1 <?xml version='
1.0'
?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC
"-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
4 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
6 <refentry id=
"os-release" xmlns:
xi=
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
8 <title>os-release
</title>
9 <productname>systemd
</productname>
13 <refentrytitle>os-release
</refentrytitle>
14 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
18 <refname>os-release
</refname>
19 <refname>initrd-release
</refname>
20 <refname>extension-release
</refname>
21 <refpurpose>Operating system identification
</refpurpose>
25 <para><filename>/etc/os-release
</filename></para>
26 <para><filename>/usr/lib/os-release
</filename></para>
27 <para><filename>/etc/initrd-release
</filename></para>
28 <para><filename>/usr/lib/extension-release.d/extension-release.
<replaceable>IMAGE
</replaceable></filename></para>
32 <title>Description
</title>
34 <para>The
<filename>/etc/os-release
</filename> and
35 <filename>/usr/lib/os-release
</filename> files contain operating
36 system identification data.
</para>
38 <para>The format of
<filename>os-release
</filename> is a newline-separated list of
39 environment-like shell-compatible variable assignments. It is possible to source the configuration from
40 Bourne shell scripts, however, beyond mere variable assignments, no shell features are supported (this
41 means variable expansion is explicitly not supported), allowing applications to read the file without
42 implementing a shell compatible execution engine. Variable assignment values must be enclosed in double
43 or single quotes if they include spaces, semicolons or other special characters outside of A–Z, a–z,
44 0–
9. (Assignments that do not include these special characters may be enclosed in quotes too, but this is
45 optional.) Shell special characters (
"$", quotes, backslash, backtick) must be escaped with backslashes,
46 following shell style. All strings should be in UTF-
8 encoding, and non-printable characters should not
47 be used. Concatenation of multiple individually quoted strings is not supported. Lines beginning with
"#"
48 are treated as comments. Blank lines are permitted and ignored.
</para>
50 <para>The file
<filename>/etc/os-release
</filename> takes
51 precedence over
<filename>/usr/lib/os-release
</filename>.
52 Applications should check for the former, and exclusively use its
53 data if it exists, and only fall back to
54 <filename>/usr/lib/os-release
</filename> if it is missing.
55 Applications should not read data from both files at the same
56 time.
<filename>/usr/lib/os-release
</filename> is the recommended
57 place to store OS release information as part of vendor trees.
58 <filename>/etc/os-release
</filename> should be a relative symlink
59 to
<filename>/usr/lib/os-release
</filename>, to provide
60 compatibility with applications only looking at
61 <filename>/etc/
</filename>. A relative symlink instead of an
62 absolute symlink is necessary to avoid breaking the link in a
63 chroot or initrd environment such as dracut.
</para>
65 <para><filename>os-release
</filename> contains data that is
66 defined by the operating system vendor and should generally not be
67 changed by the administrator.
</para>
69 <para>As this file only encodes names and identifiers it should
70 not be localized.
</para>
72 <para>The
<filename>/etc/os-release
</filename> and
73 <filename>/usr/lib/os-release
</filename> files might be symlinks
74 to other files, but it is important that the file is available
75 from earliest boot on, and hence must be located on the root file
78 <para><filename>os-release
</filename> must not contain repeating keys. Nevertheless, readers should pick
79 the entries later in the file in case of repeats, similarly to how a shell sourcing the file would. A
80 reader may warn about repeating entries.
</para>
82 <para>For a longer rationale for
<filename>os-release
</filename>
83 please refer to the
<ulink
84 url=
"https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/os-release">Announcement of
<filename>/etc/os-release
</filename></ulink>.
</para>
87 <title><filename>/etc/initrd-release
</filename></title>
90 url=
"https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/initrd.html">initrd
</ulink>,
91 <filename>/etc/initrd-release
</filename> plays the same role as
<filename>os-release
</filename> in the
92 main system. Additionally, the presence of that file means that the system is in the initrd phase.
