On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 12:27:31PM +0100, Jonathan de Boyne Pollard wrote: > Felix Miata: > > >Will someone please explain (or point to, since it's not in release > >notes), why: > >1: /etc/os-release (in Jessie at least) does not include the point release > >version as represented by /etc/debian_version > > Andrew M.A. Cater: > > >/etc/os-release just contains major version - the absolute need for minor > >version is small. > > Jonathan de Boyne Pollard: > > >You are going to have to explain that to its manual page, which gives > >VERSION_ID=11.04 as an example of what can be in the file. > > Pascal Hambourg: > > >This is obviously not a Debian version. Rather looks like Ubuntu. > > That is irrelevant. M. Miata asked for a reason. M. Cater responded. > Either M. Cater is responding to explain why or xe is not explainining but > merely repeating what M. Miata already knows and wants to know the reason > for. As an explanation why, it is clearly wrong, from simply reading the > user manual. What the version number in the manual might be is simply > irrelevant.
What part of the man pages are you finding hard to read: it's worth noting that much of this is optional The below is the version from Debian Jessie [/etc/os-release is a symlink to/from /usr/lib/os-release] PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)" NAME="Debian GNU/Linux" VERSION_ID="8" VERSION="8 (jessie)" ID=debian HOME_URL="http://www.debian.org/"; SUPPORT_URL="http://www.debian.org/support"; BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"; PRETTY_NAME is a name in a format suitable for presentation to the user. May (or may not) contain a release name or OS version of some kind. If it's not set, the default is Linux. NAME identifies the operating system without a version component VERSION_ID is a lower case string, mostly numeric identifyng the OS version for use by scripts. Optional. [The examples given in the manpage are for Fedora and Ubuntu releases. NOTE: These are examples and are not canonical since the whole field is optional.] VERSION identifies the OS version, possibly including a code name ID is a lower case identifier identifying the OS suitable for use in scripts HOME_URL, SUPPORT_URL and BUG_REPORT_URL are all optional: intended for distributions providing community support and not all of these need be given. I correctly pointed out that minor versions point releases have been of less relevance since prior to Debian 7 and the last time I can think of them as being very relevant indeed was prior to Debian 4.0 Debian isn't Ubuntu (or Red Hat Enterprise / CentOS / Fedora / OpenSUSE) ... Please don't impute motive to me: please do go away and read and learn as much as you feel able to do before complaining about inconsistencies which aren't. I would sinerely commend to you the Debian handbook - apt install debian-handbook will get you the PDF version: it is also worth springing for a paper version to keep at the computer side. [Also, obviously, at https://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals/#debian-handbook in HTML.] Alternatively, others less charitable might recommend Eric Raymond's classic: How To Ask Questions The Smart Way www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html With every good wish, Andy C (Debian user since 1994 and Debian developer since 1995) [amaca...@debian.org]
