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by yjftsjthsd-h 187 days ago
> Protip, if you have access to the computer: `lsb_release -a` should list both release and codename. This command is not specific to Ubuntu.

I typically prefer

  cat /etc/os-release
which seems to be a little more portable / likely to work out of the box on many distros.
1 comments
cesarb 187 days ago
That's only if the distro is recent enough; sooner or later, you'll encounter a box running a distro version from before /etc/os-release became the standard, and you'll have to look for the older distro-specific files like /etc/debian_version.
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Denvercoder9 187 days ago
> you'll encounter a box running a distro version from before /etc/os-release became the standard

Do those boxes really still exist? Debian, which isn't really known to be the pinacle of bleeding edge, has had /etc/os-release since Debian 7, released in May 2013. RHEL 7, the oldest Red Hat still in extended support, also has it.

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yjftsjthsd-h 186 days ago
> the oldest Red Hat still in extended support, also has it.

You would be alarmed to know how long the long tail is. Are you going to run into many pre-RHEL 7 boxes? No. Depending on where you are in the industry, are you likely to run into some ancient RHEL boxes, perhaps even actual Red Hat (not Enterprise) Linux? Yeah, it happens.

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cesarb 186 days ago
> Do those boxes really still exist?

Yes, they do. You'll be surprised by how many places use out-of-support operating systems and software (which were well within their support windows when installed, they have just never been upgraded). After all, if it's working, why change it? (We have a saying here in Brazil "em time que está ganhando não se mexe", which can be loosely translated as "don't change a (soccer) team which is winning".)

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