How to know which Linux Distribution I'm using?

Question

uname -a gives

Linux xxxxxx.net 2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.wh1smp #1 SMP Fri Aug 14 15:48:17 MDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

How can I know this is Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora or Redhat?

I uses /etc/init.d/serviced restart for restarting serevices, seems it is not Redhat family

[itf][~]$ cat /etc/issue
cat: /etc/issue: No such file or directory
[itf][~]$ cat /etc/issue.net
cat: /etc/issue.net: No such file or directory
[itf][~]$ lsb_release -a
-sh: lsb_release: command not found
[itf][~]$ cat /etc/*-release
cat: /etc/*-release: No such file or directory
[itf][~]$ cat /etc/*-version
cat: /etc/*-version: No such file or directory
[itf][~]$ cat /etc/*release
cat: /etc/*release: No such file or directory
[itf][~]$ cat /etc/*_release
cat: /etc/*_release: No such file or directory
[itf][~]$ cat /etc/*version
cat: /etc/*version: No such file or directory
[itf][~]$

If you want certain personal/confidential information to be removed, I think you can flag your question for moderator attention. Because we can still read it now... — Tamara Wijsman, Mar 09 '12 at 08:54
@Tom Wijsman just want not to display that text in questions page, I know that will be there in history :-) — Mithun Sreedharan, Mar 09 '12 at 09:18

score 38 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 09 '12 at 09:07

38

In Debian: /etc/debian_version
In Ubuntu: lsb_release -a or /etc/debian_version
In Redhat: cat /etc/redhat-release
In Fedora: cat /etc/fedora-release

edited Mar 09 '12 at 09:07

Tamara Wijsman

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answered Dec 08 '09 at 07:44

Caterpillar

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He tried all of them, see his source code. – guerda Dec 08 '09 at 08:07
2

+1, "lsb_release -a" worked for me on Red Hat. – Aaron Jul 13 '12 at 14:10
5

`lsb_release -a` worked in Debian (squeeze), too. – acme Mar 14 '13 at 15:23
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`lsb_release -a` works in Gentoo as well – Sergei Krivonos Mar 12 '14 at 12:37
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`lsb_release -a` works also in Ubuntu and Mint. – wranvaud Apr 06 '16 at 18:06
+1 `lsb_release -a` worked for me on boot2docker. – groverboy Oct 14 '16 at 04:54
`lsb_release -ds` gives you the description with no column formatting. Tested on Ubuntu/Debian. – 3manuek Jun 15 '18 at 17:41

score 33 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 21 '16 at 13:47

33

Keep it simple!

cat /etc/*release

answered Apr 21 '16 at 13:47

Travis van der Font

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score 15 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 08 '09 at 06:49

15

You might try this article from Novell.

If you are the owner of the system, then you know which Linux is installed and running. This article will help you to understand how to determine which Linux distribution is installed. You can incorporate this into your application to detect Linux distro.

answered Dec 08 '09 at 06:49

Marcin Gil

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I already tried $ cat /etc/*release cat: /etc/*release: No such file or directory Running the mensioned script gives a result simalr to uname -a command Linux 2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.wh1smp( 2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.wh1smp i686) $ uname -a Linux qsquare.net 2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.wh1smp #1 SMP Fri Aug 14 15:48:17 MDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux – Mithun Sreedharan Dec 08 '09 at 09:43
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`cat /etc/*release` seems to work for some of the mainstream distros. I verified with Ubuntu, Mint, Red Hat, and Gentoo. – Brent Bradburn Mar 15 '12 at 19:50
Debian does not recognize this – Milad Naseri Aug 25 '12 at 13:07
The Novell solution works, at last on my RedHat 5.3. I've integrated it in my free shell lib : https://github.com/Offirmo/offirmo-shell-lib – Offirmo Nov 21 '12 at 15:51
@nobar: It also works with SUSE distributions: `/etc/SuSE-release` http://pastebin.com/dL5gVLQe – bwDraco Sep 21 '13 at 22:43

Yogesh · Answer 4 · 2019-06-20T12:02:59.060

6

All systemd compliant systems will have /etc/os-release which should give you information related to distribution etc

NAME=Fedora
VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=17
PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;34"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17"
HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"

edited Jun 20 '19 at 12:02

answered Mar 22 '18 at 10:33

Yogesh

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score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 09 '12 at 11:23

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Try one of these:

ls -ld /etc/\*release\*  /etc/\*version\*

gcc --version

edited Mar 09 '12 at 11:23

slhck

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answered Mar 09 '12 at 10:25

ZaB

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Can I ask you why you are refusing to use markup for code? Please indent code by four spaces, that makes it so much easier to read and distinguish. Thank you. – slhck Mar 09 '12 at 11:23

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 22 '16 at 14:16

2

Use the Pre login message if it has not been edited cat /etc/issue

answered Mar 22 '16 at 14:16

tread

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 09 '10 at 18:51

Try http://legroom.net/2010/05/05/generic-method-determine-linux-or-unix-distribution-name.

A combination of techniques that combines querying the LSB utilities, distro release info files, and kernel info from uname. It'll take the most specific distro name it can find, falling back to generic Linux if necessary. It'll also identify UNIX variants as well, such as Solaris or AIX.

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

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Check out this hack, that peeks at functions defined in startup scripts.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

Community

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answered Jul 09 '10 at 18:08

Tobu

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 08 '09 at 08:34

Hmm, maybe its another distro - the .EL suffix seems to be used by centos, but that's a redhat dervative. I'm also wondering what's your package management system? It might help to check whose repos you use- since these are usually vendor supplied, and distro specific

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 15 '18 at 17:40

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An update here, now it is possible to use lsb_release -ds, so you can use it like linuxDistro=$(lsb_release -ds) with no extra parsing.

answered Jun 15 '18 at 17:40

3manuek

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 23 '19 at 19:01

0

The utilities neofetch and screenfetch both display your distribution name and version -- and they include some nice ASCII art. They might not be installed by default, however.

https://itsfoss.com/display-linux-logo-in-ascii

answered Sep 23 '19 at 19:01

Brent Bradburn

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 09 '10 at 18:40

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Based on the kernel version I'd say it's WBEL 4. They've been known to lag a bit with their updates, so it would probably be best to migrate to CentOS at your convenience.

answered Jul 09 '10 at 18:40

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Aug 18 '23 at 14:59

There are several ways to find out. Here are 5 easy ones (debian-based distros):

Using the lsb_release -a command. This command displays information about your distribution, including the name, version, description, and ID.

Using the cat /etc/os-release command. This command displays information about your operating system, including the distribution name, version, and ID.

Using the uname -a command. This command displays information about your kernel, including the kernel version.

Using the cat /proc/version command. This command displays information about your kernel, including the kernel version and build.

Using the hostnamectl command. This command displays information about your operating system, including the distribution name, version, and ID.

Check the Version of Your Linux Distribution

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered May 03 '15 at 00:11

0

Just putting the result into a var and in lowercase

OS=`awk -F= '/DISTRIB_ID/ {print tolower($2)}' /etc/lsb-release`

answered May 03 '15 at 00:11

SergioAraujo

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How to know which Linux Distribution I'm using?

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