man/os-release.5

   1 '\" t
   2 .TH "OS\-RELEASE" "5" "" "systemd 218" "os-release"
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   7 .\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
   8 .\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
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  20 .\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
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  22 .SH "NAME"
  23 os-release \- Operating system identification
  24 .SH "SYNOPSIS"
  25 .PP
  26 /etc/os\-release
  27 .PP
  28 /usr/lib/os\-release
  29 .SH "DESCRIPTION"
  30 .PP
  31 The
  32 /etc/os\-release
  33 and
  34 /usr/lib/os\-release
  35 files contain operating system identification data\&.
  36 .PP
  37 The basic file format of
  38 os\-release
  39 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\&.
  40 .PP
  41 The file
  42 /etc/os\-release
  43 takes precedence over
  44 /usr/lib/os\-release\&. Applications should check for the former, and exclusively use its data if it exists, and only fall back to
  45 /usr/lib/os\-release
  46 if it is missing\&. Applications should not read data from both files at the same time\&.
  47 /usr/lib/os\-release
  48 is the recommended place to store OS release information as part of vendor trees\&.
  49 /etc/os\-release
  50 should be a relative symlink to
  51 /usr/lib/os\-release, to provide compatibility with applications only looking at
  52 /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\&.
  53 .PP
  54 os\-release
  55 contains data that is defined by the operating system vendor and should generally not be changed by the administrator\&.
  56 .PP
  57 As this file only encodes names and identifiers it should not be localized\&.
  58 .PP
  59 The
  60 /etc/os\-release
  61 and
  62 /usr/lib/os\-release
  63 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\&.
  64 .PP
  65 For a longer rationale for
  66 os\-release
  67 please refer to the
  68 \m[blue]\fBAnnouncement of /etc/os\-release\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[1]\d\s+2\&.
  69 .SH "OPTIONS"
  70 .PP
  71 The following OS identifications parameters may be set using
  72 os\-release:
  73 .PP
  74 \fINAME=\fR
  75 .RS 4
  76 A string identifying the operating system, without a version component, and suitable for presentation to the user\&. If not set, defaults to
  77 "NAME=Linux"\&. Example:
  78 "NAME=Fedora"
  79 or
  80 "NAME="Debian GNU/Linux""\&.
  81 .RE
  82 .PP
  83 \fIVERSION=\fR
  84 .RS 4
  85 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:
  86 "VERSION=17"
  87 or
  88 "VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)""\&.
  89 .RE
  90 .PP
  91 \fIID=\fR
  92 .RS 4
  93 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 filenames\&. If not set, defaults to
  94 "ID=linux"\&. Example:
  95 "ID=fedora"
  96 or
  97 "ID=debian"\&.
  98 .RE
  99 .PP
 100 \fIID_LIKE=\fR
 101 .RS 4
 102 A space\-separated list of operating system identifiers in the same syntax as the
 103 \fIID=\fR
 104 setting\&. It 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 of, and not any OSes that are derived from it, though 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
 105 \fIID=\fR
 106 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
 107 "ID=centos", an assignment of
 108 "ID_LIKE="rhel fedora""
 109 would be appropriate\&. For an operating system with
 110 "ID=ubuntu", an assignment of
 111 "ID_LIKE=debian"
 112 is appropriate\&.
 113 .RE
 114 .PP
 115 \fIVERSION_ID=\fR
 116 .RS 4
 117 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 filenames\&. This field is optional\&. Example:
 118 "VERSION_ID=17"
 119 or
 120 "VERSION_ID=11\&.04"\&.
 121 .RE
 122 .PP
 123 \fIPRETTY_NAME=\fR
 124 .RS 4
 125 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
 126 "PRETTY_NAME="Linux""\&. Example:
 127 "PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle)""\&.
 128 .RE
 129 .PP
 130 \fIANSI_COLOR=\fR
 131 .RS 4
 132 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:
 133 "ANSI_COLOR="0;31""
 134 for red, or
 135 "ANSI_COLOR="1;34""
 136 for light blue\&.
 137 .RE
 138 .PP
 139 \fICPE_NAME=\fR
 140 .RS 4
 141 A CPE name for the operating system, following the
 142 \m[blue]\fBCommon Platform Enumeration Specification\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[2]\d\s+2
 143 as proposed by the MITRE Corporation\&. This field is optional\&. Example:
 144 "CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17""
 145 .RE
 146 .PP
 147 \fIHOME_URL=\fR, \fISUPPORT_URL=\fR, \fIBUG_REPORT_URL=\fR
 148 .RS 4
 149 Links to resources on the Internet related the operating system\&.
 150 \fIHOME_URL=\fR
 151 should refer to the homepage of the operating system, or alternatively some homepage of the specific version of the operating system\&.
 152 \fISUPPORT_URL=\fR
 153 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\&.
 154 \fIBUG_REPORT_URL=\fR
 155 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
 156 \m[blue]\fBRFC3986 format\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[3]\d\s+2, and should be
 157 "http:"
 158 or
 159 "https:"
 160 URLs, and possibly
 161 "mailto:"
 162 or
 163 "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:
 164 "HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject\&.org/""
 165 and
 166 "BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla\&.redhat\&.com/""
 167 .RE
 168 .PP
 169 \fIBUILD_ID=\fR
 170 .RS 4
 171 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:
 172 "BUILD_ID="2013\-03\-20\&.3""
 173 or
 174 "BUILD_ID=201303203"\&.
 175 .RE
 176 .PP
 177 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\&.
 178 .PP
 179 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\&.
 180 .PP
 181 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:
 182 "DEBIAN_BTS="debbugs://bugs\&.debian\&.org/""
 183 .SH "EXAMPLE"
 184 .sp
 185 .if n \{\
 186 .RS 4
 187 .\}
 188 .nf
 189 NAME=Fedora
 190 VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)"
 191 ID=fedora
 192 VERSION_ID=17
 193 PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle)"
 194 ANSI_COLOR="0;34"
 195 CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17"
 196 HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject\&.org/"
 197 BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla\&.redhat\&.com/"
 198 .fi
 199 .if n \{\
 200 .RE
 201 .\}
 202 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 203 .PP
 204 \fBsystemd\fR(1),
 205 \fBlsb_release\fR(1),
 206 \fBhostname\fR(5),
 207 \fBmachine-id\fR(5),
 208 \fBmachine-info\fR(5)
 209 .SH "NOTES"
 210 .IP " 1." 4
 211 Announcement of /etc/os-release
 212 .RS 4
 213 \%http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/os-release
 214 .RE
 215 .IP " 2." 4
 216 Common Platform Enumeration Specification
 217 .RS 4
 218 \%https://cpe.mitre.org/specification/
 219 .RE
 220 .IP " 3." 4
 221 RFC3986 format
 222 .RS 4
 223 \%https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986
 224 .RE