I am working on adding support for building and distributing (via PyPI) Python Wheels with C Extensions to the Python wheel and pip packages. The discussion on Distutils-SIG continues, but I believe it is fairly certain that some effort to correctly identify Linux distributions will need to be made. I've begun efforts to add this support to wheel.

If you have a Linux distribution or version of a listed distribution not in this gist, I could use the following:

• The contents of /etc/os-release, if it exists
• Whether or not the lsb_release program is installed, and whether it's part of a "default" install
• The output of lsb_release -a if installed
• The contents of /etc/lsb-release, if it exists
• The contents of any other /etc/*-release files
• Any other reliable way to determine the flavor and version of your Linux distribution, especially if none of the above exist

And finally, you can test the platform detection on your platform by downloading and installing (e.g. in a virtualenv) my changes to wheel and running:

% python -c 'import wheel.pep425tags; print wheel.pep425tags.get_platforms()'

e.g.:

% pip install -e 'hg+https://bitbucket.org/natefoo/wheel#egg=wheel'
% python -c 'import wheel.pep425tags; print wheel.pep425tags.get_platforms()'
['linux_x86_64_ubuntu_14_04', 'linux_x86_64', 'any']

If lsb_release is optional on your system and especially if /etc/os-release does not exist, it'd be even more helpful to run the above prior to installing lsb_release, and again afterward.

Doesn't include a version or version_id, so this results in reading the distro name from /etc/os-release but version detection falls through to the "legacy" method of reading from /etc/debian_version.

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux stretch/sid"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

lsb_release is not installed as part of a base system, and is included in the lsb-release package.

Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux testing (stretch)
Release:	testing
Codename:	stretch

Does not exist

/etc/debian_version:

stretch/sid

['linux_x86_64_debian_stretch_sid', 'linux_x86_64', 'any']

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="8"
VERSION="8 (jessie)"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.debian.org/support/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

lsb_release is not installed as part of a base system, and is included in the lsb-release package.

Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 8.1 (jessie)
Release:	8.1
Codename:	jessie

Does not exist

/etc/debian_version:

8.1

['linux_x86_64_debian_8', 'linux_x86_64', 'any']

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 7 (wheezy)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="7"
VERSION="7 (wheezy)"
ID=debian
ANSI_COLOR="1;31"
HOME_URL="http://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.debian.org/support/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.debian.org/"

lsb_release is not installed as part of a base system, and is included in the lsb-release package.

Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 7.8 (wheezy)
Release:	7.8
Codename:	wheezy

Does not exist

/etc/debian_version:

7.8

['linux_x86_64_debian_7', 'linux_x86_64', 'any']

Does not exist

lsb_release is not installed as part of a base system, and is included in the lsb-release package.

Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.10 (squeeze)
Release:	6.0.10
Codename:	squeeze

Does not exist

/etc/debian_version:

6.0.10

With lsb_release installed:

['linux_x86_64_debian_6_0_10', 'linux_x86_64_debian_6', 'linux_x86_64', 'any']

Without:

['linux_x86_64_debian_6_0_10', 'linux_x86_64_debian_6', 'linux_x86_64', 'any']

NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="14.04, Trusty Tahr"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 14.04 LTS"
VERSION_ID="14.04"
HOME_URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"

lsb_release is installed as part of a base system, via the lsb-release package.

Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Release:	14.04
Codename:	trusty

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04 LTS"

/etc/debian_version:

jessie/sid

['linux_x86_64_ubuntu_14_04', 'linux_x86_64', 'any']

Does not exist

lsb_release is installed as part of a base system, via the lsb-release package.

Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release:	12.04
Codename:	precise

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04 LTS"

/etc/debian_version:

wheezy/sid

['linux_x86_64_ubuntu_12_04', 'linux_x86_64', 'any']