I am trying to determine what flavor of linux server is running. I am not trying to determine the kernel version - but rater the distributor.

gcc is installed, and in the version output, it says RedHat

```
# gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-11)

```

Does this mean I can safely assume my server is a RedHat server. Is there a better - 100% bulletproof method to find this out? Also for other linux flavors - not just this server?

Edit: contents of `/etc/` in case it helps - but I would like a solution that works for other versions of linux too.

```
# ls /etc/
./              backupmxhosts  domainusers     host.conf     localdomains  mailips        pam.d/      relayhosts               shadow              trustedmailhosts
../             bashrc*        exim.conf       inputrc       localtime     man.config     passwd      resolv.conf              skipsmtpcheckhosts  userdomains
DIR_COLORS      cron.deny      exim.pl         ld.so.cache   lynx.cfg      mtab           profile     secondarymx              spammeripblocks     vimrc
aliases         demodomains    exim.pl.local*  ld.so.conf    mail/         my.cnf         profile.d/  senderverifybypasshosts  sudoers
antivirus.exim  demouids       group           localaliases  mailhelo      nsswitch.conf  protocols   services                 termcap

```

I have no `*release` or `*version`files in `/etc/`

```
# ls /etc*release; ls /etc/*version
/bin/ls: /etc/*release: No such file or directory
/bin/ls: /etc/*version: No such file or directory

```

I tried LSB

```
# lsb_release -a
LSB Version:
Distributor ID: n/a
Description:    (none)
Release:        n/a
Codename:       n/a

```

Also - I guess I am inside a `chroot jail` (not really sure what that is) which could likely be the cause for this issue.

---

Updated:
--------

I think this does it for me. I think I can safely assume I am using cent-os.

```
# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.9-103.plus.c4smp (mockbuild@builder10.centos.org) (gcc version 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-11)) #1 SMP Wed Dec 21 16:17:23 EST 2011

```