.. -*- coding: utf-8; -*-

================

 Detect OS info

================

.. contents::

   :local:

uname

=====

::

  $ uname -a

  Linux poly.tech-recipes.com 2.6.5-1.358 #1 Sat May 8 09:04:50 EDT 2004 i686 i686 i386

  GNU/Linux

    kernel name:     Linux

    hostname:        poly.tech-recipes.com

    kernel release:  2.6.5-1.358

    kernel version:  #1 Sat May 8 09:04:50 EDT 2004

Linux version files

===================

See for file ``/etc/<distroname>-version`` or ``/etc/<distroname>-release``::

  $ cat determine-os.sh

    #!/bin/sh

    [ -e /etc/SuSE-release ] && echo This is a SuSE system.

    [ -e /etc/redhat-release ] && echo This is a redhat system.

    [ -e /etc/fedora-release ] && echo This is a fedora system.

    [ -e /etc/debian-version ] && echo This is a debian system.

    [ -e /etc/slackware-version ] && echo This is a slackware system.

See also list:

Novell SuSE

  ``/etc/SuSE-release``

Red Hat

  ``/etc/redhat-release``, ``/etc/redhat_version``

Fedora

  ``/etc/fedora-release``

Slackware

  ``/etc/slackware-release``, ``/etc/slackware-version``

Debian

  ``/etc/debian_release``, ``/etc/debian_version``,

Mandrake

  ``/etc/mandrake-release``

Yellow dog

  ``/etc/yellowdog-release``

Sun JDS

  ``/etc/sun-release``

Solaris/Sparc

  ``/etc/release``

Gentoo

  ``/etc/gentoo-release``

Kernel version info

===================

Commonly, distributions will leave tags in the kernel version string to identify

themselves. This can be found in the log files like ``/var/log/syslog`` or

``/var/log/messages``::

  $ cat /etc/issue

or::

  $ cat /proc/version

Even if you run a custom kernel, you might still get hints from the gcc version

like this one line from ``/var/log/syslog``::

  Feb 20 05:54:07 sarge kernel: nf3 (root@sarge) (gcc version 3.4.4 20050314 (prerelease)

  (Debian 3.4.3-13sarge1)) #1 PREEMPT Thu Nov 16 20:31:43 CET 2006

'lsb_release' command

=====================

::

  $ sudo apt-get install lsb-release

  $ lsb_release -s -i

  Debian

  $ lsb_release -s -c

  squeeze

  $ lsb_release -s -r

  6.0