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Re: debian version ID

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On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 12:27:31PM +0100, Jonathan de Boyne Pollard wrote:
> Felix Miata:
> 
> >Will someone please explain (or point to, since it's not in release
> >notes), why:
> >1: /etc/os-release (in Jessie at least) does not include the point release
> >version as represented by /etc/debian_version
> 
> Andrew M.A. Cater:
> 
> >/etc/os-release just contains major version - the absolute need for minor
> >version is small.
> 
> Jonathan de Boyne Pollard:
> 
> >You are going to have to explain that to its manual page, which gives
> >VERSION_ID=11.04 as an example of what can be in the file.
> 
> Pascal Hambourg:
> 
> >This is obviously not a Debian version. Rather looks like Ubuntu.
> 
> That is irrelevant.  M. Miata asked for a reason.  M. Cater responded.
> Either M. Cater is responding to explain why or xe is not explainining but
> merely repeating what M. Miata already knows and wants to know the reason
> for.  As an explanation why, it is clearly wrong, from simply reading the
> user manual.  What the version number in the manual might be is simply
> irrelevant.

What part of the man pages are you finding hard to read: it's worth noting that much of this is optional

The below is the version from Debian Jessie [/etc/os-release is a symlink to/from /usr/lib/os-release]

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="8"
VERSION="8 (jessie)"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

PRETTY_NAME is a name in a format suitable for presentation to the user. May (or may not) contain a release name or OS version of some kind. If it's not set,
the default is Linux.
NAME identifies the operating system without a version component
VERSION_ID  is a lower case string, mostly numeric identifyng the OS version for use by scripts. Optional. 
[The examples given in the manpage are for Fedora and Ubuntu releases. NOTE: These are examples and are not canonical since the whole field is optional.]
VERSION identifies the OS version, possibly including a code name
ID is a lower case identifier identifying the OS suitable for use in scripts
HOME_URL, SUPPORT_URL and BUG_REPORT_URL are all optional: intended for distributions providing community support and not all of these need be given.

I correctly pointed out that minor versions point releases have been of less relevance since prior to Debian 7 and the last time I can think of them as being very 
relevant indeed was prior to Debian 4.0

Debian isn't Ubuntu (or Red Hat Enterprise / CentOS / Fedora / OpenSUSE) ...

Please don't impute motive to me: please do go away and read and learn as much as you feel able to do before complaining about inconsistencies which aren't.
I would sinerely commend to you the Debian handbook - apt install debian-handbook will get you the PDF version: it is also worth springing for a paper version
to keep at the computer side. [Also, obviously, at https://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals/#debian-handbook in HTML.]

Alternatively, others less charitable might recommend Eric Raymond's classic: How To Ask Questions The Smart Way www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

With every good wish,

Andy C (Debian user since 1994 and Debian developer since 1995)

[amacater@debian.org]

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Thread

debian version ID Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2016-08-01 09:00 +0200
  Re: debian version ID Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au> - 2016-08-01 09:30 +0200
    Re: debian version ID Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2016-08-01 11:00 +0200
      Re: debian version ID Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au> - 2016-08-01 12:00 +0200
  Re: debian version ID "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@galactic.demon.co.uk> - 2016-08-01 09:40 +0200
    debian version ID Jonathan de Boyne Pollard <J.deBoynePollard-newsgroups@NTLWorld.com> - 2016-08-09 11:10 +0200
      Re: debian version ID Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2016-08-09 13:40 +0200
        Re: debian version ID Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-08-09 22:40 +0200
          Re: debian version ID David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-08-10 02:00 +0200
            Re: debian version ID Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2016-08-10 14:40 +0200
              Re: debian version ID David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-08-11 17:10 +0200
        debian version ID Jonathan de Boyne Pollard <J.deBoynePollard-newsgroups@NTLWorld.com> - 2016-08-29 13:50 +0200
          Re: debian version ID "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@galactic.demon.co.uk> - 2016-08-29 20:30 +0200
            Re: debian version ID "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@galactic.demon.co.uk> - 2016-08-29 21:50 +0200
              Re: debian version ID Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com> - 2016-08-30 00:40 +0200
  Re: debian version ID David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-08-01 16:40 +0200

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