Where is the release information stored?

chabala · 2026-06-10 01:39:49

I'm running Devuan-based PeppermintOS. Which version, you might ask; I've found it's difficult to tell.

I've noticed that all the places I'm used to looking to see my release information seem to be unpopulated:

neofetch: "OS: n/a x86_64"

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: n/a
Description: n/a
Release: n/a
Codename: n/a

$ ll /etc/os-release
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 Jun 30 2024 /etc/os-release -> ../usr/lib/os-release

$ ll /usr/lib/os-release
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Feb 20 08:42 /usr/lib/os-release

I know the whole point is not using systemd, but surely putting some release information in one of the well known locations would be good. Pretty sure the LSB spec isn't systemd specific.

Is there another distro-specific release information file I don't know about?

ralph.ronnquist · 2026-06-10 03:06:55

check /var/lib/apt/lists

bigbenaugust · Today 02:27:22

Does it have

/etc/debian_version

or

/etc/devuan_version

?

ralph.ronnquist · Today 02:51:14

yes, it should have both.

chabala · Today 04:02:30

Yes:

$ cat /etc/debian_version
12.6
$ cat /etc/devuan_version
daedalus

No obvious peppermint_version file in /etc though.

But then, one has to remember that one is running devuan to know to check for devuan_version. So if I wanted a generic command to show me release information, it could become a script full of conditional checks like:

[ -s "/etc/redhat-release" ] && cat /etc/redhat-release
[ -s "/etc/arch-release" ] && cat /etc/arch-release
[ -s "/etc/debian_version" ] && cat /etc/debian_version
[ -s "/etc/devuan_version" ] && cat /etc/devuan_version

or, we could populate the /etc/os-release file, and not need a script. Some of those other tools I mentioned might even be able to find the information too.

chris2be8 · Today 16:25:46

You could run ls -l /etc/*version and ls -l /etc/*release to see what files exist. As well as uname -a

chabala · Today 16:45:16

Looks like I'm running Debian something:

$ uname -a
Linux hp845g8 6.1.0-49-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.174-1 (2026-05-26) x86_64 GNU/Linux

I can make scripts:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

shopt -s nullglob

for file in /etc/*version /etc/*release; do
    echo "$file:"
    cat "$file"
done

$ ./checkRelease 
/etc/debian_version:
12.6
/etc/devuan_version:
daedalus
/etc/os-release:

But, do we need to code-golf this? Or can we just put some data in the os-release file?

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#1 2026-06-10 01:39:49

Where is the release information stored?

#2 2026-06-10 03:06:55

Re: Where is the release information stored?

#3 Today 02:27:22

Re: Where is the release information stored?

#4 Today 02:51:14

Re: Where is the release information stored?

#5 Today 04:02:30

Re: Where is the release information stored?

#6 Today 16:25:46

Re: Where is the release information stored?

#7 Today 16:45:16

Re: Where is the release information stored?

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