OS Info

A standardized format for describing operating system metadata, capabilities, and resources.

Overview

This project provides JSON schemas and examples for representing comprehensive information about operating systems in a structured, machine-readable format. The format includes:

• System metadata (identity, maintainers, versioning)
• Technical capabilities (kernel, platform, update strategy)
• System composition and core technologies
• Boot and firmware features
• Available resources (websites, documentation, social channels)

While other tools like lsb_release and os-release exist for basic OS identification, this project aims to provide a more comprehensive schema that includes capabilities, resources, and system composition details that those tools don't cover. Where lsb_release focuses on Linux compatibility information and os-release provides basic identification, os-info standardizes metadata about an OS's full feature set and ecosystem.

File Locations

The os-info files follow a standard layout and precedence order:

Primary Locations

• Runtime configuration: /etc/os-info.json
• System default: /usr/lib/os-info.json

These paths are typically symlinks to the appropriate OS definition file in the os-info data directory.

Data Directory Structure

/usr/lib/os-info/
├── os/                    # OS definitions
│   ├── serpent-os.json
│   ├── fedora.json
│   └── ...
└── technologies/          # Technology capabilities
    ├── moss.json
    ├── boulder.json
    └── ...

Precedence

Applications should check locations in this order:

1. /etc/os-info.json - System-specific configuration
2. /usr/lib/os-info.json - Vendor-provided default
3. /usr/lib/os-info/os/{id}.json - Base OS definition

This structure allows:

• Easy switching between OS definitions via symlinks
• Central storage of all OS definitions
• System-specific customizations when needed
• Clear separation between OS definitions and technology capabilities

Schema Structure

The project contains two main schemas:

• os-info.schema.json - The main schema for OS descriptions
• technology-capabilities.schema.json - Schema for describing individual technologies

Usage

1. Create a JSON file describing your OS using the schema at:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AerynOS/os-info/refs/heads/main/schema/0.1/os-info.schema.json

2. For each core technology, create a capabilities file using:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AerynOS/os-info/refs/heads/main/schema/0.1/technology-capabilities.schema.json

See sample.json for a complete example implementation.

Key Features

• Standardized version and identity tracking
• Support for tracking historical identity changes
• Detailed system composition and capabilities
• Structured resource links (documentation, social, funding)
• Atomic update and rollback information
• Platform and architecture specifications

Structure

.
├── crates/
│   └── os-info/           # Rust library implementation
├── schema/
│   └── 0.1/
│       ├── os-info.schema.json
│       └── technology-capabilities.schema.json
├── technologies/
│   └── *.json            # Technology capability definitions
└── sample.json           # Example OS info file

Rust Library

The project includes a Rust library for working with os-info files. The library provides:

• Type-safe structs representing the full OS info schema
• Serialization/deserialization via serde
• Helper functions for loading files
• Error handling for common failure cases

Usage

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
os-info = "0.1"

Basic example:

use os_info::{load_os_info_from_path, load_technology_from_path};

// Load and parse an OS info file
let os_info = load_os_info_from_path("os-info.json")?;

// Access the parsed data
println!("OS Name: {}", os_info.metadata.identity.name);
println!("Version: {}", os_info.metadata.version.full);

// Load technology capabilities
let tech = load_technology_from_path("technologies/moss.json")?;
println!("Technology: {}", tech.name);

The library provides strongly-typed structs for all schema components, making it easy to work with OS info data in a type-safe way.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests to:

• Add new schema fields for describing OS capabilities
• Improve schema validation rules
• Add examples for other operating systems
• Enhance documentation

License

os-info is available under the terms of the MPL-2.0