Usenet 1994 October/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicoctober1994disk2.iso/std_unix/archive/text0000.txt

Text File | 1994-03-07 | 15.0 KB | 344 lines

Submitted-by: [e-mail] (Sean Eric Fagan)

This is a policy statement for comp.std.unix.

This is Volume 33 of comp.std.unix.
These volumes are purely for administrative convenience.
Feel free to continue any previous discussion or to start new ones.

Subject: Topic.

The USENET newsgroup comp.std.unix, also known as the mailing list
[e-mail], is for discussions of standards related to
the UNIX operating system, particularly of IEEE P1003, or POSIX,
including IEEE 1003.1, 1003.2, etc.

Other related standards bodies and subjects include but are not limited to
    IEEE 1201 and IEEE 1238,
    ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG15 (the ISO and IEC version of POSIX),
    the U.S. and other Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) to WG15,
    the X3.159 Programming Language C Standard by the ANSI X3J11 committee,
    ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG14 (the ISO and IEC version of X3.159),
    ANSI X3J16 on the C++ programming language,
    ANSI X3B11.1 on WORM File Systems,
    the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
    and their Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS),
    X/Open and their X/Open Portability Guide (XPG),
    the Open Software Foundation (OSF),
    UNIX International (UI),
    the UniForum Technical Committee,
    the AFUU Working Groups,
    PortSoft,
    AT&T System V Interface Definition (SVID),
    System V Release 3, System V Release 4,
    4.2BSD, 4.3BSD, 4.4BSD,
    Tenth Edition UNIX, Plan 9 from Bell Labs,
    Mach, Chorus, Amoeba, GNU,
    and the USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee.

Subject: Moderator.

The newsgroup comp.std.unix and the mailing list [e-mail]
is moderated.  The moderator is Sean Eric Fagan.

Subject: Disclaimer.

Postings by any committee member in this newsgroup do not represent
any position (including any draft, proposed or actual, of a standard)
of the committee as a whole or of any subcommittee unless explicitly
stated otherwise in such remarks.  Postings and comments by the moderator
do not necessarily reflect any person's or organization's opinions.

* UNIX is a Registered Trademark of X/Open.
** IEEE is a Trademark of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics
    Engineers, Inc.
*** POSIX is not a trademark.
Various other names mentioned above may be trademarks.
I hope their owners will not object if I do not list them all here.


Subject: Postings.

Submissions for posting to the newsgroup and comments about the newsgroup
(including requests to subscribe or unsubscribe to the mailing list)
should go to two different addresses:

        DNS address            UUCP source route
Submissions    [e-mail]        uunet!std-unix
Comments    [e-mail]    uunet!std-unix-request

In addition to those addresses, I can be reached (electronically) as sef at
either uunet.uu.net, kithrup.com, or cygnus.com (e.g., [e-mail]).  If
you get a bounce from one of those addresses, or do not get a reply within a
week, send mail to one or more of the others.  For submissions, I prefer
[e-mail], as that is where I do the list maintenance.
Permission to post to the newsgroup is assumed for mail to std-unix.
Permission to post is not assumed for mail to std-unix-request,
unless explicitly granted in the mail.  Mail to my personal addresses
will be treated like mail to std-unix-request if it obviously refers
to the newsgroup.

The mailing list is distributed on the Internet, UUCP, and elsewhere.
There is a redistribution list on BITNET for BITNET, EARN, and NetNorth.
Please send submissions from those networks to [e-mail]
nonetheless, because messages sent to the BITNET LISTSERV will not reach
the whole list.

If you have access to USENET, it is better (more efficient, cheaper,
less effort for me to manage) to subscribe to the newsgroup comp.std.unix
than to the mailing list.  Submissions should still go to the above
addresses, although many (perhaps most) USENET hosts will forward
attempts to post directly to the newsgroup to the moderator.

If you are on the mailing list, and articles are bounced back to me from
your address, you will be deleted from the list, and I will attempt to
get in touch with the administrator for your site, or what looks like your
site, and will reinstate your presence on the list when the problem is
fixed.

Posted articles may originate from uunet.uu.net, kithrup.com, or cygnus.com.
There are also occasional guest moderators, who may post from still other
machines.  Guest moderators are announced in advance by the regular moderator.

Subject: Archives.

Archives for comp.std.unix or [e-mail] may be found on UUNET.
Most of them are compressed, so if you don't have compress, get it first
(it's in the comp.sources.unix archives).

The comp.std.unix archives may be retrieved by anonymous FTP over the Internet.
Connect to ftp.uu.net with FTP and log in as user anonymous with password
guest.