93 <filename>/etc/os-release
</filename> should be symlinked to
<filename>/etc/initrd-release
</filename>
94 (or vice versa), so programs that only look for
<filename>/etc/os-release
</filename> (as described
95 above) work correctly.
</para>
97 <para>The rest of this document that talks about
<filename>os-release
</filename> should be understood
98 to apply to
<filename>initrd-release
</filename> too.
</para>
102 <title><filename>/usr/lib/extension-release.d/extension-release.
<replaceable>IMAGE
</replaceable></filename></title>
104 <para><filename>/usr/lib/extension-release.d/extension-release.
<replaceable>IMAGE
</replaceable></filename>
105 plays the same role for extension images as
<filename>os-release
</filename> for the main system, and
106 follows the syntax and rules as described in the
<ulink
107 url=
"https://systemd.io/PORTABLE_SERVICES">Portable Services Documentation
</ulink>. The purpose of this
108 file is to identify the extension and to allow the operating system to verify that the extension image
109 matches the base OS. This is typically implemented by checking that the
<varname>ID=
</varname> options
110 match, and either
<varname>SYSEXT_LEVEL=
</varname> exists and matches too, or if it is not present,
111 <varname>VERSION_ID=
</varname> exists and matches. This ensures ABI/API compatibility between the
112 layers and prevents merging of an incompatible image in an overlay.
</para>
114 <para>In order to identify the extension image itself, the same fields defined below can be added to the
115 <filename>extension-release
</filename> file with a
<varname>SYSEXT_
</varname> prefix (to disambiguate
116 from fields used to match on the base image). E.g.:
<varname>SYSEXT_ID=myext
</varname>,
117 <varname>SYSEXT_VERSION_ID=
1.2.3</varname>.
</para>
119 <para>In the
<filename>extension-release.
<replaceable>IMAGE
</replaceable></filename> filename, the
120 <replaceable>IMAGE
</replaceable> part must exactly match the file name of the containing image with the
121 suffix removed. In case it is not possible to guarantee that an image file name is stable and doesn't
122 change between the build and the deployment phases, it is possible to relax this check: if exactly one
123 file whose name matches
<literal><filename>extension-release.*
</filename></literal> is present in this
124 directory, and the file is tagged with a
<varname>user.extension-release.strict
</varname>
125 <citerefentry project='man-pages'
><refentrytitle>xattr
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> set to the
126 string
<literal>0</literal>, it will be used instead.
</para>
128 <para>The rest of this document that talks about
<filename>os-release
</filename> should be understood
129 to apply to
<filename>extension-release
</filename> too.
</para>
134 <title>Options
</title>
136 <para>The following OS identifications parameters may be set using
137 <filename>os-release
</filename>:
</para>
140 <title>General information identifying the operating system
</title>
142 <variablelist class='environment-variables'
>
144 <term><varname>NAME=
</varname></term>
146 <listitem><para>A string identifying the operating system, without a version component, and
147 suitable for presentation to the user. If not set, a default of
<literal>NAME=Linux
</literal> may
150 <para>Examples:
<literal>NAME=Fedora
</literal>,
<literal>NAME=
"Debian GNU/Linux"</literal>.
155 <term><varname>ID=
</varname></term>
157 <listitem><para>A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of
0–
9, a–z,
".",
"_"
158 and
"-") identifying the operating system, excluding any version information and suitable for
159 processing by scripts or usage in generated filenames. If not set, a default of
160 <literal>ID=linux
</literal> may be used. Note that even though this string may not include
161 characters that require shell quoting, quoting may nevertheless be used.
