path: root/man/os-release.xml

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<refentry id="os-release" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
  <refentryinfo>
    <title>os-release</title>
    <productname>systemd</productname>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>os-release</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>os-release</refname>
    <refname>initrd-release</refname>
    <refpurpose>Operating system identification</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <para><filename>/etc/os-release</filename></para>
    <para><filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename></para>
    <para><filename>/etc/initrd-release</filename></para>
  </refsynopsisdiv>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>

    <para>The <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> and
    <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename> files contain operating
    system identification data.</para>

    <para>The basic file format of <filename>os-release</filename> is
    a newline-separated list of environment-like shell-compatible
    variable assignments. It is possible to source the configuration
    from shell scripts, however, beyond mere variable assignments, no
    shell features are supported (this means variable expansion is
    explicitly not supported), allowing applications to read the file
    without implementing a shell compatible execution engine. Variable
    assignment values must be enclosed in double or single quotes if
    they include spaces, semicolons or other special characters
    outside of A–Z, a–z, 0–9. Shell special characters ("$", quotes,
    backslash, backtick) must be escaped with backslashes, following
    shell style. All strings should be in UTF-8 format, and
    non-printable characters should not be used. It is not supported
    to concatenate multiple individually quoted strings. Lines
    beginning with "#" shall be ignored as comments. Blank lines are
    permitted and ignored.</para>

    <para>The file <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> takes
    precedence over <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename>.
    Applications should check for the former, and exclusively use its
    data if it exists, and only fall back to
    <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename> if it is missing.
    Applications should not read data from both files at the same
    time. <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename> is the recommended
    place to store OS release information as part of vendor trees.
    <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> should be a relative symlink
    to <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename>, to provide
    compatibility with applications only looking at
    <filename>/etc/</filename>. A relative symlink instead of an
    absolute symlink is necessary to avoid breaking the link in a
    chroot or initrd environment such as dracut.</para>

    <para><filename>os-release</filename> contains data that is
    defined by the operating system vendor and should generally not be
    changed by the administrator.</para>

    <para>As this file only encodes names and identifiers it should
    not be localized.</para>

    <para>The <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> and
    <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename> files might be symlinks
    to other files, but it is important that the file is available
    from earliest boot on, and hence must be located on the root file
    system.</para>

    <para>For a longer rationale for <filename>os-release</filename>
    please refer to the <ulink
    url="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/os-release">Announcement of <filename>/etc/os-release</filename></ulink>.</para>

    <refsect2>
      <title><filename>/etc/initrd-release</filename></title>

      <para>In the <ulink
      url="https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/initrd.html">initrd</ulink>,
      <filename>/etc/initrd-release</filename> plays the same role as <filename>os-release</filename> in the
      main system. Additionally, the presence of that file means that the system is in the initrd phase.
      <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> should be symlinked to <filename>/etc/initrd-release</filename>
      (or vice versa), so programs that only look for <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> (as described
      above) work correctly. The rest of this document that talks about <filename>os-release</filename>
      should be understood to apply to <filename>initrd-release</filename> too.</para>
    </refsect2>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Options</title>

    <para>The following OS identifications parameters may be set using
    <filename>os-release</filename>:</para>

    <refsect2>
      <title>General information identifying the operating system</title>

      <variablelist class='environment-variables'>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>NAME=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A string identifying the operating system, without a version component, and
          suitable for presentation to the user. If not set, a default of <literal>NAME=Linux</literal> may
          be used.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>NAME=Fedora</literal>, <literal>NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>ID=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of 0–9, a–z, ".", "_"
          and "-") identifying the operating system, excluding any version information and suitable for
          processing by scripts or usage in generated filenames. If not set, a default of
          <literal>ID=linux</literal> may be used.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>ID=fedora</literal>, <literal>ID=debian</literal>.</para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>ID_LIKE=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A space-separated list of operating system identifiers in the same syntax as the
          <varname>ID=</varname> setting. It should list identifiers of operating systems that are closely
          related to the local operating system in regards to packaging and programming interfaces, for
          example listing one or more OS identifiers the local OS is a derivative from.  An OS should
          generally only list other OS identifiers it itself is a derivative of, and not any OSes that are
          derived from it, though symmetric relationships are possible. Build scripts and similar should
          check this variable if they need to identify the local operating system and the value of
          <varname>ID=</varname> is not recognized. Operating systems should be listed in order of how
          closely the local operating system relates to the listed ones, starting with the closest. This
          field is optional.</para>

          <para>Examples: for an operating system with <literal>ID=centos</literal>, an assignment of
          <literal>ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"</literal> would be appropriate. For an operating system with
          <literal>ID=ubuntu</literal>, an assignment of <literal>ID_LIKE=debian</literal> is appropriate.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>PRETTY_NAME=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A pretty operating system name in a format suitable for presentation to the
          user. May or may not contain a release code name or OS version of some kind, as suitable. If not
          set, a default of <literal>PRETTY_NAME="Linux"</literal> may be used</para>