The current volume is in the file
        ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix/archive
or
        ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix/volume.34
The previous volume, which is compressed, may be retrieved as
        ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix/volume.33.Z
and so forth for more ancient volumes.

For hosts with direct UUCP connections to UUNET, UUCP transfer from
host uunet should work with, for example,
        uucp uunet!'~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix/archive' archive
You will have to put a backslash before the ! (i.e., \!)
if you're using the C shell or bash.

The output of "cd ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix; ls -l" is in
        ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix/list
and the output of "cd ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix; ls -l *" is in
        ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix/longlist

These files are updated rather sporadically; essentially, whenever
I come across this section at the beginning of each volume.

For further details, retrieve the file
        ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix/README


Subject: General submission acceptance policy.

Submissions are never ignored (although they might be overlooked).
If you don't see your article posted and you don't get a mailed
response from the moderator, your submission probably didn't arrive.
However, travel schedules and other business sometimes intervene
(and for that matter it can take many hours for a submission to
get to the moderator and the posted message to get back to the poster),
so you may sometimes not see anything for a few days.  If you wait
and still don't see anything, try sending again.

Although I try to read mail every day, and try to have articles posted
as soon as possible, there are sometimes circumstances which make that
difficult to impossible.  Too much work, flaky networks, and broken
hardware have all, at times, caused me to not be able to post an article
within minutes of it being posted.  Please do not keep resubmitting
your article, as it will only serve to annoy me.

As moderator, I reject relatively few articles:  maybe 1 out of 10;
although that amount varies, it is a good rough estimate.  I retain the
right to reject submissions.  If a submission does not appear relevant
to comp.std.unix, it is sent back to the submitter with a note saying
why it is not appropriate.  Usually this is because it just doesn't fit
the topic of the newsgroup, in which case I may suggest another newsgroup.
Sometimes it is because someone else has already given the same answer
to a question, in which case I ask if the submitter really wants it
posted.  Sometimes I reject an article because the information content
it is too low (e.g., twenty-five lines of included text, and a single-
line commanet).  Occasionally I suggest editing that would make an article
more appropriate to the newsgroup.  If a message appears to be directed
towards me, I will reply; if I am unsure, I wil ask the sender if
posting is really necessary or desired.

Very occasionally I may reject an article outright:  this will most likely
be because it contains ad hominem attacks, which are never permitted
in this technical newsgroup.  There are many other potential reasons
for rejection, however, such as inclusion of copyrighted material.
Fortunately, most such problems have not come up.

Note that while technical postings on technical subjects are encouraged,
postings about the politics of standardization are also appropriate,
since it is impossible to separate politics from standards.

Crosspostings are discouraged.  Submissions such as ``how do I find
xyz piece of software'' or ``is the x implementation better than the
y implementation'' that come in for multiple newsgroups usually get
sent back to the submittor with a suggestion to resubmit without
comp.std.unix in the Newsgroups: line.  Sometimes I'll crosspost if
there's clear relevance to comp.std.unix, but I always add a
Followup-To: line in an attempt to direct further discussion to a
single newsgroup, usually comp.std.unix.  This policy is useful because
crossposting often produces verbose traffic of little relevance to
comp.std.unix.  The most common response from me when I reject a submission
is to suggest that it belongs better elsewhere, usually some vendor-,
machine-, or operating system-specific newsgroup.  If you have a technical
question, before posting, it is usually sufficient to ask yourself if
the answer would be sufficient on a single vendor's machine, or if it is
necessary for it to be relevant to many different machines.



Subject: Editorial policy.

When posting a submission, I sometimes make changes to it.  These
are of four types:  headers and trailers; comments; and typographical.

Headers and trailers

Header changes include:
+ Cleaning up typos, particularly in Subject: lines.
+ Rationalizing From: lines to contain only one address syntax,
    either hosta!hostb!host!user or, preferably, user@domain.
    Very occasionally, this might cause an improper address
    to be generated.  If this occurs, and you think you may
    submit an article again, send me a note, and I will attempt
    to use an address you suggest next time.
+ Adding a Reply-To: line.  This usually points to the newsgroup
    submission address in the mailing list, but to the submitter
    in the newsgroup, for reasons too messy to detail here.
+ Adding the Approved: line.
+ Adding a References: line, if missing.
+ Deleting any Distribution: line, as detailed in the next paragraph.

