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- Path: pangea.Stanford.EDU!karish
- From: karish@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Chuck Karish)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.edu
- Subject: Re: POSIX/Unix conformance (was: ANSI C and POSIX ...)
- Date: 12 Apr 1996 01:47:46 GMT
- Organization: Mindcraft, Inc.
- Message-ID: <4kkco2$i8m@nntp.Stanford.EDU>
- References: <JSA.96Feb16135027@organon.com> <dewar.828987795@schonberg> <4kcf2q$mll@solutions.solon.com> <emery-0804961940190001@line297.nwm.mindlink.net>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: pangea.stanford.edu
-
- In article <emery-0804961940190001@line297.nwm.mindlink.net>,
- David Emery <emery@grebyn.com> wrote:
-
- >U.S. NIST has developed a set of validation procedures based on commercial
- >testing. A POSIX validation tester submits his test suite to NIST, and NIST
- >'validates' this suite against the test assertions. The test suite itself
- >remains the property of the testing organization. The goal of the NIST
- >'validation' is to certify the testing organization as acceptable to issue
- >NIST FIPS conformance certificates for the implementation. NIST maintains a
- >list of conforming POSIX/FIPS 151-2 implementations.
-
- This isn't exactly how the NIST POSIX.1 (FIPS 151-2) certification
- program works. This program uses a test suite that was developed by
- NIST and which is available to system vendors for a reasonable price
- ($4500). Testing is done by third-party laboratories (including
- my employer, Mindcraft, Inc.), not by NIST.
-
- The situation is different for NIST C (FIPS 160) testing, which is
- done by NIST using a privately-owned test suite.
-
- >This differs from Ada testing in a critical way: For Ada validation, the
- >test suite iteself is freely available. It is (relatively) easy to verify
- >that an Ada validation (ACVC) test matches the standard, and there is a
- >single test suite for all validations. For POSIX testing, each tester has
- >his own test suite, and we have to trust NIST and the testing vendor that
- >the vendor's test actually tests POSIX compliance.
-
- Again, anyone can buy NIST's FIPS 151-2 test suite and read the
- source. They are good about fixing it when customers point out
- errors.
- --
-
- Chuck Karish karish@mindcraft.com
- (415) 323-9000 x117 karish@pangea.stanford.edu
-