<para>If you interpreting this file from code or a
shell script, use the ID and VERSION_ID fields. When
- looking for an OS indetification string for
+ looking for an OS identification string for
presentation to the user use the PRETTY_STRING
field.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that operating system vendors may choose
+ not to provide version information, for example to
+ accommodate for rolling releases. In this case VERSION
+ and VERSION_ID may be unset. Applications should not
+ rely on these fields to be set.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Example</title>
<programlisting>NAME=Fedora
-VERSION=15 (Rawhide)
+VERSION="15 (Rawhide)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=15
-PRETTY_NAME=Fedora 15 (Rawhide)
+PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 15 (Rawhide)"
ANSI_COLOR=0;34</programlisting>
</refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>lsb_release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>lsb_release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>hostname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-info</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
</para>
</refsect1>