diff --git a/util.cpp b/util.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a89e754
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util.cpp
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+/**
+ * Copyright © 2020 IBM Corporation
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+#include "config.h"
+
+#include "util.hpp"
+
+namespace phosphor::logging::util
+{
+
+std::optional<std::string> getOSReleaseValue(const std::string& key)
+{
+    std::ifstream versionFile{BMC_VERSION_FILE};
+    std::string line;
+    std::string keyPattern{key + '='};
+
+    while (std::getline(versionFile, line))
+    {
+        if (line.substr(0, keyPattern.size()).find(keyPattern) !=
+            std::string::npos)
+        {
+            // If the value isn't surrounded by quotes, then pos will be
+            // npos + 1 = 0, and the 2nd arg to substr() will be npos
+            // which means get the rest of the string.
+            auto value = line.substr(keyPattern.size());
+            std::size_t pos = value.find_first_of('"') + 1;
+            return value.substr(pos, value.find_last_of('"') - pos);
+        }
+    }
+
+    return std::nullopt;
+}
+
+} // namespace phosphor::logging::util