> We currently have an extensive automated regression test suite that runs on
> multiple Linux distros, including RH, straight Debian, and [K]ubuntu, with
> SuSE to follow shortly. Is there an easy way to check what the underlying
> Linux distribution is? I suppose when installing the OS, we could create a
> /etc/distro, but that seems so... well I am not sure what the word is, maybe
> "uncool".
I don't know if there is a distro-independent way of figuring it out,
but I can tell you that RedHat and CentOS distros put the name and
version number of the release in /etc/redhat-release.
Ubuntu systems use /etc/lsb-release to hold the distro data.
I do not have any knowledge of what other distros may use.