Usenet 1994 January/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicjanuary1994.iso/sources/std_unix/volume.20/text0014.txt

Internet Message Format | 1990-08-02 | 16.1 KB

From: [e-mail] (Susanne W. Smith)

This is the latest in a series of similar comp.std.unix articles.
Corrections and additions to this article are solicited.

There are three companion articles, posted at the same time as this one
with subjects
    Calendar of UNIX-related Events
    Access to UNIX User Groups
    Access to UNIX-Related Publications
These access postings are collected and posted by Susanne W. Smith
of Windsound Consulting <[e-mail]> and were originated by
John S. Quarterman of Texas Internet Consulting <[e-mail]>.
The information in them comes from a wide variety of sources.
We encourage others to reuse this information, but we ask for proper
acknowledgment, for example by including this statement.

Also note that Jeff Haemer now writes a quarterly summary report for
USENIX soon after each IEEE 1003 meeting for posting in comp.std.unix
and in ;login:, the Newsletter of the USENIX Association.

Changes since last posting: IEEE/CS P1003 contacts, groups, dates,
    NIST, UniForum working groups.

Access information is given in this article for the following standards:
ISO/IEC TC1 SC22 WG15 (POSIX)
ISO/IEC TC1 SC22 WG14 (C language)
IEEE     1003.0  (POSIX guide).
    1003.1  (operating system interface),
     1003.2  (shell and tools),
    1003.3  (testing and verification),
    1003.4  (real time),
    1003.5  (ADA binding),
    1003.6  (security),
    1003.7  (system administration),
    1003.8  (transparent file access),
    1003.9  (FORTRAN binding),
    1003.10 (supercomputing),
    1003.11 (transaction processing),
    1003.12 (protocol independent interfaces)
    1003.13 (name space/directory services)
    1003.14 (Real Time)
    1003.16 (multiprocessing study group)
    1003.17 (supercomputing batch element)
    1201.1  (interfaces for user portability)
    1201.2  (recommende practice on drivability)
    1224    (message handling services)
    1237    (RPC)
    1238.1  (Common OSI API)
    1238.2  (FTAM)
UniForum Technical Committee Subcommittees on;
    distributed file system,
    network interface,
    internationalization,
    realtime,
    database,
    performance measurements,
    security,
    super computing,
    usability,
    transaction processing, and
    C++.
NIST:  FIPS
X3H3.6 (display committee)
X3J11 (C language)
/usr/group 1984 Standard
System V Interface Definition (SVID, or The Purple Book)
X/OPEN PORTABILITY GUIDE
4.3BSD Manuals

UNIX is a Registered Trademark of AT&T.
IEEE is a trademark
    of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc.
POSIX is no longer a trademark of IEEE or of anyone else.
X/OPEN is a licensed trademark of the X/OPEN Group Members.


The IEEE P1003 Portable Operating System Interface for Computer
Environments Committee is sometimes known colloquially as the UNIX
Standards Committee.  They published the 1003.1 "POSIX" Full Use
Standard in October 1988 after its formal approval 22 August 1988.
This is an interface and environment standard; implementation details
are explicitly excluded.  Although it is based on documentation for
various versions of the UNIX Operating System, it is explicitly not
UNIX, which is an implementation licensed by a certain vendor.  Source
level application portability is the goal.

The standard may be ordered from:

        [phone]
        IEEE Service Center
        445 Hoes Lane
        Piscataway, NJ  08854
        U.S.A.

The price is $16 for members, $32 for non-members (plus $4.00 tax,
shipping, and handling).

Single copies of current drafts of the 1003 documents can be obtained
from the Computer Society with a charge to cover reproduction and mailing.
Their phone number is [phone].

IEEE 1003.1 is also an ``International Standard (IS 9945-1)''
under a joint committee of the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC), Joint
Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 22, Working Group 15 (ISO/IEC JTC1
SC22 WG15).  The convener is Jim Isaak:  see below for his address.
Dominic Dunlop is the EUUG and USENIX representative to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG15
and WG14. There is a U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG15: the chair is Donn Terry of HP, who is also the
current chair of IEEE 1003.1.

        Donn Terry
        hplabs!hpfcla!donn
        [phone]
        Hewlett Packard Systems Division
        3404 E. Harmony Road
        Fort Collins, CO  80525
        U.S.A.

