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<refentry id="os-release">

<refentryinfo>

<title>os-release</title>

<productname>systemd</productname>

<authorgroup>

<author>

<contrib>Developer</contrib>

<firstname>Lennart</firstname>

<surname>Poettering</surname>

<email>lennart@poettering.net</email>

</author>

</authorgroup>

</refentryinfo>

<refmeta>

<refentrytitle>os-release</refentrytitle>

<manvolnum>5</manvolnum>

</refmeta>

<refnamediv>

<refname>os-release</refname>

<refpurpose>Operating system identification</refpurpose>

</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>

<para><filename>/etc/os-release</filename></para>

</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1>

<title>Description</title>

<para>The <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> file

contains operating system identification data.</para>

<para>The basic file format of

<filename>os-release</filename> 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.</para>

<para><filename>/etc/os-release</filename> contains

data that is defined by the operating system vendor

and should not be changed by the administrator.</para>

<para>As this file only encodes names and identifiers

it should not be localized.</para>

<para>The file <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> 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.</para>

<para>For a longer rationale for

<filename>/etc/os-release</filename> please refer to

the <ulink

url="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/os-release">Announcement of <filename>/etc/os-release</filename></ulink>.</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>

<title>Options</title>

<para>The following OS identifications parameters may be set using

<filename>/etc/os-release</filename>:</para>

<variablelist>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>NAME=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>A string identifying

the operating system, without a

version component, and suitable for

presentation to the user. If not set

defaults to

<literal>NAME=Linux</literal>. Example:

<literal>NAME=Fedora</literal> or

<literal>NAME="Debian

GNU/Linux"</literal>.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>VERSION=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>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:

<literal>VERSION=17</literal> or

<literal>VERSION="17 (Beefy

Miracle)"</literal>.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>ID=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>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

<literal>ID=linux</literal>. Example:

<literal>ID=fedora</literal> or

<literal>ID=debian</literal>.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>ID_LIKE=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>A space-separated list

of operating system identifiers in the

same syntax as the

<varname>ID=</varname> 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 <varname>ID=</varname> 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

<literal>ID=centos</literal> an

assignment of <literal>ID_LIKE="rhel

fedora"</literal> would be

appropriate. For an operating system

with <literal>ID=ubuntu</literal> an

assignment of

<literal>ID_LIKE=debian</literal> is

appropriate.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>VERSION_ID=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>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:

<literal>VERSION_ID=17</literal> or

<literal>VERSION_ID=11.04</literal>.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>PRETTY_NAME=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>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

<literal>PRETTY_NAME="Linux"</literal>. Example:

<literal>PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy

Miracle)"</literal>.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>ANSI_COLOR=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>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:

<literal>ANSI_COLOR="0;31"</literal>

for red, or

<literal>ANSI_COLOR="1;34"</literal>

for light blue.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>CPE_NAME=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>A CPE name for the

operating system, following the <ulink

url="http://cpe.mitre.org/specification/">Common

Platform Enumeration

Specification</ulink> as proposed by

the MITRE Corporation. This field

is optional. Example:

<literal>CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17"</literal>

</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><varname>HOME_URL=</varname></term>

<term><varname>SUPPORT_URL=</varname></term>

<term><varname>BUG_REPORT_URL=</varname></term>

<listitem><para>Links to resources on

the Internet related the operating

system. <varname>HOME_URL=</varname>

should refer to the homepage of the of

operating system, or alternatively

some homepage of the specific version

of the operating

system. <varname>SUPPORT_URL=</varname>

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. <varname>BUG_REPORT_URL=</varname>

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"

resp. "Report a Bug". The values should

be in <ulink

url="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986">RFC3986

format</ulink>, and should be

<literal>http:</literal> or

<literal>https:</literal> URLs, and

possibly <literal>mailto:</literal> or

<literal>tel:</literal>. 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:

<literal>HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"</literal>

and

<literal>BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"</literal></para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

</variablelist>

<para>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.</para>

<para>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.</para>

<para>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:

<literal>DEBIAN_BTS="debbugs://bugs.debian.org/"</literal></para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>

<title>Example</title>

<programlisting>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/"</programlisting>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>

<title>See Also</title>

<para>

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>lsb_release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>hostname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-info</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>

</para>

</refsect1>

</refentry>