by We have a number of Ubuntu Linux systems and I regularly find myself wanting to find out which specific distribution I have installed on a given system. While the trusty uname -a command is useful most of the time, it is unfortunately too generic in this instance and only reports version information about the Linux kernel.
However, today I discovered the lsb_release -a command which does precisely what I want. The description of this command in the man page says:
The lsb_release command provides certain LSB (Linux Standard Base) and distribution-specific information.
Here is a sample of the type of output it provides on a recently installed Ubuntu Server 8.10 system:
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:Â Â Â Ubuntu 8.10
Release:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 8.10
Codename:Â Â Â Â Â Â intrepid
