--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/determine-os.rst	Mon Feb 22 12:46:36 2016 +0200
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+.. -*- coding: utf-8; -*-
+.. include:: HEADER.rst
+
+================
+ 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
+