          <para>Example: <literal>PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle)"</literal>.</para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>CPE_NAME=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A CPE name for the operating system, in URI binding syntax, following the <ulink
          url="http://scap.nist.gov/specifications/cpe/">Common Platform Enumeration Specification</ulink> as
          proposed by the NIST. This field is optional.</para>

          <para>Example: <literal>CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:17"</literal></para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>VARIANT=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A string identifying a specific variant or edition of the operating system suitable
          for presentation to the user. This field may be used to inform the user that the configuration of
          this system is subject to a specific divergent set of rules or default configuration settings. This
          field is optional and may not be implemented on all systems.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>VARIANT="Server Edition"</literal>, <literal>VARIANT="Smart Refrigerator
          Edition"</literal>.</para>

          <para>Note: this field is for display purposes only. The <varname>VARIANT_ID</varname> field should
          be used for making programmatic decisions.</para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>VARIANT_ID=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of 0–9, a–z, ".", "_" and
          "-"), identifying a specific variant or edition of the operating system. This may be interpreted by
          other packages in order to determine a divergent default configuration. This field is optional and
          may not be implemented on all systems.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>VARIANT_ID=server</literal>, <literal>VARIANT_ID=embedded</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>
    </refsect2>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Information about the version of the operating system</title>

      <variablelist class='environment-variables'>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>VERSION=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A string identifying the operating system version, excluding any OS name
          information, possibly including a release code name, and suitable for presentation to the
          user. This field is optional.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>VERSION=17</literal>, <literal>VERSION="17 (Beefy Miracle)"</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>VERSION_ID=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A lower-case string (mostly numeric, no spaces or other characters outside of 0–9,
          a–z, ".", "_" and "-") identifying the operating system version, excluding any OS name information
          or release code name, and suitable for processing by scripts or usage in generated filenames. This
          field is optional.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>VERSION_ID=17</literal>, <literal>VERSION_ID=11.04</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>VERSION_CODENAME=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of 0–9, a–z, ".", "_"
          and "-") identifying the operating system release code name, excluding any OS name information or
          release version, and suitable for processing by scripts or usage in generated filenames. This field
          is optional and may not be implemented on all systems.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>VERSION_CODENAME=buster</literal>,
          <literal>VERSION_CODENAME=xenial</literal>.</para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>BUILD_ID=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A string uniquely identifying the system image originally used as the installation
          base. In most cases, <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> or
          <varname>IMAGE_ID</varname>+<varname>IMAGE_VERSION</varname> are updated when the entire system
          image is replaced during an update. <varname>BUILD_ID</varname> may be used in distributions where
          the original installation image version is important: <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> would change
          during incremental system updates, but <varname>BUILD_ID</varname> would not. This field is
          optional.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>BUILD_ID="2013-03-20.3"</literal>, <literal>BUILD_ID=201303203</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>IMAGE_ID=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para> A lower-case string (no spaces or other characters outside of 0–9, a–z, ".", "_"
          and "-"), identifying a specific image of the operating system. This is supposed to be used for
          environments where OS images are prepared, built, shipped and updated as comprehensive, consistent
          OS images. This field is optional and may not be implemented on all systems, in particularly not on
          those that are not managed via images but put together and updated from individual packages and on
          the local system.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>IMAGE_ID=vendorx-cashier-system</literal>,
          <literal>IMAGE_ID=netbook-image</literal>.</para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>IMAGE_VERSION=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A lower-case string (mostly numeric, no spaces or other characters outside of 0–9,
          a–z, ".", "_" and "-") identifying the OS image version. This is supposed to be used together with
          <varname>IMAGE_ID</varname> described above, to discern different versions of the same image.
          </para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>IMAGE_VERSION=33</literal>, <literal>IMAGE_VERSION=47.1rc1</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>

      <para>To summarize: if the image updates are built and shipped as comprehensive units,
      <varname>IMAGE_ID</varname>+<varname>IMAGE_VERSION</varname> is the best fit. Otherwise, if updates
      eventually completely replace previously installed contents, as in a typical binary distribution,
      <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> should be used to identify major releases of the operating system.
      <varname>BUILD_ID</varname> may be used instead or in addition to <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> when
      the original system image version is important.</para>
    </refsect2>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Presentation information and links</title>

