How to get Linux distribution name and version?

Question

In Windows I read the registry key SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName to get the full name and version of the OS.

But in Linux, the code

struct utsname ver;
uname(&ver);
retVal = ver.sysname;

returns the string linux, not Ubuntu 9.04.

How can I get the Linux distribution name and version?

Answer 1

Usually:

cat /etc/issue

Answer 2

Not sure I followed exactly what your after but I think you just want the "all" flag on uname:

uname -a

Answer 3

Try:

cat /etc/lsb-release

You can also try

lsb_release -a

Or:

cat /proc/version