The Linux Standard Base (http://www.linuxbase.org/) is a standard core system that third-party applications written for Linux can depend upon.

The lsb-release command is a simple tool to help identify the Linux distribution being used and its compliance with the Linux Standard Base. LSB conformance will not be reported unless the required metapackages are installed.

While it is intended for use by LSB packages, this command may also be useful for programmatically distinguishing between a pure Debian installation and derived distributions.