      <variablelist class='environment-variables'>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>HOME_URL=</varname></term>
          <term><varname>DOCUMENTATION_URL=</varname></term>
          <term><varname>SUPPORT_URL=</varname></term>
          <term><varname>BUG_REPORT_URL=</varname></term>
          <term><varname>PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>Links to resources on the Internet related to the operating system.
          <varname>HOME_URL=</varname> should refer to the homepage of the operating system, or alternatively
          some homepage of the specific version of the operating system.
          <varname>DOCUMENTATION_URL=</varname> should refer to the main documentation page for this
          operating system.  <varname>SUPPORT_URL=</varname> should refer to the main support page for the
          operating system, if there is any. This is primarily intended for operating systems which vendors
          provide support for. <varname>BUG_REPORT_URL=</varname> should refer to the main bug reporting page
          for the operating system, if there is any. This is primarily intended for operating systems that
          rely on community QA. <varname>PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=</varname> should refer to the main privacy
          policy page for the operating system, if there is any. These settings are optional, and providing
          only some of these settings is common. These URLs are intended to be exposed in "About this system"
          UIs behind links with captions such as "About this Operating System", "Obtain Support", "Report a
          Bug", or "Privacy Policy". The values should be in <ulink
          url="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986">RFC3986 format</ulink>, and should be
          <literal>http:</literal> or <literal>https:</literal> URLs, and possibly <literal>mailto:</literal>
          or <literal>tel:</literal>. Only one URL shall be listed in each setting. If multiple resources
          need to be referenced, it is recommended to provide an online landing page linking all available
          resources.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"</literal>,
          <literal>BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"</literal>.</para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>LOGO=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A string, specifying the name of an icon as defined by <ulink
          url="http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-theme-spec/latest">freedesktop.org Icon Theme
          Specification</ulink>. This can be used by graphical applications to display an operating system's
          or distributor's logo. This field is optional and may not necessarily be implemented on all
          systems.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>LOGO=fedora-logo</literal>, <literal>LOGO=distributor-logo-opensuse</literal>
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>ANSI_COLOR=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A suggested presentation color when showing the OS name on the console. This should
          be specified as string suitable for inclusion in the ESC [ m ANSI/ECMA-48 escape code for setting
          graphical rendition. This field is optional.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>ANSI_COLOR="0;31"</literal> for red, <literal>ANSI_COLOR="1;34"</literal>
          for light blue, or <literal>ANSI_COLOR="0;38;2;60;110;180"</literal> for Fedora blue.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>
    </refsect2>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Distribution-level defaults and metadata</title>

      <variablelist class='environment-variables'>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>DEFAULT_HOSTNAME=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A string specifying the hostname if
          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>hostname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> is not
          present and no other configuration source specifies the hostname. Must be either a single DNS label
          (a string composed of 7-bit ASCII lower-case characters and no spaces or dots, limited to the
          format allowed for DNS domain name labels), or a sequence of such labels separated by single dots
          that forms a valid DNS FQDN. The hostname must be at most 64 characters, which is a Linux
          limitation (DNS allows longer names).</para>

          <para>See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>org.freedesktop.hostname1</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
          for a description of how
          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-hostnamed.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
          determines the fallback hostname.</para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><varname>SYSEXT_LEVEL=</varname></term>

          <listitem><para>A lower-case string (mostly numeric, no spaces or other characters outside of 0–9,
          a–z, ".", "_" and "-") identifying the operating system extensions support level, to indicate which
          extension images are supported. See:
          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-sysext</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>)
          for more information.</para>

          <para>Examples: <literal>SYSEXT_LEVEL=2</literal>, <literal>SYSEXT_LEVEL=15.14</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>
    </refsect2>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Notes</title>

      <para>If you are using this file to determine the OS or a specific version of it, use the
      <varname>ID</varname> and <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> fields, possibly with
      <varname>ID_LIKE</varname> as fallback for <varname>ID</varname>. When looking for an OS identification
      string for presentation to the user use the <varname>PRETTY_NAME</varname> field.</para>

      <para>Note that operating system vendors may choose not to provide version information, for example to
      accommodate for rolling releases. In this case, <varname>VERSION</varname> and
      <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> may be unset. Applications should not rely on these fields to be
      set.</para>

      <para>Operating system vendors may extend the file format and introduce new fields. It is highly
      recommended to prefix new fields with an OS specific name in order to avoid name clashes. Applications
      reading this file must ignore unknown fields.</para>

      <para>Example: <literal>DEBIAN_BTS="debbugs://bugs.debian.org/"</literal>.</para>

      <para>Container and sandbox runtime managers may make the host's identification data available to
      applications by providing the host's <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> (if available, otherwise
      <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename> as a fallback) as
      <filename>/run/host/os-release</filename>.</para>
    </refsect2>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Examples</title>

    <example>
      <title><filename>os-release</filename> file for Fedora Workstation</title>

      <programlisting>NAME=Fedora
VERSION="32 (Workstation Edition)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=32
PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 32 (Workstation Edition)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;38;2;60;110;180"
LOGO=fedora-logo-icon
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:32"
HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/f32/system-administrators-guide/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicating_and_getting_help"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=32
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=32
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy"
VARIANT="Workstation Edition"
VARIANT_ID=workstation</programlisting>
    </example>

    <example>
      <title>Reading <filename>os-release</filename> in
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sh</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></title>

      <programlisting><xi:include href="check-os-release.sh" parse="text" /></programlisting>
    </example>

    <example>
      <title>Reading <filename>os-release</filename> in
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>python</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></title>

      <programlisting><xi:include href="check-os-release.py" parse="text" /></programlisting>
    </example>

  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
      <title>See Also</title>
      <para>
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>lsb_release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>hostname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-info</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
      </para>
  </refsect1>

</refentry>