Check Slackware Version

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There are two most commonly used ways to check the Slackware version.

The first one is the file /etc/slackware-version that shows the system version.

$ cat /etc/slackware-version 
Slackware 15.0

The second method shows more detailed information about the system in this file /etc/os-release.

$ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME=Slackware 
VERSION="15.0" 
ID=slackware 
VERSION_ID=15.0 
PRETTY_NAME="Slackware 15.0 x86_64" 
ANSI_COLOR="0;34" 
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:slackware:slackware_linux:15.0" 
HOME_URL="http://slackware.com/" 
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/" 
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/" 
VERSION_CODENAME=stable

You can easily load the information from this file and use it in your shell script using the command source.

$ source /etc/os-release
$ echo "Distribution: $NAME" 
Distribution: Slackware