TAG meetings tend to be held wherever 1003.1 is meeting.


There is a paper mailing list by which interested parties may get
copies of drafts of the standard.  To get on it, or to submit comments
directly to the committee, mail to:

        James Isaak
        Chairperson, IEEE/CS P1003
        [phone]
        fax: [phone]
        [e-mail]
        [e-mail]
        Digital Equipment TTB1-5/G06
        10 Tara Blvd.
        Nashua, NH  03062
        U.S.A.

Sufficiently interested parties may join the working group.


The term POSIX actually applies to all of the P1003 subcommittees:
group    subject                chairs, vice-chair
1003.0    POSIX Guide            Al Hankinson (NIST)
                    [e-mail]
                    Kevin Lewis (DEC)

1003.1    Systems Interface        Donn Terry (HP)
                    hplabs!hpfcla!donn

1003.2    Shell and Tools Interface      Hal Jespersen (POSIX Software Group)
                    uunet!posix!hlj
                    Don Cragun (Sun)
                    [e-mail]

1003.3    Verification and Testing     Roger Martin (NIST)
                    [e-mail]
                    N. Ray Wilkes (UNISYS)
                    nrw@sp7040

1003.4    Real Time             Bill Corwin (Intel)
                    uunet!littlei!wmc
                    Mike Cossey

1003.5    Ada Binding for POSIX        Steven Deller (Verdix)
                    [e-mail]
                    Terry Fong (USArmy)
                    [e-mail]

1003.6    Security            Dennis Steinauer (NIST)
                    [e-mail]
                    Ron Elliot (IBM)
                    [e-mail]

1003.7    System Administration        Steve Carter (Bellcore)
                    bellcore!pyuxv!slc2
                    David Hinnant (BNR)
                    uunet!rti.rti.org!bnrunix!dfh
                    Martin Kirk (BTRL)
                    ukc!axion!mkirk

Distributed Services Steering Committee    Timothy Baker (Ford Aero)
                    [e-mail]
                    Dave Dodge
                    hplabs!oracle!ddodge

1003.8    TFA SG                Jason Zions (HP)
                    [e-mail]
1003.12 Protocol Independent Interfaces Les Wibberley (Chemical Abstracts)
                    [e-mail]
1003.13    Name Space/Directory Services     Lakshmi Arunachalam (Sun)
1237    RPC                 Ken Hobday (DEC)
1238.1    Common OSI API             Kester Fong (GM)
1238.2    FTAM SG
1224    Message Handling Services (X.400) SG
                    John Boebinger (DEC)

1003.9    Fortran Bindings        John McGrory (HP)
                    [e-mail]
                    Michael J. Hannah (Sandia)
                    [e-mail]

1003.10    Supercomputing SG        Karen Sheaffer (Sandia)
                    [e-mail]
                    Jonathan C. Brown (Lawrence Livermore)
                    [e-mail]

1003.11    Transaction Processing SG    Elliot J Brebner (Unisys)
                    uunet!s5000!brebner
                    Bob Snead (Interactive)
                    [e-mail]

1003.14 Real Time AEP             see 1003.4

1003.16 Multiprocessing Study Group

1003.17 SC Batch element

1201.1  Interfaces for User Portability    Sunil Mehta (Convergent),
1201.2     Recommended Practice on Drivability
                     Lin Brown (Sun)
                    [e-mail]@Sun.COM


Inquiries regarding any of the subcommittees should go to the address for the
IEEE 1003 chair.

The next scheduled meetings of the P1003 working groups are:

1990 Jul 16-20    IEEE 1003    Danvers, MA
1990 Oct 15-19    IEEE 1003    Seattle, WA
1991 Jan 7-11    IEEE 1003    New Orleans, LA
1991 Apr 15-19    IEEE 1003    Houston, TX (location tentative)
1991 July 8-12    IEEE 1003    Santa Clara, CA (location tentative)
1991 Oct 21-25    IEEE 1003    Southern Europe (location tentative)
1992 Jan 13-17    IEEE 1003    Orlando, FL (location tentative)
1992 Apr 20-24    IEEE 1003    Montreal, PQ (location tentative)
1992 Jul 13-17    IEEE 1003    Alaska (location tentative)
1992 Oct 19-23    IEEE 1003    Scottsdale, AZ (location tentative)

There are seven Institutional Representatives to P1003:  John Quarterman
from USENIX, Heinz Lycklama and Ralph Barker from UniForum, Petr Janecek
from X/OPEN, Fritz Schulz from OSF, Shane McCarron from UNIX International,
and Richard Alexander from Share.  They are apparently all also representatives
to the U.S. TAG to ISO SC22 WG15.

