In the Unix/Linux platform, what is the best way to find the OS name and version?

Problem

On the Unix/Linux platform, I need to find the OS name and version. I tried the following for this:

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

Is it possible to make this work on any Unix or Linux platform?

Asked by Niraj

Solution #1

This should work in any Linux system.

#!/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}

Answered by kvivek

Solution #2

Following instructions worked well for me. It displays the name and version of the operating system.

lsb_release -a

Answered by Dulith De Costa

Solution #3

The “lsb release” tool returns information on the Linux Standard Base and individual distributions. So, using the command below, we can acquire the name of the operating system and its version.

“lsb_release -a”

Answered by Nivetha Jaishankar

Solution #4

This command displays information about your operating system.

cat /etc/os-release

Answered by YakovGdl35

Solution #5

Every distribution has its own set of files, therefore I’ll list the most common ones here:

---- 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`

Because /etc/issue didn’t exist in the first one, I tried the second one, which gave me the correct answer.

Answered by Mary Jalalian

Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26988262/best-way-to-find-os-name-and-version-in-unix-linux-platform