Standards Update, 1003.1 System services interface

[Moderator, John S. Quarterman]

            An Update on UNIX* and C Standards Activities

                             August 1989

                   Jeffrey S. Haemer, Report Editor

                 USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee

IEEE 1003.1: System services interface Update

Shane McCarron <ahby at bungia.mn.org> reports of the April, 1989 meeting:

"After thinking about it, I realized that 1003.1 did actually do some
stuff this quarter." [April -ed]

1003.1 is preparing two supplements, A and B, to 1003.1-88.

At the 1003.1 meeting in Minneapolis, the group reviewed draft 0.1 of
1003.1, supplement A.  This supplement contains only clarifications
and editorial comments, and will be balloted in the Summer.  It will
be provided to the ISO as the United States' comments on the
International Standard IS9945, which is the same as 1003.1-1988.  Its
goal is to insure that the ISO standard and the the IEEE standard
(with supplement) are functionally identical.

Supplement B, to be balloted later, contains substantive changes: new
facilities absent in IEEE Std 1003.1-1988.  Some were missing from
1003.1-88 because they weren't completely specified in time to be
included in the first release of the standard.  Others are being
introduced due to requests from other standards committees or the user
community.  For example, the ISO working group responsible for POSIX
has requested a new archive format.  It argues both that the archive
formats in the first standard are insufficient for the future needs of
POSIX systems and that a dual solution is unacceptable.  The new
format uses ANSI standard labeling, but extends it to permit POSIX
filenames, security information, etc....  Supplement B also includes
symbolic links, truncate(), ftruncate(), putenv(), clearenv(),
getpass(), seekdir(), telldir(), chroot(), fchmod(), fchown(), and
fsync().

Supplement B will also contain additional clarifications and edits to
the base standard.  The ISO will probably designate this supplement an
addendum to IS 9945.  All this maneuvering insures that the different
standards stay in sync, and prevents large delays in getting the ISO

__________

  * UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T in the U.S. and other
    countries.

Jeffrey S. Haemer, Editor          USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee


August 1989 Standards Update    -IE2EE-1003.1: System services interface

standard approved.

Although 1003.1-88 is now official, the 1003.1 committee's work will
continue for some time yet.  As other POSIX standards gel, their
committees uncover requirements for additional functionality or
semantics in the base standard, to support their work.  As these
committees point out such cavities in the standard, P1003.1 works to
fill them.  Everyone's hope is that no root canals will be necessary.

Jeffrey S. Haemer, Editor          USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee


Volume-Number: Volume 17, Number 15