There is a USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee of volunteers who report
on issues raised in standards committee meetings.  These reports are
published quarterly in comp.std.unix, in ;login: The Newsletter of the
USENIX Association, and in the trade press.  Occasionally, these volunteers
may speak for USENIX, but only if authorized by the USENIX Standards
Policy Committee, which currently consists of John S. Quarterman (chair),
Marshall Kirk McKusick (USENIX President), Alan G. Nemeth (former USENIX
President), and Ellie Young (USENIX Executive Director).

Comments, suggestions, etc., may be sent to


        John S. Quarterman
        USENIX Standards Liaison
        Texas Internet Consulting
        701 Brazos, Suite 500
        Austin TX 78701-3243
        [phone]
        fax: [phone]
        [e-mail]
        uunet!usenix!jsq


For comp.std.unix:
Comments:       uunet!std-unix-request  [e-mail]
Submissions:    uunet!std-unix          [e-mail]

CommUNIXations (the UniForum magazine) contains reports about every
other issue by Allen Hankinson on the UniForum Technical Committee meetings.

If you are interested in starting another UniForum working group, contact
Allen Hankinson:

        Allen L. Hankinson
        National Institute of Standards & Technology
        Systems & Software Technology Div.
        Tech Building, Room B266
        Gaithersburg, MD  20899
        [phone]
        fax: [phone]
        [e-mail]


Here is contact information for UniForum working groups.

UniForum Working Group on Internationalization:
    Loretta Goudie
    Santa Cruz Operation
    400 Encinal
    Santa Cruz, CA 95060
    408-458-1422

UniForum Working Group on Realtime:
    Bill Corwin
    Intel Corp.
    5200 Elam Young Pkwy
    Hillsboro, OR 97123
    [phone]

UniForum Working Group on Performance Measurements:
    Ram Chelluri
    AT&T Computer Systems
    Room E15B
    4513 Western Ave.
    Lisle, IL 60532-1571
    [phone]

UniForum Working Group on Security:
    Jeanne Baccash
    AT&T UNIX Systems Engineering
    190 River Road
    MS G-222
    Summit, NJ  07901
    201-522-6028
    attunix!jeanne

UniForum Working Group on C++:
    Don Kretsch
        AT&T Information Systems
        190 River Road
    Summit, NJ  07901
    201-522-6499


The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, formerly NBS,
the National Bureau of Standards) has produced a Federal Information
Processing Standard (FIPS) based on IEEE 1003.1 Draft 12, and approved
31 August 1988 as FIPS #151, Portable Operating System for Computer
Environments.  An update to the state of the 1003.1 Full Use Standard
is expected.  For information, contact:

        Roger Martin
        National Institute of Standards and Technology
        Technology Building, Room B266
        Gaithersburg, MD 20899
            [phone]
            [e-mail]

NIST has a POSIX Conformance Test Suite (PCTS) for 1003.1 which is
currently in preliminary external testing.

NIST is also producing a FIPS based on IEEE 1003.2, and has started
one on system administration.

NIST sponsors a number of standards-related workshops, including:

1990 Nov 15    APP/OSE Users Forum    NIST, G, MD
1991 May 9    APP/OSE Users Forum    NIST, G, MD
1991 Nov 14    APP/OSE Users Forum    NIST, G, MD


The X3H3.6 display management committee is in the final stages of
standardization of the X Window System Data Stream Encoding Version 11
(the "X Protocol"). They will soon begin the standardization of Xlib
and its various language bindings (C, ADA, Fortran) as well as begin
the standardization process within ISO.  The chair is

        Dr. Georges Grinstein
        [e-mail]



X3J11 is sometimes known as the C Standards Committee.  Their liaison
to P1003 is

        Don Kretsch
        AT&T
        190 River Road
        Summit, NJ 07901

A contact for information regarding publications and working groups is

        Thomas Plum
        Vice Chair, X3J11 Committee
        Plum Hall Inc.
        1 Spruce Avenue
        Cardiff, New Jersey 08232

ANSI documents may be ordered from

        Global Engineering Documents
        2805 McGaw
        Irvine, CA 92714
        USA
        [phone]
        [phone]

As of May 21, 1990 only the X3.159-1988 draft is available and the price
is $70. When available the standard document will be X3.159-1990.

