chiark / gitweb /
move imported udev into place
[elogind.git] / man / os-release.xml
index 8ffb5de48d568e53df82e81902829160e893de28..ff8fdf16be1f30bb88f4dd12dfc135acd470d37c 100644 (file)
                 <para>As this file only encodes names and identifiers
                 it should not be localized.</para>
 
+                <para>The file <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> might
+                be a symlink to another file, but it is important that
+                the file is available from earliest boot on, and hence
+                must be located on the root file system.</para>
+
                 <para>For a longer rationale for
                 <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> please refer to
                 the <ulink
                                 <literal>ID=centos</literal> an
                                 assignment of <literal>ID_LIKE="rhel
                                 fedora"</literal> would be
-                                appropriate. For an operating systemd
+                                appropriate. For an operating system
                                 with <literal>ID=ubuntu</literal> an
                                 assignment of
                                 <literal>ID_LIKE=debian</literal> is
                 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>
+
+                <para>Operating system vendors may extend the file
+                format and introduce new fields. It is highly
+                recommended to prefix new fields with an OS specific
+                name in order to avoid name clashes. Applications
+                reading this file must ignore unknown fields. Example:
+                <literal>DEBIAN_BTS="debbugs://bugs.debian.org/"</literal></para>
         </refsect1>
 
         <refsect1>