-*- mode: outline; coding: utf-8; -*-

* uname -a

  $ 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 information.

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