Knowledge Base

The cat /etc/os-release command is the most common method to see which distribution and version a Linux system has. This file contains basic information such as the operating system's name, version, ID, and code name.

Command:

cat /etc/os-release

Sample Output (for AlmaLinux 8):

NAME="AlmaLinux"
VERSION="8.9 (Midnight)"
ID="almalinux"
ID_LIKE="rhel centos fedora"
VERSION_ID="8.9"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
PRETTY_NAME="AlmaLinux 8.9 (Midnight)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;34"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:almalinux:almalinux:8::baseos"
HOME_URL="https://almalinux.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.almalinux.org/"

Explanations:

• NAME: The name of the distribution (e.g., Ubuntu, AlmaLinux, Debian)

• VERSION: Human-readable version information

• ID: The system ID of the distribution

• VERSION_ID: The exact version number (e.g., 8.9)

• PRETTY_NAME: The full system name for display purposes

Alternative Commands:

• To see only the distribution name and version:

grep -E '^NAME=|^VERSION=' /etc/os-release

• For a cleaner look:

awk -F= '/^NAME=|^VERSION=/{gsub(/"/,""); print $2}' /etc/os-release

• System information can also be obtained with hostnamectl:

hostnamectl

This command also lists kernel and architecture information along with the operating system.

When to Use?

• To verify which Linux distribution is being used

• To perform distribution-specific operations in system scripts

• When specifying the system version in support or update processes

/etc/os-release is a standard recognized by the Linux Foundation and is found in almost all modern distributions.