Best way to find os name and version in Unix/Linux platform

Question

I need to find the OS name and version on Unix/Linux platform. For this I tried following:

1. lsb_release utility

2. /etc/redhat-release or specific file

But it does not seem to be best solution as LSB_RELEASE support is no longer for RHEL 7.

Is there any way that will work on any Unix or Linux platform?

Solution 1

This work fine for all Linux environment.

#!/bin/sh
cat /etc/*-release

In Ubuntu:

$ cat /etc/*-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS"

or 12.04:

$ cat /etc/*-release

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="12.04.4 LTS, Precise Pangolin"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu precise (12.04.4 LTS)"
VERSION_ID="12.04"

In RHEL:

$ cat /etc/*-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.5 (Santiago)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.5 (Santiago)

Or Use this Script:

#!/bin/sh
# Detects which OS and if it is Linux then it will detect which Linux
# Distribution.

OS=`uname -s`
REV=`uname -r`
MACH=`uname -m`

GetVersionFromFile()
{
    VERSION=`cat $1 | tr "\n" ' ' | sed s/.*VERSION.*=\ // `
}

if [ "${OS}" = "SunOS" ] ; then
    OS=Solaris
    ARCH=`uname -p` 
    OSSTR="${OS} ${REV}(${ARCH} `uname -v`)"
elif [ "${OS}" = "AIX" ] ; then
    OSSTR="${OS} `oslevel` (`oslevel -r`)"
elif [ "${OS}" = "Linux" ] ; then
    KERNEL=`uname -r`
    if [ -f /etc/redhat-release ] ; then
        DIST='RedHat'
        PSUEDONAME=`cat /etc/redhat-release | sed s/.*\(// | sed s/\)//`
        REV=`cat /etc/redhat-release | sed s/.*release\ // | sed s/\ .*//`
    elif [ -f /etc/SuSE-release ] ; then
        DIST=`cat /etc/SuSE-release | tr "\n" ' '| sed s/VERSION.*//`
        REV=`cat /etc/SuSE-release | tr "\n" ' ' | sed s/.*=\ //`
    elif [ -f /etc/mandrake-release ] ; then
        DIST='Mandrake'
        PSUEDONAME=`cat /etc/mandrake-release | sed s/.*\(// | sed s/\)//`
        REV=`cat /etc/mandrake-release | sed s/.*release\ // | sed s/\ .*//`
    elif [ -f /etc/debian_version ] ; then
        DIST="Debian `cat /etc/debian_version`"
        REV=""

    fi
    if [ -f /etc/UnitedLinux-release ] ; then
        DIST="${DIST}[`cat /etc/UnitedLinux-release | tr "\n" ' ' | sed s/VERSION.*//`]"
    fi

    OSSTR="${OS} ${DIST} ${REV}(${PSUEDONAME} ${KERNEL} ${MACH})"

fi

echo ${OSSTR}

Solution 2

Following command worked out for me nicely. It gives you the OS name and version.

lsb_release -a

Solution 3

The "lsb_release" command provides certain Linux Standard Base and distribution-specific information. So using the below command we can get Operating system name and operating system version.

"lsb_release -a"

Solution 4

this command gives you a description of your operating system

cat /etc/os-release

Solution 5

In every distribute it has difference files so I write most common ones:

---- CentOS Linux distro
`cat /proc/version`
---- Debian Linux distro
`cat /etc/debian_version`
---- Redhat Linux distro
`cat /etc/redhat-release` 
---- Ubuntu Linux distro
`cat /etc/issue`   or   `cat /etc/lsb-release`

in last one /etc/issue didn't exist so I tried the second one and it returned the right answer

View more solutions

Comments

[Niraj Nandane]

yeah you are right but i dont want to read it from *-release file.

[Niraj Nandane]

i want some utility like lsb_realease

[Gilles Quenot]

Post edited accordingly. You have to install perl's module Linux::Distribution

[Gilles Quenot]

liblinux-distribution-perl package for debian & derivatives

[Gilles Quenot]

-1 : output on my archlinux is Linux 3.16.4-1-ARCH( 3.16.4-1-ARCH x86_64)

[Niraj Nandane]

The script is useful but for linux it is showing ==Linux RedHat version(Final 2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64 x86_64) .my redhat version is 6.5 but it is not showing in output ?

[kvivek]

I tested on RHEL6.3 It is showing output as Linux RedHat 6.3(Santiago 2.6.32-279.22.1.el6.x86_64 x86_64)

[kvivek]

What is the Output of this Command cat /etc/redhat-release | sed s/.*\(// | sed s/\)// in your RHEL 6.5

[Cocowalla]

While this gets information that may be useful, it doesn't answer the question (getting the OS name and version)

[Steve Amerige]

Note that [ -f /etc/redhat-release ] may not be sufficient. CentOS 7, for example, has symbolic links from /etc/redhat-release to /etc/centos-release. If one wishes to distinguish between Red Hat and CentOS, then idioms such as [ -f /etc/redhat-release ] && [ ! -h /etc/redhat-release ] could be used. Similarly with others.

[SamB]

What if it's not Linux, or not using systemd?