NAME

os-release, initrd-release, extension-release - Operating system identification

SYNOPSIS

/etc/os-release

/usr/lib/os-release

/etc/initrd-release

/usr/lib/extension-release.d/extension-release.IMAGE

DESCRIPTION

The /etc/os-release and /usr/lib/os-release files contain operating system identification data.

The format of os-release is a newline-separated list of environment-like shell-compatible variable assignments. It is possible to source the configuration from Bourne shell scripts, however, beyond mere variable assignments, no shell features are supported (this means variable expansion is explicitly not supported), allowing applications to read the file without implementing a shell compatible execution engine. Variable assignment values must be enclosed in double or single quotes if they include spaces, semicolons or other special characters outside of A–Z, a–z, 0–9. (Assignments that do not include these special characters may be enclosed in quotes too, but this is optional.) Shell special characters ("$", quotes, backslash, backtick) must be escaped with backslashes, following shell style. All strings should be in UTF-8 encoding, and non-printable characters should not be used. Concatenation of multiple individually quoted strings is not supported. Lines beginning with "#" are treated as comments. Blank lines are permitted and ignored.

The file /etc/os-release takes precedence over /usr/lib/os-release. Applications should check for the former, and exclusively use its data if it exists, and only fall back to /usr/lib/os-release if it is missing. Applications should not read data from both files at the same time. /usr/lib/os-release is the recommended place to store OS release information as part of vendor trees. /etc/os-release should be a relative symlink to /usr/lib/os-release, to provide compatibility with applications only looking at /etc/. A relative symlink instead of an absolute symlink is necessary to avoid breaking the link in a chroot or initrd environment such as dracut.

os-release contains data that is defined by the operating system vendor and should generally not be changed by the administrator.

As this file only encodes names and identifiers it should not be localized.

The /etc/os-release and /usr/lib/os-release files might be symlinks to other files, but it is important that the file is available from earliest boot on, and hence must be located on the root file system.

os-release must not contain repeating keys. Nevertheless, readers should pick the entries later in the file in case of repeats, similarly to how a shell sourcing the file would. A reader may warn about repeating entries.

For a longer rationale for os-release please refer to the Announcement of /etc/os-release[1].

OPTIONS

The following OS identifications parameters may be set using os-release:

EXAMPLES

Example 1. os-release file for Fedora Workstation

NAME=Fedora
VERSION="32 (Workstation Edition)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=32
PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 32 (Workstation Edition)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;38;2;60;110;180"
LOGO=fedora-logo-icon
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:32"
HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/f32/system-administrators-guide/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicating_and_getting_help"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=32
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=32
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy"
VARIANT="Workstation Edition"
VARIANT_ID=workstation

Example 2. extension-release file for an extension for Fedora Workstation 32

ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=32

Example 3. Reading os-release in sh(1)

#!/bin/sh -eu
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT-0
test -e /etc/os-release && os_release='/etc/os-release' || os_release='/usr/lib/os-release'
. "${os_release}"
echo "Running on ${PRETTY_NAME:-Linux}"
if [ "${ID:-linux}" = "debian" ] || [ "${ID_LIKE#*debian*}" != "${ID_LIKE}" ]; then


    echo "Looks like Debian!"
fi

Example 4. Reading os-release in python(1) (versions >= 3.10)

#!/usr/bin/python
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT-0
import platform
os_release = platform.freedesktop_os_release()
pretty_name = os_release.get('PRETTY_NAME', 'Linux')
print(f'Running on {pretty_name!r}')
if 'fedora' in [os_release.get('ID', 'linux'),


                *os_release.get('ID_LIKE', '').split()]:


    print('Looks like Fedora!')

See docs for platform.freedesktop_os_release[7] for more details.

Example 5. Reading os-release in python(1) (any version)

#!/usr/bin/python
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT-0
import ast
import re
import sys
def read_os_release():


    try:


        filename = '/etc/os-release'


        f = open(filename)


    except FileNotFoundError:


        filename = '/usr/lib/os-release'


        f = open(filename)


    for line_number, line in enumerate(f, start=1):


        line = line.rstrip()


        if not line or line.startswith('#'):


            continue


        m = re.match(r'([A-Z][A-Z_0-9]+)=(.*)', line)


        if m:


            name, val = m.groups()


            if val and val[0] in '"\'':


                val = ast.literal_eval(val)


            yield name, val


        else:


            print(f'{filename}:{line_number}: bad line {line!r}',


                  file=sys.stderr)
os_release = dict(read_os_release())
pretty_name = os_release.get('PRETTY_NAME', 'Linux')
print(f'Running on {pretty_name!r}')
if 'debian' in [os_release.get('ID', 'linux'),


                *os_release.get('ID_LIKE', '').split()]:


    print('Looks like Debian!')

Note that the above version that uses the built-in implementation is preferred in most cases, and the open-coded version here is provided for reference.

SEE ALSO

systemd(1), lsb_release(1), hostname(5), machine-id(5), machine-info(5)

NOTES

1.

Announcement of /etc/os-release

2.

initrd

3.

Portable Services Documentation

4.

Common Platform Enumeration Specification

5.

RFC3986 format

6.

freedesktop.org Icon Theme Specification

7.

platform.freedesktop_os_release