--- /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
+