up vote 2 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I just setup an EC2 instance running Linux. Is there a way to get the version/distribution of Linux that is running on the instance via the terminal?

link|improve this question
83% accept rate
uname -a should give you the information about the Kernel, build time, and some other info, including vendor... (courtesy of Tiernan0) – soandos May 31 '11 at 20:00
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

For distro info:

cat /etc/issue

For Kernel/architecture (as mentioned previously):

uname -a
link|improve this answer
cat /etc/issue worked. – David Jun 2 '11 at 15:15
feedback
up vote 3 down vote

The portable command for Linux Standard Base-compatible distributions (which is pretty much everything popular) is lsb_release. The distribution can be obtained by "-i" and the version comes from "-r". The "-s" option suppresses the name column and just shows the value, and -a shows everything lsb_release knows about the system. So, for example on a RHEL 5.5 system:

$ lsb_release -s -i
RedHatEnterpriseServer

$ lsb_release -s -r
5.5

$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version:    :core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.1-amd64:graphics-3.1-ia32:graphics-3.1-noarch
Distributor ID: RedHatEnterpriseServer
Description:    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.5 (Tikanga)
Release:        5.5
Codename:       Tikanga

If you're on RedHat, SuSE, Ubuntu, Debian, or anything else derived from those (Fedora, CentOS, whatever), this command will work. Otherwise, you'll have to figure out some distro-specific info. RedHat, for example again, installs a package named redhat-release and creates a file in /etc:

$ rpm -q redhat-release
redhat-release-5Server-5.5.0.2

$ cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.5 (Tikanga)

But you really should use lsb_release if it's available. If you're just doing it visually, lsb_release -a is easy to remember and reasonably easy to read.

link|improve this answer
I your first approach and get the following error -bash: lsb_release: command not found. I also tried your second approach and can't find anything mentioning redhat in /etc. Any other suggestions? – David May 31 '11 at 21:42
Start by checking to see if rpm and apt-get are on the system; run "which rpm" and "which apt-get". If you have rpm, do an "rpm -qa | less" and see if there's anything there that sounds like a distribution. If you have apt-get, try "dpkg -l | less" and do the same thing. And try "ls -d /etc/*rel*" to see if there's any release file or anything in /etc. Oh, you might also do a "find / -name lsb_release" just in case lsb_release isn't in your path. – dannysauer May 31 '11 at 22:17
apt-get is not on the system. I don't see anything identifiable with rpm -qa|less. ls -d /etc/*rel* worked. I then nano /etc/system-release. In the file it tells me that the OS is Amazon Linux AMI release 2011.02.1.1. Thanks. – David Jun 2 '11 at 15:15
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

uname -a should give you the information about the Kernel, build time, and some other info, including vendor...

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.