedora VERSION="24 (Workstation Edition)" ID=fedora VERSION_ID=24 PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 24 (Workstation Edition)" ANSI_COLOR="0;34 CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:24" HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/" BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/" REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Fedora" REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=24 REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Fedora" REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=24 PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy VARIANT="Workstation Edition" VARIANT_ID=workstation
On CentOS, this file might look like this:
NAME="CentOS Linux" VERSION="7 (Core)" ID="centos" ID_LIKE="rhel fedora" VERSION_ID="7" PRETTY_NAME="CentOS Linux 7 (Core)" ANSI_COLOR="0;31" CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:centos:centos:7" HOME_URL="https://www.centos.org/" BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.centos.org/" CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT="CentOS-7" CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT_VERSION="7" REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="centos" REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="7"
This file is documented on the freedesktop web site; in principle, it is not systemd specific — but it will exist on all
systemd-based distributions.
From the bash shell, one can source the /etc/os-release file and then use the various variables directly, like this:
$ ( source /etc/os-release && echo "$PRETTY_NAME" ) Fedora 24 (Workstation Edition)
Detect what RHEL / CentOS / Fedora distribution you are working in
Look at the contents of /etc/redhat-release
cat /etc/redhat-release
Here is the output from a Fedora 24 machine: Fedora release 24 (Twenty Four)
As mentioned in the debian-based response, you can also use the lsb_release -a command, which outputs this
from a Fedora 24 machine:
LSB Version: :core-4.1-amd64:core-4.1-noarch:cxx-4.1-amd64:cxx-4.1-noarch:desktop-4.1- amd64:desktop-4.1-noarch:languages-4.1-amd64:languages-4.1-noarch:printing-4.1-amd64:printing-4.1- noarch Distributor ID: Fedora Description: Fedora release 24 (Twenty Four) Release: 24 Codename: TwentyFour
Uname – Print information about the current System
Uname is the short name for unix name. Just type uname in console to get information about your operating system.
uname [OPTION]
If no OPTION is specified, uname assumes the -s option.
-a or –all – Prints all information, omitting -p and -i if the information is unknown.
Example:
> uname -a SunOS hope 5.7 Generic_106541-08 sun4m sparc SUNW,SPARCstation-10
All the options:
-s, --kernel-name Print the kernel name. -n, --nodename Print the network node hostname. -r, --kernel-release Print the kernel release. -v, --kernel-version Print the kernel version. -m, --machine Print the machine hardware name. -p, --processor Print the processor type, or "unknown". -i, --hardware-platform Print the hardware platform, or "unknown". -o, --operating-system Print the operating system. --help Display a help message, and exit. --version Display version information, and exit.
Detect basic information about your distro
just execute uname -a.
On Arch:
$ uname -a Linux nokia 4.6.4-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Jul 11 19:12:32 CEST 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linuxenter code here
Using GNU coreutils
So the GNU coreutils should be avaialable on all linux based systems (please correct me if I am wrong here).
If you do not know what system you are using you may not be able to directly jump to one of the examples above,
hence this may be your first port of call.
$ uname -a
On my system this gives me the following…
Linux Scibearspace 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-2+deb8u3 (2016-07-02) x86_64
Find your linux os (both debian & rpm) name and release number
Most of linux distros stores its version info in the /etc/lsb-release (debian) or /etc/redhat-release (RPM based) file. Using below generic command should get you past most of the Debian and RPM derivatives as Linux Mint and Cent-Os.
Example on Ubuntu Machine:
cat /etc/*release DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04 LTS"
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