OS-RELEASE(5)                               os-release                              OS-RELEASE(5)



NAME
       os-release - Operating system identification

SYNOPSIS
       /etc/os-release

       /usr/lib/os-release

DESCRIPTION
       The /etc/os-release and /usr/lib/os-release files contain operating system identification
       data.

       The basic file format of os-release 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.

       The file /etc/os-release takes precedence over /usr/lib/os-release. Applications should
       check for the former, and exclusively use its data if it exists, and only fall back to
       /usr/lib/os-release if it is missing. Applications should not read data from both files at
       the same time.  /usr/lib/os-release is the recommended place to store OS release
       information as part of vendor trees. Frequently, /etc/os-release is simply a symlink to
       /usr/lib/os-release, to provide compatibility with applications only looking at /etc.

       os-release contains data that is defined by the operating system vendor and should
       generally not be changed by the administrator.

       As this file only encodes names and identifiers it should not be localized.

       The /etc/os-release and /usr/lib/os-release 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.

       For a longer rationale for os-release please refer to the Announcement of
       /etc/os-release[1].

OPTIONS
       The following OS identifications parameters may be set using os-release:

       NAME=
           A string identifying the operating system, without a version component, and suitable
           for presentation to the user. If not set, defaults to "NAME=Linux". Example:
           "NAME=Fedora" or "NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"".

       VERSION=
           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: "VERSION=17" or "VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)"".

       ID=
           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
           "ID=linux". Example: "ID=fedora" or "ID=debian".

       ID_LIKE=
           A space-separated list of operating system identifiers in the same syntax as the ID=
           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 ID= 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 "ID=centos", an assignment of "ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"" would be appropriate. For
           an operating system with "ID=ubuntu", an assignment of "ID_LIKE=debian" is
           appropriate.

       VERSION_ID=
           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: "VERSION_ID=17" or
           "VERSION_ID=11.04".

       PRETTY_NAME=
           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 "PRETTY_NAME="Linux"". Example: "PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy
           Miracle)"".

       ANSI_COLOR=
           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: "ANSI_COLOR="0;31"" for
           red, or "ANSI_COLOR="1;34"" for light blue.

       CPE_NAME=
           A CPE name for the operating system, following the Common Platform Enumeration
           Specification[2] as proposed by the MITRE Corporation. This field is optional.
           Example: "CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17""

       HOME_URL=, SUPPORT_URL=, BUG_REPORT_URL=
           Links to resources on the Internet related the operating system.  HOME_URL= should
           refer to the homepage of the operating system, or alternatively some homepage of the
           specific version of the operating system.  SUPPORT_URL= 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.  BUG_REPORT_URL= 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
           RFC3986 format[3], and should be "http:" or "https:" URLs, and possibly "mailto:" or
           "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: "HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"" and
           "BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/""

       BUILD_ID=
           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: "BUILD_ID="2013-03-20.3"" or "BUILD_ID=201303203".

       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.

       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.

       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:
       "DEBIAN_BTS="debbugs://bugs.debian.org/""

EXAMPLE
           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/"

SEE ALSO
       systemd(1), lsb_release(1), hostname(5), machine-id(5), machine-info(5)

NOTES
        1. Announcement of /etc/os-release
           http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/os-release

        2. Common Platform Enumeration Specification
           https://cpe.mitre.org/specification/

        3. RFC3986 format
           https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986



systemd 215                                                                         OS-RELEASE(5)