I can easily do the patch to ignore symlinks and /etc/lsb-release but I am
not sure of the appropriate way to look for lsb_update command, is
distutils.spawn.find_executable( 'lsb_release' ) ok ?
If you need the patch earlier than begining of next week, you should do it.
Otherwise I can make it.

On Mandriva 2007.1, the command exists if the package "lsb-release" is
installed. I do not know if it is always installed (I selected a checkbox
"LSB" during install, this checkbox is unchecked by default).
The output is:

[yann@localhost ~]$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version:
lsb-3.1-ia32:lsb-3.1-noarch:core-3.0-ia32:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:cxx-3.0-ia32:cxx-3.0-noarch:graphics-3.0-ia32:graphics-3.0-noarch:lsb-3.0-ia32:lsb-3.0-noarch:qt4-3.1-ia32:qt4-3.1-noarch
Distributor ID: MandrivaLinux
Description:    Mandriva Linux
Release:        2007.1
Codename:       Official

[yann@localhost ~]$ lsb_release -i
Distributor ID: MandrivaLinux

[yann@localhost ~]$ lsb_release -d
Description:    Mandriva Linux

[yann@localhost ~]$ lsb_release -r
Release:        2007.1

On Fedora 4 (rather old) , the command is in the package "redhat-lsb".

yc176684:src$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version:    1.3
Distributor ID: FedoraCore
Description:    Fedora Core release 4 (Stentz)
Release:        4
Codename:       Stentz

yc176684:src$ lsb_release -i
Distributor ID: FedoraCore

yc176684:src$ lsb_release -d
Description:    Fedora Core release 4 (Stentz)

yc176684:src$ lsb_release -r
Release:        4

On Fedora 7, the command is in the package "redhat-lsb" and seem to be
installed by default.

gargamel:riviere% lsb_release -a
LSB
Version:    :core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:
graphics-3.1-ia32:graphics-3.1-noarch
Distributor ID: Fedora
Description:    Fedora release 7 (Moonshine)
Release:        7
Codename:       Moonshine

gargamel:riviere% lsb_release -i
Distributor ID: Fedora

gargamel:riviere% lsb_release -d
Description:    Fedora release 7 (Moonshine)

gargamel:riviere% lsb_release -r
Release:        7

On 10/25/07, Raghuram Devarakonda < report@bugs.python.org> wrote:
>
>
> Raghuram Devarakonda added the comment:
>
> I think it is safe to ignore lsb-release. In fact, there seems to be a
> command "lsb_release" that gives information about distribution. On my
> SuSE box, this is what I get:
>
> marvin:~# lsb_release -i
> Distributor ID: SUSE LINUX
> marvin:~# lsb_release -d
> Description:    SUSE LINUX 10.1 (i586)
> marvin:~# lsb_release -r
> Release:        10.1
>
> sapetnioc, can you check if this command exists on your system and if
> so, it's output? platform.dist() can check for this command's existence
> and if present, can perhaps use it to glean distro information. Please
> let me know if you want to write the patch. I will do it otherwise.
>
> ----------
> nosy: +draghuram
>
> __________________________________
> Tracker <report@bugs.python.org >
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue1322 >
> __________________________________
>