Re: (OT) command for finding out which distribution of Linux is being used

I'm going to try and get this thread back on track, after all I'm sure there is somewhere else we can discuss if America is a country, continent, ship, band, or something else...

As mentioned in previous posts, you can check:
/etc/redhat-release
/etc/fedora-release
/etc/debian_version
/etc/slackware-version

to get the version for those distros. My question then is, Is it safe to say that /etc/*(-|_)release will have the distro version? (I haven't tested that regex yet so someone will hopefully correct me if I was wrong there).

The next question is, do you really need do know the distro? Isn't is better to test if some module or function exists, or check to see where some file location is? What are you trying to do?

Finally, I'm glad to see I'm not the only person still using RH9.

Comment on Re: (OT) command for finding out which distribution of Linux is being used

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Re^2: (OT) command for finding out which distribution of Linux is being used by jbert (Priest) on Dec 07, 2006 at 09:39 UTC
The file /etc/issue is intended to describe the system to the user at the login prompt (when not using these new-fangled X terminals). It can be altered by the sysadmin, but generally isn't. On Ubuntu Dapper it contains (by default): `Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS \n \l` [download] and I'd expect it to be populated on all/most other distros. Might be of use. And out of interest...why do you want this info? ;-)	[reply] [d/l]

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Re^2: (OT) command for finding out which distribution of Linux is being used
by jbert (Priest) on Dec 07, 2006 at 09:39 UTC

It can be altered by the sysadmin, but generally isn't.

On Ubuntu Dapper it contains (by default):

Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS \n \l
[download]

And out of interest...why do you want this info? ;-)

[reply]
[d/l]