Best way to find os name and version in Unix/Linux platform

This work fine for all Linux environment.

#!/bin/shcat /etc/*-release

In Ubuntu:

$ cat /etc/*-releaseDISTRIB_ID=UbuntuDISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucidDISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS"

or 12.04:

$ cat /etc/*-releaseDISTRIB_ID=UbuntuDISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04DISTRIB_CODENAME=preciseDISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS"NAME="Ubuntu"VERSION="12.04.4 LTS, Precise Pangolin"ID=ubuntuID_LIKE=debianPRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu precise (12.04.4 LTS)"VERSION_ID="12.04"

In RHEL:

$ cat /etc/*-releaseRed Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.5 (Santiago)Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.5 (Santiago)

Or Use this Script:

#!/bin/sh# Detects which OS and if it is Linux then it will detect which Linux# Distribution.OS=`uname -s`REV=`uname -r`MACH=`uname -m`GetVersionFromFile(){    VERSION=`cat $1 | tr "\n" ' ' | sed s/.*VERSION.*=\ // `}if [ "${OS}" = "SunOS" ] ; then    OS=Solaris    ARCH=`uname -p`     OSSTR="${OS} ${REV}(${ARCH} `uname -v`)"elif [ "${OS}" = "AIX" ] ; then    OSSTR="${OS} `oslevel` (`oslevel -r`)"elif [ "${OS}" = "Linux" ] ; then    KERNEL=`uname -r`    if [ -f /etc/redhat-release ] ; then        DIST='RedHat'        PSUEDONAME=`cat /etc/redhat-release | sed s/.*\(// | sed s/\)//`        REV=`cat /etc/redhat-release | sed s/.*release\ // | sed s/\ .*//`    elif [ -f /etc/SuSE-release ] ; then        DIST=`cat /etc/SuSE-release | tr "\n" ' '| sed s/VERSION.*//`        REV=`cat /etc/SuSE-release | tr "\n" ' ' | sed s/.*=\ //`    elif [ -f /etc/mandrake-release ] ; then        DIST='Mandrake'        PSUEDONAME=`cat /etc/mandrake-release | sed s/.*\(// | sed s/\)//`        REV=`cat /etc/mandrake-release | sed s/.*release\ // | sed s/\ .*//`    elif [ -f /etc/debian_version ] ; then        DIST="Debian `cat /etc/debian_version`"        REV=""    fi    if [ -f /etc/UnitedLinux-release ] ; then        DIST="${DIST}[`cat /etc/UnitedLinux-release | tr "\n" ' ' | sed s/VERSION.*//`]"    fi    OSSTR="${OS} ${DIST} ${REV}(${PSUEDONAME} ${KERNEL} ${MACH})"fiecho ${OSSTR}

Following command worked out for me nicely. It gives you the OS name and version.

lsb_release -a

The "lsb_release" command provides certain Linux Standard Base and distribution-specific information.So using the below command we can get Operating system name and operating system version.

"lsb_release -a"