how to get linux distributions name in java?

[mahdi farzami]

Hi
how can i get linux distributions name in java ??? i try it by Syatem.getProperty("os.name") but this return only "Linux" !!!
is any way to return like fedora , suse , ... ???
thanks

[Matt Cartwright]

os.name basically gives you the same as the UNIX command "uname" when invoked with no parameters.

For Red Hat and family you could read the file /etc/redhat-release.

It will give you something like:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.4 (Tikanga)

CentOS release 5.4 (Final)

Fedora release 12 (Constantine)

Hope that helps.
Matt

[mahdi farzami]

thanks my frieand
it`s seem`s this file is diffrent in other distribiutions , is any other common file
thanks

[Rob Spoor]

You can try using ProcessBuilder* to execute "uname -a". In which case you must read this article.

* I prefer it over Runtime.exec() since it has just a bit more features (error to output redirecting being the most important one).

[Matt Cartwright]

Rob Prime wrote:You can try using ProcessBuilder* to execute "uname -a".

uname isn't able to tell what Linux distro the host is running.

and as with /etc/redhat-release, the output for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and
Oracle Enterprise Linux (Unbreakable Linux) will be exactly the same.

If you then run it on Nexenta (some say it is Linux because of its Debian packages)
you get some funny stuff like "SunOS" at the beginning and "Solaris" at the end.

On Nexenta as well as OpenSolaris the user's uname is /usr/gnu/bin/uname.
On Intel and Sparc Solaris it is /sbin/uname and not even on your path.

Regarding architecture, who do you believe?

public class OSInfo
{

   public static void main( String[] args )
   {
      System.out.println("OS name            : "
            + System.getProperty("os.name", "unknown"));

      System.out.println("OS version         : "
            + System.getProperty("os.version", "unknown"));

      System.out.println("OS architecture  : "
            + System.getProperty("os.arch", "unknown"));

   }

}

CentOS 5.4

matt@talon:~$ java OSInfo
OS name : Linux
OS version : 2.6.18-164.11.1.el5
OS architecture : i386
matt@talon:~$ uname -m
i686


Fedora 12

matt@maverick:~$ java OSInfo
OS name : Linux
OS version : 2.6.32.9-70.fc12.x86_64
OS architecture : amd64
matt@maverick:~$ uname -m
x86_64


Intel Solaris

matt@sidewinder:~$ java OSInfo
OS name : SunOS
OS version : 5.11
OS architecture : x86
matt@sidewinder:~$ /sbin/uname -m
i86pc


From my point of view, if you wanna make system calls, don't use a system exit.
Write your program in C and rely on POSIX standards.

just an opinion
Matt