distro

The distro library is refreshingly simple and does exactly what it promises: provides reliable Linux distribution information without the deprecated platform.linux_distribution(). In real projects, I appreciate that it has zero runtime dependencies, which dramatically reduces supply chain risk. The API is straightforward—usually just calling distro.id(), distro.version(), or distro.name() gets you what you need.

From a security perspective, this library excels at being boring in the best way. It reads from /etc/os-release and similar files with predictable behavior, doesn't make network calls, and has minimal code paths to audit. Error handling is sensible—returns empty strings rather than throwing exceptions when detection fails, which prevents information leakage in error messages. The parsing logic is conservative and doesn't execute arbitrary code.

The main limitation is that it's Linux-only, so you need fallback logic for cross-platform code. The library correctly returns empty values on non-Linux systems rather than failing catastrophically, which makes defensive coding straightforward.

The distro package does one thing well: it reliably identifies Linux distributions and their versions. In production, this library has been rock solid - it's essentially a parser for /etc/os-release and similar files with zero external dependencies. The API is straightforward with functions like distro.id(), distro.version(), and distro.name() that return immediately with no I/O blocking concerns.

From an operations perspective, this is exactly what you want: no connection pools to manage, no retry logic needed, and negligible memory footprint. It reads distribution info once and caches it, so repeated calls are essentially free. The library handles missing or malformed distribution files gracefully, returning empty strings rather than throwing exceptions. I've deployed this across hundreds of containers and VMs without a single runtime issue.

The main limitation is it only works on Linux - you'll need platform.system() checks if supporting Windows/Mac. There's no structured logging or observability hooks, but frankly, for a library this simple, you don't need them. Performance is never a concern; this adds microseconds to startup at most.

The distro package is a straightforward utility for detecting Linux distribution information by parsing /etc/os-release and similar system files. From a security perspective, it's refreshingly simple - zero external dependencies means minimal supply chain risk, and the codebase is small enough to audit quickly. The library reads system files predictably without making network calls or executing shell commands, which is exactly what you want for this functionality.

In practice, it handles parsing edge cases well and fails gracefully on missing or malformed files. Error handling returns empty strings rather than throwing exceptions, which prevents information leakage but requires you to validate outputs. The API is read-only with no state mutation, eliminating entire classes of vulnerabilities. I've used it for platform-specific dependency installation and feature detection in CI/CD pipelines without issues.

The maintainer has been responsive to security concerns historically, and the Apache 2.0 license is enterprise-friendly. For OS detection needs, this is far safer than rolling your own solution or parsing platform.linux_distribution() output.