Linux Release Info

Get Linux release info (distribution name, version, arch, release, etc.) from '/etc/os-release' or '/usr/lib/os-release' files and from native os module. On Windows and Darwin platforms it only returns common node os module info (platform, hostname, release, and arch)

Key Features

• Secure and lightweight: (without any dependencies, only native Node modules)
• Asynchronous file reading
• Synchronous file reading (NEW feature version >= 2.0.0)
• Specify custom os-release file
• Written in TypeScript
• Well documented and easy to use

Installation

npm install --save linux-release-info

or

yarn add linux-release-info

Usage

Basic usage (async)

const {releaseInfo} = require('linux-release-info');

releaseInfo()
    .then(result => {
        console.log(`You are using ${result.pretty_name} on a ${result.arch} machine`); // Distro name (only on linux) and arch info
    })
    .catch(err => console.error(`Error reading OS release info: ${err}`))

Outputs:

> You are using Ubuntu 17.10 on a x64 machine

Synchronous read

const releaseInfo = require('linux-release-info');

try {
    const infoSyncData = releaseInfo({mode: 'sync'});
    console.log(`You are using ${infoSyncData.pretty_name} on a ${infoSyncData.arch} machine`)    
} catch (err) {
    console.error(`Error reading OS release info: ${err}`);
}

Custom os_release file

const infoSyncData = releaseInfo({mode: 'sync', custom_file: '/home/user/os_release_sample'), debug: true});

Options

Property	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	async	'sync' or 'async' mode
custom_file	string	null/none	custom complete filepath with os info. If not provided the system will search on the /etc/os-release and /usr/lib/os-release files
debug	boolean	false	shows console debug messages

Sample outputs

Linux

{ type: 'Linux',
  platform: 'linux',
  hostname: 'VirtualBoxLINUX',
  arch: 'x64',
  release: '4.13.0-32-generic',
  name: 'Ubuntu',
  version: '17.10 (Artful Aardvark)',
  id: 'ubuntu',
  id_like: 'debian',
  pretty_name: 'Ubuntu 17.10',
  version_id: '17.10',
  home_url: 'https://www.ubuntu.com/',
  support_url: 'https://help.ubuntu.com/',
  bug_report_url: 'https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/',
  privacy_policy_url: 'https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy',
  version_codename: 'artful',
  ubuntu_codename: 'artful' }

Linux (Raspberry Pi)

{ type: 'Linux',
  platform: 'linux',
  hostname: 'raspberrypi',
  arch: 'arm',
  release: '4.19.118-v7+',
  pretty_name: 'Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)',
  name: 'Raspbian GNU/Linux',
  version_id: '10',
  version: '10 (buster)',
  version_codename: 'buster',
  id: 'raspbian',
  id_like: 'debian',
  home_url: 'http://www.raspbian.org/',
  support_url: 'http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums',
  bug_report_url: 'http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs' }

Linux (Fedora)

{ type: 'Linux',
  platform: 'linux',
  hostname: 'localhost-live',
  arch: 'x64',
  release: '4.13.9-300.fc27.x86_64',
  name: 'Fedora',
  version: '27 (Workstation Edition)',
  id: 'fedora',
  version_id: '27',
  pretty_name: 'Fedora 27 (Workstation Edition)',
  ansi_color: '0;34',
  cpe_name: 'cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:27',
  home_url: 'https://fedoraproject.org/',
  support_url: 'https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicating_and_getting_help',
  bug_report_url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/',
  redhat_bugzilla_product: 'Fedora',
  redhat_bugzilla_product_version: '27',
  redhat_support_product: 'Fedora',
  redhat_support_product_version: '27',
  privacy_policy_url: 'https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy',
  variant: 'Workstation Edition',
  variant_id: 'workstation' }

Windows

{ type: 'Windows_NT',
  platform: 'win32',
  hostname: 'MYPC',
  arch: 'x64',
  release: '10.0.16299' }

macOS

{ type: 'Darwin',
  platform: 'darwin',
  hostname: 'Macbook-Air.home',
  arch: 'x64',
  release: '16.0.0' }

Requirements

You need Node.js v.8.x or greater to use the version 2.x of this module

About the sync mode

It's not recommended to use blocking functions to access the filesystem. Use the synchronous mode only if you need to.

Extra tip

If you want info about Windows or Mac releases, you can try the following modules from sindresorhus:

• https://www.npmjs.com/package/win-release

or

• https://www.npmjs.com/package/macos-release

License

• Licensed under MIT

• Copyright (c) 2018-2020 [Samuel Carreira]