1OS-RELEASE(5) os-release OS-RELEASE(5)
2
6 os-release - Operating system identification
7
9 /etc/os-release
10 /usr/lib/os-release
12
14 The /etc/os-release and /usr/lib/os-release files contain operating
15 system identification data.
16 The basic file format of os-release is a newline-separated list of
18 environment-like shell-compatible variable assignments. It is possible
19 to source the configuration from shell scripts, however, beyond mere
20 variable assignments, no shell features are supported (this means
21 variable expansion is explicitly not supported), allowing applications
22 to read the file without implementing a shell compatible execution
23 engine. Variable assignment values must be enclosed in double or single
24 quotes if they include spaces, semicolons or other special characters
25 outside of A-Z, a-z, 0-9. Shell special characters ("$", quotes,
26 backslash, backtick) must be escaped with backslashes, following shell
27 style. All strings should be in UTF-8 format, and non-printable
28 characters should not be used. It is not supported to concatenate
29 multiple individually quoted strings. Lines beginning with "#" shall be
30 ignored as comments.
31 The file /etc/os-release takes precedence over /usr/lib/os-release.
33 Applications should check for the former, and exclusively use its data
34 if it exists, and only fall back to /usr/lib/os-release if it is
35 missing. Applications should not read data from both files at the same
36 time. /usr/lib/os-release is the recommended place to store OS release
37 information as part of vendor trees. /etc/os-release should be a
38 relative symlink to /usr/lib/os-release, to provide compatibility with
39 applications only looking at /etc. A relative symlink instead of an
40 absolute symlink is necessary to avoid breaking the link in a chroot or
41 initrd environment such as dracut.
42 os-release contains data that is defined by the operating system vendor
44 and should generally not be changed by the administrator.
45 As this file only encodes names and identifiers it should not be
47 localized.
48 The /etc/os-release and /usr/lib/os-release files might be symlinks to
50 other files, but it is important that the file is available from
51 earliest boot on, and hence must be located on the root file system.
52 For a longer rationale for os-release please refer to the Announcement
54 of /etc/os-release[1].
55
57 The following OS identifications parameters may be set using
58 os-release:
59 NAME=
61 A string identifying the operating system, without a version
62 component, and suitable for presentation to the user. If not set,
63 defaults to "NAME=Linux". Example: "NAME=Fedora" or "NAME="Debian
64 GNU/Linux"".
65 VERSION=
67 A string identifying the operating system version, excluding any OS
68 name information, possibly including a release code name, and
69 suitable for presentation to the user. This field is optional.
70 Example: "VERSION=17" or "VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)"".
71 ID=
73 A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of 0-9,
74 a-z, ".", "_" and "-") identifying the operating system, excluding
75 any version information and suitable for processing by scripts or
76 usage in generated filenames. If not set, defaults to "ID=linux".
77 Example: "ID=fedora" or "ID=debian".
78 ID_LIKE=
80 A space-separated list of operating system identifiers in the same
81 syntax as the ID= setting. It should list identifiers of operating
82 systems that are closely related to the local operating system in
83 regards to packaging and programming interfaces, for example
84 listing one or more OS identifiers the local OS is a derivative
85 from. An OS should generally only list other OS identifiers it
86 itself is a derivative of, and not any OSes that are derived from
87 it, though symmetric relationships are possible. Build scripts and
88 similar should check this variable if they need to identify the
89 local operating system and the value of ID= is not recognized.
90 Operating systems should be listed in order of how closely the
91 local operating system relates to the listed ones, starting with
92 the closest. This field is optional. Example: for an operating
93 system with "ID=centos", an assignment of "ID_LIKE="rhel fedora""
94 would be appropriate. For an operating system with "ID=ubuntu", an
95 assignment of "ID_LIKE=debian" is appropriate.
96 VERSION_ID=
98 A lower-case string (mostly numeric, no spaces or other characters
99 outside of 0-9, a-z, ".", "_" and "-") identifying the operating
100 system version, excluding any OS name information or release code
101 name, and suitable for processing by scripts or usage in generated
102 filenames. This field is optional. Example: "VERSION_ID=17" or
103 "VERSION_ID=11.04".
