[russss]

As mentioned in that man page, the /etc/lsb-release file only contains details on what version of the LSB the distribution conforms to (if the distribution isn't LSB-compliant, the file shouldn't exist). It doesn't have the version of the distribution itself, which lsb_release finds in distribution-specific locations.

[rwmj]

This isn't completely true. lsb-release contains everything that is in os-release, including the version of the distro in a neutral format.

However I agree with you that lsb-release is not much used, and in some distros is only present when some huge X-dependent LSB package is installed.

But hey, we could fix LSB! Instead of, you know, making up something new that will be as little used as lsb-release.

[ars]

As far as I can tell Debian does not have an /etc/lsb-release file. Rather they have an lsb-release program that outputs the necessary info.

[obtu]

    cat /etc/lsb-release 
    DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
    DISTRIB_RELEASE=11.10
    DISTRIB_CODENAME=oneiric
    DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 11.10"