For some of you that has been dealing with Linux inside-out, or even upside-down, identifying your Linux box is a mere of running several commands.

For some others, remembering those commands itself is a challenge, as they could be the 'convert' from Windows

Here are several command that you could start memorizing in getting to know your Linux system:

root@ns1:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 9.10
Release:        9.10
Codename:       karmic
root@ns1:~# hostid
8f8819cf
root@ns1:~# uname -a
Linux ns1.mydomain.com 2.6.32.9 #6 SMP Thu Mar 11 00:00:00 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
root@ns1:~# hostname
ns1.mydomain.com

The commands that I used above are:

• lsb_release
  • This command is used to 'print distribution-specific information' (from 'man lsb_release'). If you don't have this command available, most probably either the package is not installed or you are not running Linux (with lsb support),
• hostid
  • This command is used to 'print the numeric identifier for the current host'. The numeric identifier is based in hexadecimal number. Most UNIX-based system -including Linux- have this command included,
• uname
  • This command is used to 'print system information'. The easy way to remember this is just like asking 'what is your name'. Some chat shorthand usually use 'u' for 'you'.
• hostname
  • This command is used to 'show or set the system's host name'. The same name shown in the 'prompt' if you set it that way (most Linux distribution set the hostname as part of the prompt anyway)

Hope this short article help provide some light post for you that just have completed (several) Linux install, and yet keep forgetting on how to check your system's identification.