How to find out what Debian version a system is running
Just issue the command:
# cat /etc/debian_version
squeeze/sid
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How to find out what Ubuntu version a system is running
There are two ways:
# cat /etc/issue Ubuntu 9.10 \n \l
or
# lsb_release -a Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 9.10 Release: 9.10 Codename: karmic
The latter is slower but gives more information.