Following an installation guide and seeing different instructions for Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux, CentOS, or Fedora?
The quickest way to identify your Linux distribution is to run:
cat /etc/os-release
This command reads the /etc/os-release file, which stores operating system information on most modern Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Fedora.
Example Output
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
VERSION_ID="24.04"
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 24.04 LTS"
What Do These Fields Mean?
- NAME – The name of the Linux distribution.
- VERSION – The full operating system version.
- VERSION_ID – The distribution version number.
- ID – The distribution identifier used by scripts and applications.
- ID_LIKE – Indicates distributions that the current OS is based on (for example, Ubuntu is Debian-based).
- PRETTY_NAME – A human-friendly name displayed by many tools.
Knowing your distribution and version ensures you follow the correct installation instructions and use the appropriate package manager for your system.
#linux
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