</para>
163 <para>Examples:
<literal>ID=fedora
</literal>,
<literal>ID=debian
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
167 <term><varname>ID_LIKE=
</varname></term>
169 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of operating system identifiers in the same syntax as the
170 <varname>ID=
</varname> setting. It should list identifiers of operating systems that are closely
171 related to the local operating system in regards to packaging and programming interfaces, for
172 example listing one or more OS identifiers the local OS is a derivative from. An OS should
173 generally only list other OS identifiers it itself is a derivative of, and not any OSes that are
174 derived from it, though symmetric relationships are possible. Build scripts and similar should
175 check this variable if they need to identify the local operating system and the value of
176 <varname>ID=
</varname> is not recognized. Operating systems should be listed in order of how
177 closely the local operating system relates to the listed ones, starting with the closest. This
178 field is optional.
</para>
180 <para>Examples: for an operating system with
<literal>ID=centos
</literal>, an assignment of
181 <literal>ID_LIKE=
"rhel fedora"</literal> would be appropriate. For an operating system with
182 <literal>ID=ubuntu
</literal>, an assignment of
<literal>ID_LIKE=debian
</literal> is appropriate.
187 <term><varname>PRETTY_NAME=
</varname></term>
189 <listitem><para>A pretty operating system name in a format suitable for presentation to the
190 user. May or may not contain a release code name or OS version of some kind, as suitable. If not
191 set, a default of
<literal>PRETTY_NAME=
"Linux"</literal> may be used
</para>
193 <para>Example:
<literal>PRETTY_NAME=
"Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle)"</literal>.
</para></listitem>
197 <term><varname>CPE_NAME=
</varname></term>
199 <listitem><para>A CPE name for the operating system, in URI binding syntax, following the
<ulink
200 url=
"http://scap.nist.gov/specifications/cpe/">Common Platform Enumeration Specification
</ulink> as
201 proposed by the NIST. This field is optional.
</para>
203 <para>Example:
<literal>CPE_NAME=
"cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17"</literal></para></listitem>
207 <term><varname>VARIANT=
</varname></term>
209 <listitem><para>A string identifying a specific variant or edition of the operating system suitable
210 for presentation to the user. This field may be used to inform the user that the configuration of
211 this system is subject to a specific divergent set of rules or default configuration settings. This
212 field is optional and may not be implemented on all systems.
</para>
214 <para>Examples:
<literal>VARIANT=
"Server Edition"</literal>,
<literal>VARIANT=
"Smart Refrigerator
215 Edition"</literal>.
</para>
217 <para>Note: this field is for display purposes only. The
<varname>VARIANT_ID
</varname> field should
218 be used for making programmatic decisions.
</para></listitem>
222 <term><varname>VARIANT_ID=
</varname></term>
224 <listitem><para>A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of
0–
9, a–z,
".",
"_" and
225 "-"), identifying a specific variant or edition of the operating system. This may be interpreted by
226 other packages in order to determine a divergent default configuration. This field is optional and
227 may not be implemented on all systems.
</para>
229 <para>Examples:
<literal>VARIANT_ID=server
</literal>,
<literal>VARIANT_ID=embedded
</literal>.
236 <title>Information about the version of the operating system
</title>
238 <variablelist class='environment-variables'
>
240 <term><varname>VERSION=
</varname></term>
242 <listitem><para>A string identifying the operating system version, excluding any OS name
243 information, possibly including a release code name, and suitable for presentation to the
244 user. This field is optional.
</para>
246 <para>Examples:
<literal>VERSION=
17</literal>,
<literal>VERSION=
"17 (Beefy Miracle)"</literal>.
251 <term><varname>VERSION_ID=
</varname></term>
253 <listitem><para>A lower-case string (mostly numeric, no spaces or other characters outside of
0–
9,
254 a–z,
".",
"_" and
"-") identifying the operating system version, excluding any OS name information
255 or release code name, and suitable for processing by scripts or usage in generated filenames. This
256 field is optional.
</para>
258 <para>Examples:
<literal>VERSION_ID=
17</literal>,
<literal>VERSION_ID=
11.04</literal>.
263 <term><varname>VERSION_CODENAME=
</varname></term>
265 <listitem><para>A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of
0–
9, a–z,
".",
"_"
266 and
"-") identifying the operating system release code name, excluding any OS name information or
267 release version, and suitable for processing by scripts or usage in generated filenames. This field
268 is optional and may not be implemented on all systems.
