How do I identify which Linux distro is running?

A question very close to this one was posted on Unix.Stackexchange HERE Giles has a pretty complete | cool answer for the ways he describes.

# cat /proc/version

Linux version 2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64 ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.4.4 20100726 (Red Hat 4.4.4-13) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Fri May 20 03:51:51 BST 2011  

# uname -a

Linux system1.doofus.local 2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri May 20 03:51:51 BST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
# cat /etc/issue

CentOS Linux release 6.0 (Final)
Kernel \r on an \m

cat /proc/config.gz cat /usr/src/linux/config.gz cat /boot/config*

Though I did some checking and this was not very reliable except on SUSE.

# zcat /proc/config.gz | grep -i kernel
CONFIG_SUSE_KERNEL=y
# CONFIG_KERNEL_DESKTOP is not set
CONFIG_LOCK_KERNEL=y

Release Files in /etc (from Unix.com)

  • Novell SuSE---> /etc/SuSE-release
  • Red Hat--->/etc/redhat-release, /etc/redhat_version
  • Fedora-->/etc/fedora-release
  • Slackware--->/etc/slackware-release, /etc/slackware-version
  • Old Debian--->/etc/debian_release, /etc/debian_version
  • New Debian--->/etc/os-release
  • Mandrake--->/etc/mandrake-release
  • Yellow dog-->/etc/yellowdog-release
  • Sun JDS--->/etc/sun-release
  • Solaris/Sparc--->/etc/release
  • Gentoo--->/etc/gentoo-release

There is also a bash script at the Unix.com link someone wrote to automate checking.

Figuring out what package manager you have is a good clue.

rpm yum apt-get zypper +many more

Though this is by no means foolproof as the vendor could use anything they want. It really just gives you a place to start.

# dmesg | less

Linux version 2.6.32.12-0.7-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.3.4 [gcc-4_3-branch revision 152973] (SUSE Linux) ) #1 SMP 2010-05-20 11:14:20 +0200

pretty much the same information as cat /proc/version & uname


You'll want to use:

$ cat /etc/*-release

You'll get a response similar to this:

$ cat /etc/*-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=11.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=oneiric
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 11.10"

As a first guess, try lsb_release -a. E.g. on an Arch Linux system it gives

LSB Version: n/a
Distributor ID: archlinux
Description: Arch Linux
Release: rolling
Codename: n/a

However, this might fail, then you will have to poke around /etc (most likely it is inside a file whose name ends with -release). Also cat /etc/issue might help.

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