Background
If you need to determine which version of Linux you’re using you can use the command lsb_release. It’s part of the Linux Standards Base which is a specification that was created by the Linux Foundation.
Solution
Obviously there are other ways to do this, for example, on a Redhat based system you can look for the file /etc/redhat-release, for example:
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# /etc/redhat-release Fedora release 14 (Laughlin) |
But a more consistent way to do this across any Linux Distros that purport to be following the LSB spec, you can also use the command lsb_release. lsb_release takes a couple of command line switches, here are a few of the more common ones in use on my Fedora 14 system:
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## bare, no switches % lsb_release LSB Version::core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-ia32:core-4.0-noarch ## display release info % lsb_release -r Release:14 ## display release info + description % lsb_release -rd Description:Fedora release 14 (Laughlin) Release:14 ## display release info, description, and the distro's codename % lsb_release -rdc Description:Fedora release 14 (Laughlin) Release:14 Codename:Laughlin ## display everything % lsb_release -a LSB Version::core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-ia32:core-4.0-noarch Distributor ID:Fedora Description:Fedora release 14 (Laughlin) Release:14 Codename:Laughlin |
Here’s the same switches on my Ubuntu 10.10 system:
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% lsb_release No LSB modules are available. % lsb_release -r Release:10.10 % lsb_release -rd Description:Ubuntu 10.10 Release:10.10 % lsb_release -rdc Description:Ubuntu 10.10 Release:10.10 Codename:maverick % lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID:Ubuntu Description:Ubuntu 10.10 Release:10.10 Codename:maverick |
…and here they are on my Ubuntu 11.04 system:
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% lsb_release No LSB modules are available. % lsb_release -r Release:11.04 % lsb_release -rd Description:Ubuntu 11.04 Release:11.04 % lsb_release -rdc Description:Ubuntu 11.04 Release:11.04 Codename:natty % lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID:Ubuntu Description:Ubuntu 11.04 Release:11.04 Codename:natty |
Lsb_release is a nice improvement if you need to write scripts or installation scripts for a variety of Linux Distros.
References
NOTE: For further details regarding my one-liner blog posts, check out my one-liner style guide primer.
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