Easy way to tell what linux distribution is installed

[Jyce]

    Well I would suggest TCP/IP OS fingerprinting ;)
    But that's not an easy way enough I think.

> On Sun, Jul 11, 2004 at 12:54:32PM -0400, Rik van Riel wrote:
> > If you restrict yourself to /proc, sure.
> >
> > However, a lot of distributions have /etc/<distro>-version
> > that can be used to detect what distro you're running on.
>
> The original poster wanted an easy answer.  I don't think there is one.
>
> I assume you meant /etc/<distro>-release since RHEL doesn't even have a
> <distro>-version file.
>
> [ewilts at pe400 ewilts]$ cat /etc/redhat-release
> Tao Linux release 1 (Mooch Update 2)
>
> [ewilts at pe400 ewilts]$ ls -l /etc/redhat-release
> lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           11 Jul  3 13:00
/etc/redhat-release -> tao-release
>
> Now you could make the assumption that if /etc/redhat-release exists,
> you're on a Red Hat Linux-based system of some kind, and depending on
> what you want the answer for, you could be close enough.  Your lawyers
> wouldn't be happy if people started saying that Tao Linux was Red Hat
> Linux.  If, on the other hand, a human searched for and typed out
> /etc/*-release (differentiating lsb-release from redhat-release) to see
> if a certain rpm might install, you could be ok.  Programatically, it's
> a lot harder.  You may get some of the major distributors, but you'll
> certainly miss a lot of the smaller ones.
>
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