Hi Ping,

> Hello,
> 
>      I'm wondering if there should be a /etc/scientific-release file
> instead of /etc/redhat-release?

I doubt this needs to be done since in effect, 3rd party RHEL distributions
are still technically RHEL distributions, and they all have that commonality.
Although you'll find within that file, their respective distribution will
correctly be listed.

Keeping this the way it is also allows third party developers to correctly
identify which distribution is running, as many currently use this file for
this purpose.

>      Another problem is that when I upgrade a red hat 9 box to SL 
> 3.0.4, the /etc/issue file still shows "Red Hat Linux release 9 
> (Shrike)" instead of "Scientific Linux SL Release 3.0.4 (SL)".  This 
> may cause an incorrect OS detection when building rpms on that SL box.

From memory under RH9, the /etc/issue file is created via an rc script. Within
SL, /etc/issue is provided from within the sl-release RPM package.

You may want to check that this SL package is installed. You may also like to
check whether you have any ".rpmnew" files located on your system from the
upgrade. Maybe also whether the rc script from RH9 which creates the
/etc/issue file is still running or not (actually if it is, then it should
write over that fileon boot). Lastly, you can edit the file manually to:

[root@gorilla root]# cat /etc/issue
Scientific Linux SL Release 3.0.4 (SL)
Kernel \r on an \m

Regards,

Michael.

> Regards,
> Ping