</para>
270 <para>Examples:
<literal>VERSION_CODENAME=buster
</literal>,
271 <literal>VERSION_CODENAME=xenial
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
275 <term><varname>BUILD_ID=
</varname></term>
277 <listitem><para>A string uniquely identifying the system image originally used as the installation
278 base. In most cases,
<varname>VERSION_ID
</varname> or
279 <varname>IMAGE_ID
</varname>+
<varname>IMAGE_VERSION
</varname> are updated when the entire system
280 image is replaced during an update.
<varname>BUILD_ID
</varname> may be used in distributions where
281 the original installation image version is important:
<varname>VERSION_ID
</varname> would change
282 during incremental system updates, but
<varname>BUILD_ID
</varname> would not. This field is
285 <para>Examples:
<literal>BUILD_ID=
"2013-03-20.3"</literal>,
<literal>BUILD_ID=
201303203</literal>.
290 <term><varname>IMAGE_ID=
</varname></term>
292 <listitem><para> A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of
0–
9, a–z,
".",
"_"
293 and
"-"), identifying a specific image of the operating system. This is supposed to be used for
294 environments where OS images are prepared, built, shipped and updated as comprehensive, consistent
295 OS images. This field is optional and may not be implemented on all systems, in particularly not on
296 those that are not managed via images but put together and updated from individual packages and on
297 the local system.
</para>
299 <para>Examples:
<literal>IMAGE_ID=vendorx-cashier-system
</literal>,
300 <literal>IMAGE_ID=netbook-image
</literal>.
</para>
302 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v249"/></listitem>
306 <term><varname>IMAGE_VERSION=
</varname></term>
308 <listitem><para>A lower-case string (mostly numeric, no spaces or other characters outside of
0–
9,
309 a–z,
".",
"_" and
"-") identifying the OS image version. This is supposed to be used together with
310 <varname>IMAGE_ID
</varname> described above, to discern different versions of the same image.
313 <para>Examples:
<literal>IMAGE_VERSION=
33</literal>,
<literal>IMAGE_VERSION=
47.1rc1
</literal>.
316 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v249"/></listitem>
320 <para>To summarize: if the image updates are built and shipped as comprehensive units,
321 <varname>IMAGE_ID
</varname>+
<varname>IMAGE_VERSION
</varname> is the best fit. Otherwise, if updates
322 eventually completely replace previously installed contents, as in a typical binary distribution,
323 <varname>VERSION_ID
</varname> should be used to identify major releases of the operating system.
324 <varname>BUILD_ID
</varname> may be used instead or in addition to
<varname>VERSION_ID
</varname> when
325 the original system image version is important.
</para>
329 <title>Presentation information and links
</title>
331 <variablelist class='environment-variables'
>
333 <term><varname>HOME_URL=
</varname></term>
334 <term><varname>DOCUMENTATION_URL=
</varname></term>
335 <term><varname>SUPPORT_URL=
</varname></term>
336 <term><varname>BUG_REPORT_URL=
</varname></term>
337 <term><varname>PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=
</varname></term>
339 <listitem><para>Links to resources on the Internet related to the operating system.
340 <varname>HOME_URL=
</varname> should refer to the homepage of the operating system, or alternatively
341 some homepage of the specific version of the operating system.
342 <varname>DOCUMENTATION_URL=
</varname> should refer to the main documentation page for this
343 operating system.
<varname>SUPPORT_URL=
</varname> should refer to the main support page for the
344 operating system, if there is any. This is primarily intended for operating systems which vendors
345 provide support for.
<varname>BUG_REPORT_URL=
</varname> should refer to the main bug reporting page
346 for the operating system, if there is any. This is primarily intended for operating systems that
347 rely on community QA.
