Bash Script to Get Operating System + Version as string

Question

I want to make a bash script to take the system os and the version as a simple string.

Possible ways to get these info is from

/etc/issue
cat /etc/*-release
lsb_release -a

and probably some others which i dont know. The problem is that i want the bash script to work on Ubuntu 12,13,14 and CentOS. Some of the above does not work in these systems. For example the lsb_release does not work on CentOS and sometimes the /etc/issue is empty so i'm little confused about it.

As for the string i want to get it in this way (and save it to var). I will give examples.

If OS is Ubuntu 12.x i want to take it as ubuntu12

If OS is Ubuntu 13.x i want to take it as ubuntu13

If OS is CentOS 7.x i want to take it as centos7

Is that easy?

THANK YOU

well i wasnt sure where to put it since it's the bash script actually and not the way to get the system os — user3393046
– user3393046, Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 14:48
No, that does not even output the distro name. At least in my VPS. Well i found out that the cat /etc/*-release actualyl works in all distros. The problem is the string now. — user3393046
– user3393046, Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 14:52
So, what bash script did you try? How does it not work? This is not a scripting service. — ams
– ams, Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 15:10

zerodiff · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-21 15:43:09Z

1

Here is a bash solution. I tested on Ubuntu, but not on CentOS (I only have RHEL available now). But you can test the CentOS part and modify as needed.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

RELEASE=unknown

version=$( lsb_release -r | grep -oP "[0-9]+" | head -1 )
if lsb_release -d | grep -q "CentOS"; then
    RELEASE=centos$version
elif lsb_release -d | grep -q "Ubuntu"; then
    RELEASE=ubuntu$version
fi

echo $RELEASE

Or, without lsb_release on CentOS:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

RELEASE=unknown

if [ -f /etc/redhat-release ]; then
    version=$( cat /etc/redhat-release | grep -oP "[0-9]+" | head -1 )
    RELEASE=centos$version
elif [ -n $(which lsb_release 2> /dev/null) ] && lsb_release -d | grep -q "Ubuntu"; then
    version=$( lsb_release -d | grep -oP "[0-9]+" | head -1 )
    RELEASE=ubuntu$version
fi

echo $RELEASE

In any case, there's more than one way to skin this cat.

edited Aug 21, 2014 at 15:43

answered Aug 21, 2014 at 15:31

zerodiff

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