How do I identify the particular Linux flavor via command line?

Question

I'd like to be able to detect which particular Linux flavor is installed on a computer, e.g., Ubuntu vs. Fedora, via a command line command.

Some people recommend uname -a, but that only reports the kernel version.

Possible duplicate of Best way to find os name and version in Unix/Linux platform, How to discover what Linux distribution is in use, etc. — jww
– jww, Commented Oct 13, 2018 at 4:52

Kashyap · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-21 14:46:52Z

121

Try the below command.... It worked for me...

cat /proc/version

Once you know that you are running Red Hat for example, you can get to the point with:

cat /etc/redhat-release

Or on Debian:

cat /etc/debian_version

or in general :

cat /etc/*-release

Also you could use the following command

cat /etc/issue

edited Mar 21, 2023 at 14:46

Kashyap

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answered Jan 29, 2015 at 5:50

ramit girdhar

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2 Comments

Amol Suryawanshi Over a year ago

cat /etc/*-release is it work on all Linux flavours? like Cent OS, Ubuntu, Debian etc.

ramit girdhar Over a year ago

It should work ...but it doesn't then try other options that I have provided.

Rag Sagar · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-23 17:46:38Z

25

For displaying details including release and codename of the distro

lsb_release -a

answered Oct 23, 2012 at 17:46

Rag Sagar

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3 Comments

Astitva Srivastava Over a year ago

Doesn't work for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.6 (Maipo)

a2800276 Over a year ago

... or Arch Linux.

Nav Over a year ago

Does cat /etc/os-release work?

Nav · Accepted Answer · 2023-12-03 08:47:58Z

cat /etc/os-release is the command that worked for me. It displays information in the following format:

NAME="Linux Mint" VERSION="21.1 (Vera)" ID=linuxmint ID_LIKE="ubuntu debian" PRETTY_NAME="Linux Mint 21.1" VERSION_ID="21.1" HOME_URL="https://www.linuxmint.com/" SUPPORT_URL="https://forums.linuxmint.com/" BUG_REPORT_URL="http://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/" PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.linuxmint.com/" VERSION_CODENAME=vera UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy

As ddelange and Stuart mentioned in the comments, you can also use it like this:
source /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME
which outputs:
jammy
and source /etc/os-release && echo $ID_LIKE
which outputs:
ubuntu debian

a handy shorthand: source /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME
sourcing & echoing $ID_LIKE seems reliable for the flavour