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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 must be enclosed in double or single
       quotes if they include spaces, semicolons or other special characters
       outside of A-Z, a-z, 0-9. Shell special characters ("$", quotes,
       backslash, backtick) must be escaped with backslashes, following shell
       style. All strings should be in UTF-8 format, and non-printable
       characters should not be used. 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.  /etc/os-release should be a
       relative symlink to /usr/lib/os-release, to provide compatibility with
       applications only looking at /etc. A relative symlink instead of an
       absolute symlink is necessary to avoid breaking the link in a chroot or
       initrd environment such as dracut.
       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=, PRIVACY_POLICY_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.  PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=
           should refer to the main privacy policy page for the operation
           system, if there is any. 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", "Report a
           Bug", or "Privacy Policy". 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".
       VARIANT=
           A string identifying a specific variant or edition of the operating
           system suitable for presentation to the user. This field may be
           used to inform the user that the configuration of this system is
           subject to a specific divergent set of rules or default
           configuration settings. This field is optional and may not be
           implemented on all systems. Examples: "VARIANT="Server Edition"",
           "VARIANT="Smart Refrigerator Edition"" Note: this field is for
           display purposes only. The VARIANT_ID field should be used for
           making programmatic decisions.
       VARIANT_ID=
           A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of 0-9,
           a-z, ".", "_" and "-"), identifying a specific variant or edition
           of the operating system. This may be interpreted by other packages
           in order to determine a divergent default configuration. This field
           is optional and may not be implemented on all systems. Examples:
           "VARIANT_ID=server", "VARIANT_ID=embedded"
       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 219                                                      OS-RELEASE(5)