NAME

os-release, initrd-release - Operating system identification

SYNOPSIS

/etc/os-release

/lib/os-release

/usr/lib/os-release

/etc/initrd-release

DESCRIPTION

The /etc/os-release and /lib/os-release files contain 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 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. Shell special characters ("$", quotes, backslash, backtick) must be escaped with backslashes, following shell style. All strings should be in UTF-8 format, and non-printable characters should not be used. It is not supported to concatenate multiple individually quoted strings. Lines beginning with "#" shall be ignored as comments. Blank lines are permitted and ignored.

The file /etc/os-release takes precedence over /lib/os-release. Applications should check for the former, and exclusively use its data if it exists, and only fall back to /lib/os-release if it is missing. Applications should not read data from both files at the same time. /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 /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 /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.

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. Reading os-release in sh(1)

#!/bin/sh -eu
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 3. Reading os-release in python(1) (versions >= 3.10)

#!/usr/bin/python
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC0-1.0
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[6] for more details.

Example 4. Reading os-release in python(1) (any version)

#!/usr/bin/python
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):


        line = line.rstrip()


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


            continue


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


            name, val = m.groups()


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


                val = ast.literal_eval(val)


            yield name, val


        else:


            print(f'{filename}:{line_number + 1}: 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.

Common Platform Enumeration Specification

4.

RFC3986 format

5.

freedesktop.org Icon Theme Specification

6.

platform.freedesktop_os_release