How do I get distro-info

English Programming/Scripting
#1

Are there some command line tool that shows distro and version of distro?

I would like to

#!/whatever shell 
if (opensuse)
  # stuff
elseif (ubuntu)
  # other stuff
endif
#2

Well why use commandline when both Ubuntu and openSUSE offer a gui to identify the version?

#3 
cat /etc/SuSE-release

will display you the architecture and the version.

#4 
smweb@boven:~> cat /etc/SuSE-release
openSUSE 10.3 (i586)
VERSION = 10.3
smweb@boven:~>
#5

And how is he suposed to use that information in the rest of his script?

#6

I tried to illustrate that with my psedo code block.
Depending on distro I would like different things to execute.

#7

Thanks. That solves the suse part. But I would like a more generic solution, telling which distro it is too. suse or ubuntu or …

More ideas, please.

#8

Not sure there is a more generic though neither am I sure you can just rely on this. cat /etc/*-release really should work but what if for some reason it is empty? Any way this has some and has a few suggestions at some wildcards that may catch most.

release-files

#9

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

If the aforementioned file exists, then SUSE. If not, then test for
something Ubuntu-specific. What that is, though, is probably something to
be found in an Ubuntu forum. A quick Google search as follows:

ubuntu version command line

turned up several hits that answered the question (cat /etc/issue) which
also works on my SUSE box so maybe that is a better distribution-agnostic
way to get which distro you are on.

Good luck.

freefox wrote:
> Thanks. That solves the suse part. But I would like a more generic
> solution, telling which distro it is too. suse or ubuntu or …
>
> More ideas, please.
>
>
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#10

Hi
Use the lsb_release command eg in my sig I use;


MYSYSTEM=`lsb_release -sd |cut -f2 -d ""\"`

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.37-0.1-default
up 3 days 9:12, 2 users, load average: 0.03, 0.09, 0.05
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.18

#11

That was perfectly clear to most of us.

About the ‘generic’ solution. As there is almost no standard, there may be no ‘generic’ solution. A test on existence of e.g. /etc/SuSE-release and likewise for every taste you know about might be needed. I do know that (at least some years ago) there was /etc/redhat-release. Which shows that upper/lower case is also not handled the same by everyone.

The* lsb_release* (see man page) seems to follow the LSB and as such is likely to be more widely available.

When your ‘generic’ also involves Unix tastes, a test on *uname -s *will give you a first triage.

#12

On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:56:01 +0000, TaraIkeda wrote:

> Well why use commandline when both Ubuntu and openSUSE offer a gui to
> identify the version?

Probably because the OP’s writing a script and GUIs are notoriously bad
for inclusions in scripts used to automate things. :wink:

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Moderator

#13

On Fri, 2009-11-06 at 09:36 +0000, freefox wrote:
> Are there some command line tool that shows distro and version of
> distro?
>
> I would like to
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> #!/whatever shell
> if (opensuse)
> # stuff
> elseif (ubuntu)
> # other stuff
> endif
> --------------------
>
>


vers=`cat /etc/*elease`
if echo "$vers" | grep 'openSUSE' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
ostype="OpenSUSE"
elif echo "$vers" | grep 'SUSE' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
ostype="SUSE"
elif echo "$vers" | grep 'Red Hat' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
ostype="Red-Hat"
elif echo "$vers" | grep 'Fedora' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
ostype="Fedora"
elif echo "$vers" | grep 'Ubuntu' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
ostype="Ubuntu"
elif echo "$vers" | grep 'CentOS' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
ostype="CentOS"
fi
#14

I like

grep -i 'openSUSE';

instead of

grep 'openSUSE' >/dev/null 2>&1;

And you could make it into a loop

for string in 'openSUSE' 'SUSE' ...
do
done

Easy to expand with a new distribution then.

#15 
dmesg | grep -i "linux version"

Plus a bit more parsing…

#16

For those thinking I am talking nuts here, they are correct.
I wanted to use the -q option to avoid any output and thus avoid to redirect it to /dev/null

grep -q

leaves you with the return code only and that is what we want here.

#17

Thanks a lot to all of you.
Now I’ve got what I need.

/freefox

#18

kernelcruncher@openSUSE-11:~> cat /etc/SuSE-release
openSUSE 11.2 (i586)
VERSION = 11.2
kernelcruncher@openSUSE-11:~>;)