C++ get linux distribution name\version

Question

According to the question \" How to get Linux distribution name and version? \", to get the linux distro name and version, this works:

lsb_release -a
         


        

Answer 1

For recent linux distros you can use following to get the OS info. The output is pretty standard and can be parsed using following spec:

https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/os-release.html

cat /etc/os-release

Sample outputs:

NAME=Fedora
VERSION="27 (Twenty Seven)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=27
PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 27 (Twenty Seven)"

NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="16.04.4 LTS (Xenial Xerus)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS"
VERSION_ID="16.04"

NAME="Arch Linux"
PRETTY_NAME="Arch Linux"
ID=arch
ID_LIKE=archlinux
ANSI_COLOR="0;36"