WhichDistroSharp 1.0.1

WhichDistroSharp is a unofficial .NET wrapper for Which-Distro's os-release archive, allowing for easy platform detection in just one LoC!

See the CHANGELOG.md for what changed in each release.

Supported Distros

For a list of supported distos, click here

Basic Usage (Detects distro name only)

using WhichDistroSharp;
using static WhichDistroSharp.WhichDistroSharp;

// Distro detection
Distro distro = Detect();

Console.WriteLine($"Detected Distro: {distro}");
Console.WriteLine($"Was Found: {distro.WasFound()}");

Advanced Usage (Detects distro and os-release info)

using WhichDistroSharp;
using static WhichDistroSharp.WhichDistroSharp;

// Detecting the current distro.
Distro distro = Detect();

if (!distro.WasFound()) {
    Console.Error.WriteLine("Failed to detect the linux distro running on the current machine");
    Environment.Exit(1);
}

Console.WriteLine($"Detected Distro: {distro}");
Console.WriteLine($"Was Found: {distro.WasFound()}");
Console.WriteLine();

// Each distro object has source generated Is* methods, where * represents a distro name.
Console.WriteLine($"Is Linux Mint: {distro.IsLinuxmint()}");
Console.WriteLine($"Is Ubuntu: {distro.IsUbuntu()}");
Console.WriteLine($"Is Ubuntu: {distro.IsDebian()}");
Console.WriteLine($"Is Fedora: {distro.IsFedora()}");
Console.WriteLine($"Is Raspbian: {distro.IsRaspbian()}");
Console.WriteLine();

// Method 1: Parsing the /etc/os-release file for the current distro.
IOsRelease? info = OsReleaseInfo.GetInfo(distro);

if (info == null) {
    Console.Error.WriteLine("Failed to detect the os-release information for the distro running on the current machine");
    Environment.Exit(1);
}

// Displaying OS Release info 
Console.WriteLine($"OS Release Info:");
Console.WriteLine($"  Name: {info.NAME}");
Console.WriteLine($"  Version: {info.VERSION_ID}");
Console.WriteLine($"  Pretty Name: {info.PRETTY_NAME}");



// Method 2: Parsing /etc/os-release without specifying a distro.
// This is mostly used for debugging purposes, although it may fit your specific needs.
IPlatform platform = DetectPlatform();
Console.WriteLine($"Name: {platform.Name}");
Console.WriteLine($"ID: {platform.Id}");
Console.WriteLine($"Version: {platform.VersionId}");
Console.WriteLine($"Pretty Name: {platform.PrettyName}");
Console.WriteLine();

Package managers

Distros/package-managers.json serves as the source of truth for all build operations. This file will be updated by hand due to a variety of edge cases, including, but not limited to:

• arch/arch and gentoo/gentoo declaring no ID_LIKE value, therefore deriving their family from the upstream archive would be impossible.

• centos/7 and centos/9 declare the same value for ID_LIKE but declare yum and dnf respectively.

Every directory under Distros/ MUST be given an entry. Failure to do so will throw an exception (DSG006-DSG009). This also applies to a version key with no data sample, an unparseable enum, or an empty string is provided for "unknownReason".

Example:

"wolfsome": {
  "packageManager": "Unknown",
  "unknownReason": "no primary package manager; see the fastabi doc",
  "packageType": "Unknown"
}

Reading the data

using WhichDistroSharp;

static void WritePackages(IDistroPackageInfo? packages, string? label = null, string indent = "  ")
{
    if (label != null) {
        Console.WriteLine($"{indent}{label}:");
    }

    if (packages == null) {
        Console.WriteLine($"{indent}  no data found in upstream");
        return;
    }

    Console.WriteLine($"{indent}  manager: {packages.PackageManager}");
    Console.WriteLine($"{indent}  family:  {packages.Family}");
    Console.WriteLine($"{indent}  install: {packages.PackageManagerCommand} {packages.InstallCommand}");
    Console.WriteLine($"{indent}  remove:  {packages.PackageManagerCommand} {packages.UninstallCommand}");
    Console.WriteLine($"{indent}  query:   {packages.QueryCommand} {packages.QueryArguments}");

    // Only dpkg needs a keyword for confirmation. 
    // The process exits with code 0 for a package that is known but not installed.
    Console.WriteLine($"{indent}  keyword: {(packages.InstallKeyword is null ? "(none)" : $"\"{packages.InstallKeyword}\"")}");
    Console.WriteLine($"{indent}  format:  {packages.PackageType.GetPackageFileType()}");
    Console.WriteLine();
}

// Most functions can be called with a single Distro parameter.

// Ubuntu package manager example
IDistroPackageInfo? UbuntuPackageInfo = PackageManagerInfo.GetInfo(Distro.Ubuntu);

if (UbuntuPackageInfo != null) {
    WritePackages(UbuntuPackageInfo, "Ubuntu package manager example");
}

// Some distros change manager between major versions, so the answer is version aware.
IDistroPackageInfo? centos7PackageInfo = PackageManagerInfo.GetInfo(Distro.Centos, "7");   // yum
IDistroPackageInfo? centos9PackageInfo = PackageManagerInfo.GetInfo(Distro.Centos, "9");   // dnf

if (centos7PackageInfo != null) {
    WritePackages(centos7PackageInfo, "CentOS 7 package manager example");
}

else if (centos9PackageInfo != null) {
    WritePackages(centos9PackageInfo, "CentOS 9 package manager example");
}

// A constant representing a distro that was not present in the os-release upstream archive.
IDistroPackageInfo nothing = PackageManagerInfo.Unknown;

// If a distro is not included in the upstream os-release archive, this fails loudly instead of spawning a process named "unknown".
WritePackages(nothing, label: "Example of an unresolved distro");