Determine base Ubuntu version

Question

I'm trying to contribute with Docker's install script by providing auto distribution detection support for elementary OS, so, elementary OS users would be automatically detected when using Docker's official install script.

The script will add an apt repository with the following command:

echo "deb https://apt.dockerproject.org/repo ${lsb_dist}-${dist_version} ${repo}" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list

Where lsb_dist=elementary, dist_version=freya and repo=main in Freya.

After that it'll do apt-get update and install the "docker-engine" package.

Though, Docker apt repository doesn't have entries for elementary OS. I've tested using "ubuntu-trusty" repository and it works just fine in Freya.

So, I want to use Ubuntu repositories to setup Docker for elementary, but I would like to avoid hard coding elementary OS correspondent base Ubuntu versions, if that's possible.

Question:

Is there a file or command which will tell me what's elementary OS' base Ubuntu version, and works in all elementary OS versions?

Answer 1

You can find the "upstream release" codename using the -u flag with lsb_release commands. Try it with the following command in Terminal:

lsb_release -a -u

On Freya, it gives me the following output:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Release:    14.04
Codename:   trusty

Without the -u flag, you'll get our info as follows:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: elementary OS
Description:    elementary OS Freya
Release:    0.3
Codename:   freya

Answer 2

You can use uname -v which gives the full Ubuntu based version unlike the other answers. Output is below :

#49~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 31 15:44:49 UTC 2015

If you need to only print the version (like in scripts) you can useuname -v | cut -c 5- | cut -f1 -d"-" which prints 14.04.1 on my laptop. Any improvements for the command that only prints the version are welcome

Answer 3

You can find it in the Settings/About page.

Answer 4

Every version of elementary OS is built on top of the current Ubuntu's LTS versions. I don't think that there's a command that will tell you that, but here's what was done so far:

• elementary OS Jupiter was built on top of the Ubuntu 10.04 (thanks to PNG for the confirmation).
• elementary OS Luna was built on top of the Ubuntu 12.04.
• elementary OS Freya was built on top of the Ubuntu 14.04.
• elementary OS Loki (note: the code name for this version might be changed) will probably be built on top of the Ubuntu 16.06 version (at the moment, there is no official confirmation nor denial).

Example: Node.js setup script has alternative distros all hard coded.