distroscript

Simple shell script to return os/distro/version/virt info

Known supported

• Linux
• FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFlyBSD
• Cygwin/MingW
• QNX
• AIX
• HP-UX
• Solaris/SunOS
• Hurd
• Minix
• VxWorks
• macOS

Supported Linux distributions

Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Amazon Linux, openSUSE, SuSE, Arch Linux, Gentoo, Mageia, Slackware, Armbian, DietPi, OpenWrt, IPFire, Synology, Unraid, Mandriva, Mandrake, Knoppix, Linux-From-Scratch, Photon, Annvix, Arklinux, Aurox, BlackCat, Cobalt, Conectiva, FreeEOS, HLFS, Immunix, Linux-PPC, MkLinux, Novell Linux Desktop, PLD, Rubix, SME Server, Tiny Sofa, Trustix, TurboLinux, UltraPenguin, UnitedLinux, VA-Linux, Yellow Dog, MailCleaner

Any distribution with /etc/os-release should also be detected automatically.

Supported BSD distributions

pfSense, OPNsense, HardenedBSD, FreeNAS, PC-BSD

Detected virtualisation

VMware, Xen (HVM/PV), Microsoft Hyper-V, Parallels, KVM, QEMU, Oracle VirtualBox, bhyve, Amazon EC2

Detected containers

Docker, LXC, OpenVZ, FreeBSD Jail

Usage

You can either include the script in your own application or execute it directly.

No dependencies, should work in any sh compatible environment (ksh, bash etc)

CLI options:

• -f <format> - Output format: pipe (default), twopipe, json, ini, export
• -o <out> - Show specific parameter only: os, kernel, arch, distro, version, virt, cont
• -h - Show help
• -v - Show version

Examples:

./distro                      # default pipe output
./distro -f json              # JSON output
./distro -o virt              # show only virtualisation
DISTROFORMAT=export ./distro  # set format via environment variable

Sourcing

To source the script in your own application, set $DISTROEXEC before sourcing to prevent automatic execution:

DISTROEXEC=1
. /path/to/distro
getos
getdistro
getversion
echo "$DISTRO $VERSION"

Variables:

• $OS - Operating System (eg Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD)
• $KERNEL - Kernel version/name (eg 3.13.0-68-generic, GENERIC#50)
• $ARCH - platform/bitness (eg amd64 or i386)
• $DISTRO - Distribution name (eg Debian, OpenIndiana, pfSense), note for some OSes this is empty (eg for FreeBSD, OpenBSD, AIX)
• $VERSION - Distribution (or OS if $DISTRO empty) version (eg 22.04.5, 6.3)
• $VIRT - Virtualisation tech, if any (or the OS is useful enough to tell us)
• $CONT - Container tech, if any (or the OS is useful enough to tell us)
• $DISTROSCRIPT - Version of the script

Note: The variables above are no longer exported just by sourcing the script, you need to explicitly run one or more of the functions below.

If information isn't available or applicable for any of the variables, they are left blank.

Functions:

• getos - exports OS as the Operating System
• getkernel - exports KERNEL as the kernel version/name
• getarch - exports ARCH as the arch/platform
• getdistro - exports DISTRO as the distribution name
• getversion - exports VERSION as the distribution/os version
• getvirt - exports VIRT as the virtualisation technology
• getcont - exports CONT as the container technology

Notes:

• On FreeBSD and OpenBSD, where it is a generic install, the distro field is left blank and the version is populated with the kernel name.
• x86_64 is normalised to amd64, ix86 is normalised to i386.
• Values for VIRT and CONT use the naming convention from systemd-detect-virt with the exception of FreeBSD jails.
• If the DMI strings or virtual cpu names have been changed, or running on a particularly old OS there is a likely chance that the detected virtualisation will be wrong.

Output:

• Default output is pipe delimited: OS|KERNEL|ARCH|DISTRO|VERSION|VIRT|CONT
• Possible output options are: pipe, twopipe, ini, export, json
• Set $DISTROFORMAT environment variable or use -f flag to change output

Installation

Using curl:

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/distro https://raw.githubusercontent.com/observium/distroscript/master/distro
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/distro

Using wget:

wget -O /usr/local/bin/distro https://raw.githubusercontent.com/observium/distroscript/master/distro
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/distro

Verify:

/usr/local/bin/distro

Expected output (example):

Linux|5.15.0-91-generic|amd64|Ubuntu|22.04.5||

Run without installing:

curl -Ls https://raw.githubusercontent.com/observium/distroscript/master/distro | sh

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/observium/distroscript/master/distro | sh

Net-SNMP integration

Add to /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf:

extend .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.7890.1 distro /usr/local/bin/distro

If extend is not supported (older net-snmp), use exec instead:

exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.7890.1 distro /usr/local/bin/distro

Restart snmpd:

service snmpd restart

Test via SNMP:

snmpwalk -v2c -c <community> <hostname> .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.7890.1

See the Observium documentation for more details.