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Bug#916204: Improve /etc/lsb-release (or drop it)



Package: debian-edu-config
Version: 2.10.49

Hi,

we inventory Debian Edu hardware specifics of our customers with the tool OCS Inventory. Other than hardware inventorying, the tool also looks at /etc/lsb-release and shows the value of the DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION field in host lists. If /etc/lsb-release is missing, the file /etc/os-release is used.

With plain Debian and plain Ubuntu systems, OCS Inventory is able to obtain the distro version from that field. You can use OCS Inventory to monitor workstation migrations and track what system has the latest distro version and what systems still require a dist-upgrade.

On Debian Edu system, the /etc/lsb-release is shipped like below:

```
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="DebianEdu/Skolelinux"
```

This has been like this for several releases now. The problem with that description value is: I can't tell the Debian Edu version that a system has installed from that field. And due to /etc/lsb-release being preferred (if present) to /etc/os-release, all information contained in /etc/os-release gets ignored.

Ubuntu ships /etc/lsb-release like this:

```
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS"
```

IMHO, we could improve Debian Edu's lsb-release file, so that the distro version can be obtained from the DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION field.

An alternative option could be: drop our /etc/lsb-release from Debian Edu systems completely.

Comments? Feedback?

Mike
--

DAS-NETZWERKTEAM
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