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Possible Duplicate:
How can I get distribution name and version number in a simple shell script?

Given a shell, how can I identify the variant of Unix/Linux that is running on a remote server?

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marked as duplicate by warl0ck, Mat, glenn jackman, Renan, jw013 Oct 3 '12 at 14:11

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3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

you can also do cat /etc/*-release to see info about the distribution version and name.

$ cat /etc/*-release
DISTRIB_ID=LinuxMint
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lisa
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 12 Lisa"

Source: linuxg.net

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I think cat /etc/*-release* is better. Some distros (Crunchbang is an example) has longer file names. – canpolat Oct 3 '12 at 16:19
up vote 3 down vote

Have you tried either of the following:

uname -a

or 

cat /proc/version
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up vote 2 down vote

You can try :

cat /etc/issue

Maybe not all distro have this file.

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Or it may be confusing on others. Ubuntu's will say something like "wheezy/sid" since they do not change this file when they sync Debian unstable. – jordanm Oct 3 '12 at 14:32

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