The /usr/group 1984 Standard is a principal ancestor of P1003.1, X/OPEN,
and X3J11.  It may be ordered for $15.00 from:

        UniForum Standards Committee
        2901 Tasman Drive, Suite 201
        Santa Clara, California 95054
        Tel: [phone]
        Fax: [phone]

UniForum also publishes the documents, ``Your Guide to POSIX,''
explaining what IEEE 1003 is,  ``POSIX Explored: System Interface,''
about technical aspects of IEEE 1003.1, and its relations to other standards
and historical implementations, and ``POSIX Update: Shell and Utilities.''
Contact UniForum at the above address for details.


The System V Interface Definition (The Purple Book, or SVID).
This is the AT&T standard and is one of the most frequently-used
references of the IEEE 1003 committee.

        AT&T Customer Information Center
        Attn:  Customer Service Representative
        P.O. Box 19901
        Indianapolis, IN 46219
        U.S.A.

        800-432-6600 (Inside U.S.A.)
        800-255-1242 (Inside Canada)
        [phone] (Outside U.S.A. and Canada)

    System V Interface Definition, Issue 2
    should be ordered by the following select codes:

    Select Code:    Volume:        Topics:
    320-011        Volume I    Base System
                    Kernel Extension
    320-012        Volume II    Basic Utilities Extension
                    Advanced Utilities Extension
                    Software Development Extension
                    Administered System Extension
                    Terminal Volume Interface Extension
    320-013        Volume III    Base System Addendum
                    Terminal Interface Extension
                    Network Services Extension
    307-131        I, II, III    (all three volumes)

The price is about 37 U.S. dollars for each volume or $84 for all three.
Major credit cards are accepted for telephone orders:  mail orders
should include a check or money order, payable to AT&T.


The implementation of System V is described in the book

    The Design of the UNIX Operating System
    Maurice J. Bach
    Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey


The X/Open Portability Guide (XPG) is another reference frequently
used by IEEE 1003.

The X/Open Group was formed by "Ten of the world's major information system
suppliers". The number of member companies has grown since then.
They have produced a document intended to promote
the writing of portable applications.  They closely follow both SVID
and POSIX, and cite the /usr/group standard as contributing, but
X/OPEN's books cover a wider area than any of those.

The books are published by

        Prentice-Hall
        Englewood Cliffs
        New Jersey  07632

There are currently seven volumes:
    1) XSI Commands and Utilities
    2) XSI System Interface and Headers
    3) XSI Supplementary Definitions
    4) Programming Languages
    5) Data Management
    6) Window Management
    7) Networking Services

    All 7 Volumes

Comments, suggestions, error reports, etc., for Issue 3 of the X/OPEN
Portability Guide may be mailed directly to:

        [e-mail]
        uunet!mcvax!inset!xopen!xpg3

Information about X/OPEN can be requested from:

        Mike Lambert
        X/Open
        Apex Plaza,
        Forbury Road
        Reading
        Berkshire RG1 1AX
        England
        [phone]
        [e-mail]
        uunet!mcvax!inset!xopen!mgl


4.2BSD and 4.3BSD have influenced POSIX in a number of areas.
The best reference on them is the 4.3BSD manuals, published by USENIX.
An order form may be obtained from:

        Howard Press
        c/o USENIX Association
        P.O. Box 2299
        Berkeley, CA 94710

        [phone]
        uunet!usenix!office
        [e-mail]

4.3BSD User's Manual Set (3 volumes)        $25.00
    User's Reference Manual
    User's Supplementary Documents
    Master Index

4.3BSD Programmer's Manual Set (3 volumes)    $25.00
    Programmer's Reference Maual
    Programmer's Supplementary Documents, Volume 1
    Programmer's Supplementary Documents, Volume 2

4.3BSD System Manager's Manual (1 volume)    $10.00

Unfortunately, there are some license restrictions.
Contact the USENIX office for details.


Information about the design and implementation of 4.3BSD can be found
in the book

    The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operating System
    Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. Karels, and
        John S. Quarterman
    Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1989

Volume-Number: Volume 20, Number 15