Sometimes you will be given a dedicated server or a VPS and you won't know exactly which flavor or distribution of Linux it is running.
Here is how you can find out when logged in through SSH:
# uname -a
This generally won't tell you as much as you'd like.
# cat /proc/version
This will generally tell you more than you'd like.
Once you know that you are running Red Hat for example, you can get to the point with:
# cat /etc/redhat-release
Or on Debian:
# cat /etc/debian_version
8 comments
Comment from: Ralph
Comment from: Anonymous
Thanks. This was what I was looking for.
Comment from: Web Design Montreal
Thank you I did # cat /proc/version and worked perfectly on Red hat
Comment from: Anand
use
#cat /etc/issue or
#cat /etc/issue.net
Comment from: sena
I was struggling to know which linux flavour my server runs. The cmd was really helpful :) Thanks.
Comment from: Sandeep
Thanks a lot for sharing this :)
Comment from: ben
Awesome, thanks :)
Comment from: cloudminister
Thank you for sharing this informative blog. it’s very helpful for us.
#cat /etc/lsb-release ##Gives distro’s ID, Release, Codename, and Discription