Re: debian version ID
On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 12:27:31PM +0100, Jonathan de Boyne Pollard wrote:
> Felix Miata:
>
> >Will someone please explain (or point to, since it's not in release
> >notes), why:
> >1: /etc/os-release (in Jessie at least) does not include the point release
> >version as represented by /etc/debian_version
>
> Andrew M.A. Cater:
>
> >/etc/os-release just contains major version - the absolute need for minor
> >version is small.
>
> Jonathan de Boyne Pollard:
>
> >You are going to have to explain that to its manual page, which gives
> >VERSION_ID=11.04 as an example of what can be in the file.
>
> Pascal Hambourg:
>
> >This is obviously not a Debian version. Rather looks like Ubuntu.
>
> That is irrelevant. M. Miata asked for a reason. M. Cater responded.
> Either M. Cater is responding to explain why or xe is not explainining but
> merely repeating what M. Miata already knows and wants to know the reason
> for. As an explanation why, it is clearly wrong, from simply reading the
> user manual. What the version number in the manual might be is simply
> irrelevant.
What part of the man pages are you finding hard to read: it's worth noting that much of this is optional
The below is the version from Debian Jessie [/etc/os-release is a symlink to/from /usr/lib/os-release]
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="8"
VERSION="8 (jessie)"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.debian.org/";
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.debian.org/support";
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/";
PRETTY_NAME is a name in a format suitable for presentation to the user. May (or may not) contain a release name or OS version of some kind. If it's not set,
the default is Linux.
NAME identifies the operating system without a version component
VERSION_ID is a lower case string, mostly numeric identifyng the OS version for use by scripts. Optional.
[The examples given in the manpage are for Fedora and Ubuntu releases. NOTE: These are examples and are not canonical since the whole field is optional.]
VERSION identifies the OS version, possibly including a code name
ID is a lower case identifier identifying the OS suitable for use in scripts
HOME_URL, SUPPORT_URL and BUG_REPORT_URL are all optional: intended for distributions providing community support and not all of these need be given.
I correctly pointed out that minor versions point releases have been of less relevance since prior to Debian 7 and the last time I can think of them as being very
relevant indeed was prior to Debian 4.0
Debian isn't Ubuntu (or Red Hat Enterprise / CentOS / Fedora / OpenSUSE) ...
Please don't impute motive to me: please do go away and read and learn as much as you feel able to do before complaining about inconsistencies which aren't.
I would sinerely commend to you the Debian handbook - apt install debian-handbook will get you the PDF version: it is also worth springing for a paper version
to keep at the computer side. [Also, obviously, at https://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals/#debian-handbook in HTML.]
Alternatively, others less charitable might recommend Eric Raymond's classic: How To Ask Questions The Smart Way www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
With every good wish,
Andy C (Debian user since 1994 and Debian developer since 1995)
[amacater@debian.org]
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