man: make clear that VERSION and VERSION_ID is not mandatory in os-release.5

[elogind.git] / man / os-release.xml

diff --git a/man/os-release.xml b/man/os-release.xml
index c6eb28f395f3d2112192ad845e87182248426f14..b5f42b2eeccef7092669ec4609f9a32a3b9c94e7 100644 (file)
--- a/man/os-release.xml
+++ b/man/os-release.xml
@@ -167,9 +167,15 @@
 
                 <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
+                accomodate 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>