<varname>PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=
</varname> should refer to the main privacy
348 policy page for the operating system, if there is any. These settings are optional, and providing
349 only some of these settings is common. These URLs are intended to be exposed in
"About this system"
350 UIs behind links with captions such as
"About this Operating System",
"Obtain Support",
"Report a
351 Bug", or
"Privacy Policy". The values should be in
<ulink
352 url=
"https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986">RFC3986 format
</ulink>, and should be
353 <literal>http:
</literal> or
<literal>https:
</literal> URLs, and possibly
<literal>mailto:
</literal>
354 or
<literal>tel:
</literal>. Only one URL shall be listed in each setting. If multiple resources
355 need to be referenced, it is recommended to provide an online landing page linking all available
358 <para>Examples:
<literal>HOME_URL=
"https://fedoraproject.org/"</literal>,
359 <literal>BUG_REPORT_URL=
"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"</literal>.
</para></listitem>
363 <term><varname>SUPPORT_END=
</varname></term>
365 <listitem><para>The date at which support for this version of the OS ends. (What exactly
"lack of
366 support" means varies between vendors, but generally users should assume that updates, including
367 security fixes, will not be provided.) The value is a date in the ISO
8601 format
368 <literal>YYYY-MM-DD
</literal>, and specifies the first day on which support
<emphasis>is
369 not
</emphasis> provided.
</para>
371 <para>For example,
<literal>SUPPORT_END=
2001-
01-
01</literal> means that the system was supported
372 until the end of the last day of the previous millennium.
</para>
374 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v252"/></listitem>
378 <term><varname>LOGO=
</varname></term>
380 <listitem><para>A string, specifying the name of an icon as defined by
<ulink
381 url=
"https://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-theme-spec/latest">freedesktop.org Icon Theme
382 Specification
</ulink>. This can be used by graphical applications to display an operating system's
383 or distributor's logo. This field is optional and may not necessarily be implemented on all
386 <para>Examples:
<literal>LOGO=fedora-logo
</literal>,
<literal>LOGO=distributor-logo-opensuse
</literal>
391 <term><varname>ANSI_COLOR=
</varname></term>
393 <listitem><para>A suggested presentation color when showing the OS name on the console. This should
394 be specified as string suitable for inclusion in the ESC [ m ANSI/ECMA-
48 escape code for setting
395 graphical rendition. This field is optional.
</para>
397 <para>Examples:
<literal>ANSI_COLOR=
"0;31"</literal> for red,
<literal>ANSI_COLOR=
"1;34"</literal>
398 for light blue, or
<literal>ANSI_COLOR=
"0;38;2;60;110;180"</literal> for Fedora blue.
403 <term><varname>VENDOR_NAME=
</varname></term>
405 <listitem><para>The name of the OS vendor. This is the name of the organization or company which
406 produces the OS. This field is optional.
</para>
408 <para>This name is intended to be exposed in
"About this system" UIs or software update UIs when
409 needed to distinguish the OS vendor from the OS itself. It is intended to be human readable.
</para>
411 <para>Examples:
<literal>VENDOR_NAME=
"Fedora Project"</literal> for Fedora Linux,
412 <literal>VENDOR_NAME=
"Canonical"</literal> for Ubuntu.
</para>
414 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v254"/></listitem>
418 <term><varname>VENDOR_URL=
</varname></term>
420 <listitem><para>The homepage of the OS vendor. This field is optional. The
421 <varname>VENDOR_NAME=
</varname> field should be set if this one is, although clients must be
422 robust against either field not being set.
</para>
424 <para>The value should be in
<ulink
425 url=
"https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986">RFC3986 format
</ulink>, and should be
426 <literal>http:
</literal> or
<literal>https:
</literal> URLs. Only one URL shall be listed in the
429 <para>Examples:
<literal>VENDOR_URL=
"https://fedoraproject.org/"</literal>,
430 <literal>VENDOR_URL=
"https://canonical.com/"</literal>.
