How to differentiate between ubuntu and redhat in unix script or c preprocessor?

manuabhi · 07-23-2012, 05:48 AM

Hi,

I am a newbie to linux. I have a file to execute which is copied in different directory based on redhat or ubuntu. Is there any unix script method or c preprocessor by which I can differentiate between Redhat or Ubuntu ?

Is there any other method to differentiate between redhat and ubuntu?

syg00 · 07-23-2012, 07:11 AM

Simply check for the existence of /etc/redhat-release.

schneidz · 07-23-2012, 11:00 AM

Code:

uname -a -m -p

bsat · 07-24-2012, 02:24 AM

you can look into the file /etc/issue

evo2 · 07-24-2012, 02:29 AM

Hi,

all lsb compliant distros will identify themselves with the lsb_release command. The -i and -s flags will probably give you what you want.

Code:

lsb_release -is

Evo2.

manuabhi · 07-24-2012, 04:55 AM

Hi All,

Thanks for reply. Is there any way I can do with c programming as I am trying to write a cross platform code as well.

pan64 · 07-24-2012, 04:57 AM

why do you want to differentiate? usually the same code will run on both.

manuabhi · 07-24-2012, 05:24 AM

@pan64 As i asked in question that we are copying a file in different directory based on whether Redhat or Ubuntu, to execute the file i need to know which linux flavor my code is running.

pan64 · 07-24-2012, 05:36 AM

you wrote there is a file to execute copied into a dir. So you want to execute either /use/this/path/app or /use/that/dir/app?
the most simple way is to check if that app exists, fopen(path) is sucessful or not. Any other check you want to implement will be much more complex and will not give you better result.
You can try to open /etc/issue or /etc/redhat-release and parse, execute uname or lsb_release and evaluate the answer from c as well.