Ubuntu Manpage: os-release - Operating system identification

Provided by: systemd_204-5ubuntu20.31_amd64

NAME

       os-release - Operating system identification

SYNOPSIS

       /etc/os-release

DESCRIPTION

The /etc/os-release file contains operating system identification data.

The basic file format of os-release is a newline-separated list of environment-like
shell-compatible variable assignments. It is possible to source the configuration from
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 should be enclosed in double or single quotes if they include spaces, semicolons or
other special characters outside of A-Z, a-z, 0-9. All strings should be in UTF-8 format,
and non-printable characters should not be used. If double or single quotes or backslashes
are to be used within variable assignments they should be escaped with backslashes,
following shell style. It is not supported to concatenate multiple individually quoted
strings. Lines beginning with "#" shall be ignored as comments.

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

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

The file /etc/os-release might be a symlink to another file, but it is important that the
file is available from earliest boot on, and hence must be located on the root file
system.

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

OPTIONS

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

NAME=
A string identifying the operating system, without a version component, and suitable
for presentation to the user. If not set defaults to NAME=Linux. Example: NAME=Fedora
or NAME="Debian GNU/Linux".

VERSION=
A string identifying the operating system version, excluding any OS name information,
possibly including a release code name, and suitable for presentation to the user.
This field is optional. Example: VERSION=17 or VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)".

ID=
A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of 0-9, a-z, ".", "_" and
"-") identifying the operating system, excluding any version information and suitable
for processing by scripts or usage in generated file names. If not set defaults to
ID=linux. Example: ID=fedora or ID=debian.

ID_LIKE=
A space-separated list of operating system identifiers in the same syntax as the ID=
setting. Should list identifiers of operating systems that are closely related to the
local operating system in regards to packaging and programming interfaces, for example
listing one or more OS identifiers the local OS is a derivative from. An OS should
generally only list other OS identifiers it itself is a derivative from, and not any
OSes that are derived from it, but symmetric relationships are possible. Build scripts
and similar should check this variable if they need to identify the local operating
system and the value of ID= is not recognized. Operating systems should be listed in
order of how closely the local operating system relates to the listed ones, starting
with the closest. This field is optional. Example: for an operating system with
ID=centos an assignment of ID_LIKE="rhel fedora" would be appropriate. For an
operating system with ID=ubuntu an assignment of ID_LIKE=debian is appropriate.

VERSION_ID=
A lower-case string (mostly numeric, no spaces or other characters outside of 0-9,
a-z, ".", "_" and "-") identifying the operating system version, excluding any OS name
information or release code name, and suitable for processing by scripts or usage in
generated file names. This field is optional. Example: VERSION_ID=17 or
VERSION_ID=11.04.

PRETTY_NAME=
A pretty operating system name in a format suitable for presentation to the user. May
or may not contain a release code name or OS version of some kind, as suitable. If not
set defaults to PRETTY_NAME="Linux". Example: PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle)".

ANSI_COLOR=
A suggested presentation color when showing the OS name on the console. This should be
specified as string suitable for inclusion in the ESC [ m ANSI/ECMA-48 escape code for
setting graphical rendition. This field is optional. Example: ANSI_COLOR="0;31" for
red, or ANSI_COLOR="1;34" for light blue.

CPE_NAME=
A CPE name for the operating system, following the Common Platform Enumeration
Specification[2] as proposed by the MITRE Corporation. This field is optional.
Example: CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17"

HOME_URL=, SUPPORT_URL=, BUG_REPORT_URL=
Links to resources on the Internet related the operating system. HOME_URL= should
refer to the homepage of the operating system, or alternatively some homepage of the
specific version of the operating system. SUPPORT_URL= should refer to the main
support page for the operating system, if there is any. This is primarily intended for
operating systems which vendors provide support for. BUG_REPORT_URL= should refer to
the main bug reporting page for the operating system, if there is any. This is
primarily intended for operating systems that rely on community QA. These settings are
optional, and providing only some of these settings is common. These URLs are intended
to be exposed in "About this system" UIs behind links with captions such as "About
this Operating System", "Obtain Support", and "Report a Bug". The values should be in
RFC3986 format[3], and should be http: or https: URLs, and possibly mailto: or tel:.
Only one URL shall be listed in each setting. If multiple resources need to be
referenced it is recommended to provide an online landing page linking all available
resources. Examples: HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/" and
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"

BUILD_ID=
A string uniquely identifying the system image used as the origin for a distribution
(it is not updated with system updates). The field can be identical between different
VERSION_IDs as BUILD_ID is an only a unique identifier to a specific version.
Distributions that release each update as a new version would only need to use
VERSION_ID as each build is already distinct based on the VERSION_ID. This field is
optional. Example: BUILD_ID="2013-03-20.3" or BUILD_ID=201303203.

If you are reading this file from C code or a shell script to determine the OS or a
specific version of it, use the ID and VERSION_ID fields, possibly with ID_LIKE as
fallback for ID. When looking for an OS identification string for presentation to the user
use the PRETTY_NAME field.

Note that operating system vendors may choose not to provide version information, for
example to accommodate for rolling releases. In this case VERSION and VERSION_ID may be
unset. Applications should not rely on these fields to be set.

Operating system vendors may extend the file format and introduce new fields. It is highly
recommended to prefix new fields with an OS specific name in order to avoid name clashes.
Applications reading this file must ignore unknown fields. Example:
DEBIAN_BTS="debbugs://bugs.debian.org/"

EXAMPLE

           NAME=Fedora
           VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)"
           ID=fedora
           VERSION_ID=17
           PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle)"
           ANSI_COLOR="0;34"
           CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17"
           HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"
           BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"

NOTES