The only distribution used in comp.std.unix is no distribution, i.e.,
worldwide.  If it's not of worldwide interest, it doesn't belong in
comp.std.unix.  Anything pertaining to the IEEE/CS TCOS standards
or committees (e.g., IEEE 1003, IEEE 1201), the ANSI X3.159 Programming
Language C Standard (X3J11), or the ISO 9945 POSIX work (ISO/IEC JTC1
SC22 WG15) is of worldwide interest.  If a submission arrives with a
Distribution:  line, such as na or us, I delete that line.

Every article has a trailing line of the form
>    Volume-Number: Volume 22, Number 42
This allows the reader to notice articles lost in transmission and
permits the moderator to more easily catalog articles in the archives.
Volumes usually change after about 100 articles, but are purely for
administrative convenience; discussions begun in one volume should
be continued into the next volume.  Due to the way news is transmitted,
articles may appear out of order at some sites if I send out several
at once.

Also, signatures that are excessively long may be truncated.  See
Gene Spafford's articles in news.announce.newusers for guidelines on
signatures.  Four lines will generally be considered sufficient,
and I tend to delete any excess white space or ``graphics.''

Very long quotations of previous articles are offtimes shortened, and
``standard'' inclusions indicators of '>' are replaced, if the author
has used some other form.



Subject: Comments

Comments by the moderator are sometimes added to clarify obscure
issues.  These are always enclosed in square brackets with the
closing mark ``-mod,'' [ like this -mod ].  Sometimes entire articles
appear that are written by the moderator:  these always end with
a signature that includes the words ``moderator, comp.std.unix.''

Comments by the editor of the USENIX Standards Watchdog Reports
sometimes appear in those reports.  Such comments are always
enclosed in square brackets and begin with the word ``Editor:''
[ Editor: like this ].

Comments by the publisher of the USENIX Standards Watchdog Reports
sometimes appear in those reports.  Such comments are always
enclosed in square brackets and end with the mark ``-pub,''
[ like this -pub ].

Entire articles may appear by the editor or publisher of the
Watchdog Reports, and those are always identified by the signature.

Subject: Typographical

People submitting articles sometimes enclose parenthetical comments
in brackets [] instead of parentheses ().  I usually change these
to parentheses to avoid confusion with the above conventions for
comments by the moderator, editor, or publisher.

Obvious misspellings, such as ``it's'' for the possessive or
``its'' as a contraction of ``it is'' are corrected (when I notice them).

Excess white space is deleted.  (This includes multiple blank lines at
times.)

I don't have any reallly strict policies on formatting, but, in general,
if an article has overly-long lines, or the author has right-justified
the margins, I will run it through fmt(1) before posting it.  See
Gene Spafford's articles in news.announce.newusers for guidelines on
formatting of news articles.

Redundant quoted headers are often omitted.



Subject: Common kinds of postings.

There are several sets of postings that reoccur in comp.std.unix
at more or less regular intervals.  Here are two of the most common.

USENIX Standards Watchdog Reports

The USENIX Association sponsors a set of reports after each quarterly
meeting of the IEEE 1003 and IEEE 1201 standards committees.  These
reports are written by volunteers who are already attending committee
meetings and are edited by the Watchdog Report Editor, who is Stephen
E. Walli <[e-mail]>.  Reports on other committees, such as X3J11,
are also included when available.  These reports are published in
comp.std.unix/[e-mail] and ;login:  The Newsletter of the
USENIX Association.  They are also available for publication elsewhere.

EUUG/USENIX ISO Monitor Project

The European UNIX systems Users Group (EUUG) and the USENIX Association
jointly sponsor an observer to the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG15 (ISO POSIX)
standards committee.  This observer, Dominic Dunlop <[e-mail]>,
writes a report after each WG15 meeting, of which there are usually
two a year.  These reports are published in the EUUG Newsletter
(EUUGN), :login;, and comp.std.unix.  They are also available for
publication elsewhere.

Archives of the EUUG/USENIX ISO Monitor Reports, the USENIX Standards
Watchdog Reports, and the Windsound/TIC Calendar of UNIX-Related Events
may be found on ftp.uu.net.  Retrieve ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix/README
for details.



Subject:  Comments

Please feel free to send me any comments you might have about my
job as moderator.  The group is meant to be informative and useful, and
you help determine that.  I may still make arbitrary decisions, but
I will probably do less such with some feedback.  In addition, if you
think I am doing a bad job, and not responding to criticisms, you
can post to the news.admin.misc newsgroup, although that may not do
much good.

Sean Eric Fagan, moderator, comp.std.unix and [e-mail].



Volume-Number: Volume 34, Number 1