Re: Version & Distribution identification
Hi,
On Tue, 25 Apr 2000, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Apr 2000 gk4@us.ibm.com wrote:
>
> > If /etc/*-release is going to become a trend, then perhaps we should
> > consider placing them in a subdirectory called /etc/release/
>
> Not sure why a subdir would be needed, since each distro has only one
> file of this type currently and I can't see it growing much. If a
> distro contains more than one such file (ie, /etc/turbolinux-release
> *and* /etc/redhat-release) that would be IMO a bit scary.
>
> As has been suggested, a standard file, perhaps named
> /etc/linux-release, using a standard format,should be defined so that
> it may be used by any app that wanted to query the system for its
> distro and release info.
I guess naming it "linux-release" could be confused with the version
number of the linux kernel. What about /etc/distribution-release ?
Some fields that could be part of this file:
VENDOR : the Linux Distributor, e.g. Caldera, Debian, Red Hat, SuSE,
Turbo Linux, etc.
NAME: the distribution name (e.g. TurboCluster Server, OpenLinux
eServer, SuSE IMAP Server)
VERSION: the distribution version
ARCH: the hardware architecture, e.g. i386, alpha, PPC (not sure, if
this is useful)
> Therefore any compliant distro would have at least /etc/linux-release
> (and optionally /etc/[distro]-release for backwards compatibility).
Sounds reasonable.
> > We should standardized the internal format of the file ie., (name colon
> > value) and/or an API to the data.
>
> Yes.
Would a plain ASCII file serve the purpose?
> > > About the first question: what about /etc/FHS-Release? This could be part
> > > of the LSB-compatibility package.
>
> If the format is extensible this could be added on later if desired.
> It's probably not useful for too many release numbers since so much
> release info for specific components is already contained within the
> packing system. No need to re-invent that wheel.
Agreed. Querying the package database for the release number of the lsb
package should serve the purpose.
Bye,
LenZ
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