Answers to: How can I programatically determine the Linux distribution?

Answer by amcohen

amcohen — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 04:03:34 -0400

Here's a skeletan of a Korn/Bash function to do it:

function get_distro { if [[ -r /etc/redhat-relase ]]; then set -- $(cat /etc/redhat-relase) case $1 in Red) echo Redhat;; Fedora) echo Fedora;; CentOS) echo CentOS;; *) echo ??? esac elif [[ -r /etc/debian_version ]]; then echo Debian else echo UNKNOWN fi }

Answer by Jazz

Jazz — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:04:20 -0400

Here's one. You could enhance this script by first using the other ways of finding out which distribution is running before using uname. A combination of those commands should do the trick for any distribution.

Answer by DMon

DMon — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:05:34 -0400

Not sure what all you want it to show.

$ lsb_release -is

will give you just the Distribution