</para>
432 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v254"/></listitem>
438 <title>Distribution-level defaults and metadata
</title>
440 <variablelist class='environment-variables'
>
442 <term><varname>DEFAULT_HOSTNAME=
</varname></term>
444 <listitem><para>A string specifying the hostname if
445 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>hostname
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> is not
446 present and no other configuration source specifies the hostname. Must be either a single DNS label
447 (a string composed of
7-bit ASCII lower-case characters and no spaces or dots, limited to the
448 format allowed for DNS domain name labels), or a sequence of such labels separated by single dots
449 that forms a valid DNS FQDN. The hostname must be at most
64 characters, which is a Linux
450 limitation (DNS allows longer names).
</para>
452 <para>See
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>org.freedesktop.hostname1
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
453 for a description of how
454 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-hostnamed.service
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
455 determines the fallback hostname.
</para></listitem>
459 <term><varname>ARCHITECTURE=
</varname></term>
460 <listitem><para>A string that specifies which CPU architecture the userspace binaries require.
461 The architecture identifiers are the same as for
<varname>ConditionArchitecture=
</varname>
462 described in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
463 The field is optional and should only be used when just single architecture is supported.
464 It may provide redundant information when used in a GPT partition with a GUID type that already
465 encodes the architecture. If this is not the case, the architecture should be specified in
466 e.g., an extension image, to prevent an incompatible host from loading it.
469 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v252"/></listitem>
473 <term><varname>SYSEXT_LEVEL=
</varname></term>
475 <listitem><para>A lower-case string (mostly numeric, no spaces or other characters outside of
0–
9,
476 a–z,
".",
"_" and
"-") identifying the operating system extensions support level, to indicate which
477 extension images are supported. See
<filename>/usr/lib/extension-release.d/extension-release.
<replaceable>IMAGE
</replaceable></filename>,
478 <ulink url=
"https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/initrd.html">initrd
</ulink> and
479 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-sysext
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>)
480 for more information.
</para>
482 <para>Examples:
<literal>SYSEXT_LEVEL=
2</literal>,
<literal>SYSEXT_LEVEL=
15.14</literal>.
487 <term><varname>CONFEXT_LEVEL=
</varname></term>
489 <listitem><para>Semantically the same as
<varname>SYSEXT_LEVEL=
</varname> but for confext images.
490 See
<filename>/etc/extension-release.d/extension-release.
<replaceable>IMAGE
</replaceable></filename>
491 for more information.
</para>
493 <para>Examples:
<literal>CONFEXT_LEVEL=
2</literal>,
<literal>CONFEXT_LEVEL=
15.14</literal>.
496 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v254"/></listitem>
500 <term><varname>SYSEXT_SCOPE=
</varname></term>
501 <listitem><para>Takes a space-separated list of one or more of the strings
502 <literal>system
</literal>,
<literal>initrd
</literal> and
<literal>portable
</literal>. This field is
503 only supported in
<filename>extension-release.d/
</filename> files and indicates what environments
504 the system extension is applicable to: i.e. to regular systems, to initrds, or to portable service
505 images. If unspecified,
<literal>SYSEXT_SCOPE=system portable
</literal> is implied, i.e. any system
506 extension without this field is applicable to regular systems and to portable service environments,
507 but not to initrd environments.
</para>
509 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v250"/></listitem>
513 <term><varname>CONFEXT_SCOPE=
</varname></term>
515 <listitem><para>Semantically the same as
<varname>SYSEXT_SCOPE=
</varname> but for confext images.
</para>
517 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v254"/></listitem>
521 <term><varname>PORTABLE_PREFIXES=
</varname></term>
522 <listitem><para>Takes a space-separated list of one or more valid prefix match strings for the
523 <ulink url=
"https://systemd.io/PORTABLE_SERVICES">Portable Services Documentation
</ulink> logic.
524 This field serves two purposes: it is informational, identifying portable service images as such
525 (and thus allowing them to be distinguished from other OS images, such as bootable system images).