104 PRETTY_NAME=
106 A pretty operating system name in a format suitable for
107 presentation to the user. May or may not contain a release code
108 name or OS version of some kind, as suitable. If not set, defaults
109 to "PRETTY_NAME="Linux"". Example: "PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy
110 Miracle)"".
111 ANSI_COLOR=
113 A suggested presentation color when showing the OS name on the
114 console. This should be specified as string suitable for inclusion
115 in the ESC [ m ANSI/ECMA-48 escape code for setting graphical
116 rendition. This field is optional. Example: "ANSI_COLOR="0;31"" for
117 red, or "ANSI_COLOR="1;34"" for light blue.
118 CPE_NAME=
120 A CPE name for the operating system, following the Common Platform
121 Enumeration Specification[2] as proposed by the MITRE Corporation.
122 This field is optional. Example:
123 "CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17""
124 HOME_URL=, SUPPORT_URL=, BUG_REPORT_URL=, PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=
126 Links to resources on the Internet related the operating system.
127 HOME_URL= should refer to the homepage of the operating system, or
128 alternatively some homepage of the specific version of the
129 operating system. SUPPORT_URL= should refer to the main support
130 page for the operating system, if there is any. This is primarily
131 intended for operating systems which vendors provide support for.
132 BUG_REPORT_URL= should refer to the main bug reporting page for the
133 operating system, if there is any. This is primarily intended for
134 operating systems that rely on community QA. PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=
135 should refer to the main privacy policy page for the operation
136 system, if there is any. These settings are optional, and providing
137 only some of these settings is common. These URLs are intended to
138 be exposed in "About this system" UIs behind links with captions
139 such as "About this Operating System", "Obtain Support", "Report a
140 Bug", or "Privacy Policy". The values should be in RFC3986
141 format[3], and should be "http:" or "https:" URLs, and possibly
142 "mailto:" or "tel:". Only one URL shall be listed in each setting.
143 If multiple resources need to be referenced, it is recommended to
144 provide an online landing page linking all available resources.
145 Examples: "HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"" and
146 "BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/""
147 BUILD_ID=
149 A string uniquely identifying the system image used as the origin
150 for a distribution (it is not updated with system updates). The
151 field can be identical between different VERSION_IDs as BUILD_ID is
152 an only a unique identifier to a specific version. Distributions
153 that release each update as a new version would only need to use
154 VERSION_ID as each build is already distinct based on the
155 VERSION_ID. This field is optional. Example:
156 "BUILD_ID="2013-03-20.3"" or "BUILD_ID=201303203".
157 VARIANT=
159 A string identifying a specific variant or edition of the operating
160 system suitable for presentation to the user. This field may be
161 used to inform the user that the configuration of this system is
162 subject to a specific divergent set of rules or default
163 configuration settings. This field is optional and may not be
164 implemented on all systems. Examples: "VARIANT="Server Edition"",
165 "VARIANT="Smart Refrigerator Edition"" Note: this field is for
166 display purposes only. The VARIANT_ID field should be used for
167 making programmatic decisions.
168 VARIANT_ID=
170 A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of 0-9,
171 a-z, ".", "_" and "-"), identifying a specific variant or edition
172 of the operating system. This may be interpreted by other packages
173 in order to determine a divergent default configuration. This field
174 is optional and may not be implemented on all systems. Examples:
175 "VARIANT_ID=server", "VARIANT_ID=embedded"
176 If you are reading this file from C code or a shell script to determine
178 the OS or a specific version of it, use the ID and VERSION_ID fields,
179 possibly with ID_LIKE as fallback for ID. When looking for an OS
180 identification string for presentation to the user use the PRETTY_NAME
181 field.
182 Note that operating system vendors may choose not to provide version
184 information, for example to accommodate for rolling releases. In this
185 case, VERSION and VERSION_ID may be unset. Applications should not rely
186 on these fields to be set.
187 Operating system vendors may extend the file format and introduce new
189 fields. It is highly recommended to prefix new fields with an OS
190 specific name in order to avoid name clashes. Applications reading this
191 file must ignore unknown fields. Example:
192 "DEBIAN_BTS="debbugs://bugs.debian.org/""
193
195 NAME=Fedora
196 VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)"
197 ID=fedora
198 VERSION_ID=17
199 PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle)"
200 ANSI_COLOR="0;34"
201 CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17"
202 HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"
203 BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
204
206 systemd(1), lsb_release(1), hostname(5), machine-id(5), machine-info(5)
207
209 1. Announcement of /etc/os-release
210 http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/os-release
211 2. Common Platform Enumeration Specification
213 https://cpe.mitre.org/specification/
214 3. RFC3986 format
216 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986
217systemd 219 OS-RELEASE(5)