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OS-RELEASE(5)		       File Formats Manual		   OS-RELEASE(5)

NAME
     os-release -- file describing the current OS and some of its attributes

DESCRIPTION
     The  os-release  file is a new-line separated list of key value pairs.  The
     syntax of this file is a reduced sh(1) variable assignment with the follow-
     ing restrictions:

     *	 Strings cannot be concatenated together

     *	 No variable expansion is done

     *	 All shell special characters must be quoted as documented in sh(1)

     *	 Variable assignments must be included inside of double quotes	if  they
	 contain characters outside of A-Z, a-z and 0-9

     *	 All strings should be UTF-8 format

     *	 Non-printable characters should not be used in the strings

     Lines starting with the character `#' are ignored as comments.

VARIABLES
     The following variables are defined by the standard.
     NAME	 A string describing the preferred OS name.
     VERSION	 Version string for the OS, in its usual and customary format.
     ID 	 Lower	case  version  of the name with only a-z, 0-9, `.', `-',
		 and `_'.
     VERSION_ID  Lower case version of the version with only a-z, 0-9, `.', `-',
		 and `_'.
     PRETTY_NAME
		 A pretty version of the name presented to the user.   May  con-
		 tain release information.
     ANSI_COLOR  Suggested color presentation for the OS.  This string should be
		 suitable  for	inclusion  within an ESC [ m ANSI/ECMA-48 escape
		 sequence to render the OS in its preferred color.   This  vari-
		 able is optional.
     CPE_NAME	 A  CPE  name for the operating system.  This field shall follow
		 the NIST Common Platform Enumeration specification.
     HOME_URL
     SUPPORT_URL
     BUG_REPORT_URL
     PRIVACY_POLICY_URL
		 Links on the internet, in RFC 3986 format for different aspects
		 of this OS.  These variables are optional.
     BUILD_ID	 A string identifying the build.  This variable is optional.
     VARIANT	 A string describing the variant of this operating system.  This
		 variable is optional.
     VARIANT_ID  Lower case version of the variant with only a-z, 0-9, `.', `-',
		 and `_'.  This variable is optional.

     All other variables have no standard-defined meaning.

FILES
     /etc/os-release
		 Symbolic link to actual os-release file.
     /var/run/os-release
		 Generated os-release file describing the currently running sys-
		 tem.

SEE ALSO
     CPE Specification
		 https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/security-content-automation-protocol/scap-specifications/cpe
     RFC 3986	 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986
     os-release Specification
		 https://www.linux.org/docs/man5/os-release.html

HISTORY
     This file first appeared in FreeBSD 13.0.

FreeBSD 15.1			November 23, 2021		   OS-RELEASE(5)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=os-release&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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