Package: debian-edu-config
Version: 2.10.49

Hi,

we inventory Debian Edu hardware specifics of our customers with the
tool OCS Inventory. Other than hardware inventorying, the tool also
looks at /etc/lsb-release and shows the value of the
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION field in host lists. If /etc/lsb-release is
missing, the file /etc/os-release is used.

With plain Debian and plain Ubuntu systems, OCS Inventory is able to
obtain the distro version from that field. You can use OCS Inventory
to monitor workstation migrations and track what system has the latest
distro version and what systems still require a dist-upgrade.

On Debian Edu system, the /etc/lsb-release is shipped like below:

```
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="DebianEdu/Skolelinux"
```

This has been like this for several releases now. The problem with
that description value is: I can't tell the Debian Edu version that a
system has installed from that field. And due to /etc/lsb-release
being preferred (if present) to /etc/os-release, all information
contained in /etc/os-release gets ignored.

Ubuntu ships /etc/lsb-release like this:

```
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS"
```

IMHO, we could improve Debian Edu's lsb-release file, so that the
distro version can be obtained from the DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION field.

An alternative option could be: drop our /etc/lsb-release from Debian
Edu systems completely.

Comments? Feedback?

Mike

[Mike Gabriel]

I would recommend to use the output from "lsb_release -a" instead of
failing to replicate the logic used by lsb_release to figure out the
current status.  On a Debian Edu machine it returns this:

  No LSB modules are available.
  Distributor ID: Debian
  Description:    DebianEdu/Skolelinux
  Release:        9.6
  Codename:       stretch