526 It is also used when a portable service image is attached: the specified or implied portable
527 service prefix is checked against the list specified here, to enforce restrictions how images may
528 be attached to a system.
</para>
530 <xi:include href=
"version-info.xml" xpointer=
"v250"/></listitem>
538 <para>If you are using this file to determine the OS or a specific version of it, use the
539 <varname>ID
</varname> and
<varname>VERSION_ID
</varname> fields, possibly with
540 <varname>ID_LIKE
</varname> as fallback for
<varname>ID
</varname>. When looking for an OS identification
541 string for presentation to the user use the
<varname>PRETTY_NAME
</varname> field.
</para>
543 <para>Note that operating system vendors may choose not to provide version information, for example to
544 accommodate for rolling releases. In this case,
<varname>VERSION
</varname> and
545 <varname>VERSION_ID
</varname> may be unset. Applications should not rely on these fields to be
548 <para>Operating system vendors may extend the file format and introduce new fields. It is highly
549 recommended to prefix new fields with an OS specific name in order to avoid name clashes. Applications
550 reading this file must ignore unknown fields.
</para>
552 <para>Example:
<literal>DEBIAN_BTS=
"debbugs://bugs.debian.org/"</literal>.
</para>
554 <para>Container and sandbox runtime managers may make the host's identification data available to
555 applications by providing the host's
<filename>/etc/os-release
</filename> (if available, otherwise
556 <filename>/usr/lib/os-release
</filename> as a fallback) as
557 <filename>/run/host/os-release
</filename>.
</para>
562 <title>Examples
</title>
565 <title><filename>os-release
</filename> file for Fedora Workstation
</title>
567 <programlisting>NAME=Fedora
568 VERSION=
"32 (Workstation Edition)"
571 PRETTY_NAME=
"Fedora 32 (Workstation Edition)"
572 ANSI_COLOR=
"0;38;2;60;110;180"
573 LOGO=fedora-logo-icon
574 CPE_NAME=
"cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:32"
575 HOME_URL=
"https://fedoraproject.org/"
576 DOCUMENTATION_URL=
"https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/f32/system-administrators-guide/"
577 SUPPORT_URL=
"https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicating_and_getting_help"
578 BUG_REPORT_URL=
"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
579 REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT=
"Fedora"
580 REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=
32
581 REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT=
"Fedora"
582 REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=
32
583 PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=
"https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy"
584 VARIANT=
"Workstation Edition"
585 VARIANT_ID=workstation
</programlisting>
589 <title><filename>extension-release
</filename> file for an extension for Fedora Workstation
32</title>
591 <programlisting>ID=fedora
592 VERSION_ID=
32</programlisting>
596 <title>Reading
<filename>os-release
</filename> in
597 <citerefentry project='man-pages'
><refentrytitle>sh
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></title>
599 <programlisting><xi:include href=
"check-os-release.sh" parse=
"text" /></programlisting>
603 <title>Reading
<filename>os-release
</filename> in
604 <citerefentry project='die-net'
><refentrytitle>python
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> (versions
>=
3.10)
</title>
606 <programlisting><xi:include href=
"check-os-release-simple.py" parse=
"text" /></programlisting>
608 <para>See docs for
<ulink url=
"https://docs.python.org/3/library/platform.html#platform.freedesktop_os_release">
609 <function>platform.freedesktop_os_release
</function></ulink> for more details.
614 <title>Reading
<filename>os-release
</filename> in
615 <citerefentry project='die-net'
><refentrytitle>python
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> (any version)
</title>
617 <programlisting><xi:include href=
"check-os-release.py" parse=
"text" /></programlisting>
619 <para>Note that the above version that uses the built-in implementation is preferred
620 in most cases, and the open-coded version here is provided for reference.
</para>
626 <title>See Also
</title>
628 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
629 <citerefentry project='die-net'
><refentrytitle>lsb_release
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
630 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>hostname
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
631 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
632 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-info
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>