Linux Distro Identification Cheatsheet | Generated by AI
Simple — I ran one command over SSH:
cat /etc/os-release
Every Linux distro has this file. It gives you the OS name, version, codename, all in a standard format. I also ran uname -a for the kernel version, but os-release is the main one for identifying the distro.
Quick cheat sheet for other checks:
cat /etc/os-release— distro info (works on almost everything)lsb_release -a— another way, but needslsb-releasepackageuname -a— kernel version and architecturehostnamectl— combines hostname + OS + kernel (needs systemd)