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Press Releases
PISCATAWAY, NJ AND SAN FRANCISCO, CA,
21 January 2004 – The IEEE and The Open Group
have granted permission to the Linux Manual Pages Project
to incorporate material from the joint IEEE 1003.1™
POSIX® standard and The Open Group Base Specifications
Issue 6.
This step will allow developers using the Linux manual pages
to gain a better understanding of how to write portable programs
utilizing IEEE Std 1003.1, “Standard for Information
Technology-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)”.
The POSIX standard, which also forms the core volumes of Version
3 of The Open Group’s Single UNIX® Specification,
defines a set of fundamental services needed for the construction
of portable application programs. IEEE and The Open Group
have granted permissions for reuse of material in the Linux
‘man pages’ project (see: ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux-local/manpages)
covering over 1400 interfaces from the standard including
the headers, system interfaces and utilities.
“ We could not quote the POSIX standard verbatim until
now because of copyright restrictions,” said Professor
Andries Brouwer, who oversees the Linux Manual Pages Project
and is based at the National Research Institute for Mathematics
and Computer Science in the Netherlands. “As a result,
inaccuracies crept into pages written by volunteers, because
they had to interpret the standard in the text they wrote.
“ The approval we’ve received from the IEEE and
The Open Group to reuse POSIX documentation in the Linux man
pages will make the exact standard available to our volunteers.
Needless to say, we’re very grateful to both organizations
for the permission to do so.”
Andrew Josey, Director of Certification at The Open Group
and Chair of the Austin Group, said: “We’re taking
active steps to increase the adoption of POSIX within the
software community. Making POSIX more available to Linux developers
is one such step. Another was the recent decision to make
the POSIX standard freely
available on the Internet."
The "man pages" project provides the Linux system
with manual pages so programmers have the documentation they
need to write portable code. This documentation describes
what the various standards say about a function or program
and any special properties or deviations from the standards
in the Linux libraries and kernels. This project was started
by Rik Faith and has been maintained by Andries Brouwer for
the last nine years. The “man pages” distribution
can be found at the ftp site of the Technische Universiteit
Eindhoven at ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux-local/manpages.
The Open Group is a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral
consortium, whose vision of Boundaryless Information Flow™
will enable access to integrated information within and between
enterprises based on open standards and global interoperability.
The Open Group works with customers, suppliers, consortia
and other standard bodies. Its role is to capture, understand
and address current and emerging requirements, establish policies
and share best practices; to facilitate interoperability,
develop consensus, and evolve and integrate specifications
and open source technologies; to offer a comprehensive set
of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia;
and to operate the industry’s premier certification
service, including UNIX certification.
The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting
body, develops consensus standards through an open process
that brings diverse parts of an industry together. These standards
set specifications and procedures to ensure that products
and services are fit for their purpose and perform as intended.
The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of more than 870 completed standards
and more than 400 standards in development. Over 15,000 IEEE
members worldwide belong to IEEE-SA and voluntarily participate
in standards activities. For further information on IEEE-SA
see: http://www.standards.ieee.org/.
The IEEE has more than 380,000 members in approximately 150
countries. Through its members, the organization is a leading
authority on areas ranging from aerospace, computers and telecommunications
to biomedicine, electric power and consumer electronics. The
IEEE produces nearly 30 percent of the world's literature
in electrical and electronics engineering and in computer
science. This nonprofit organization also sponsors or cosponsors
more than 300 technical conferences each year. Additional
information about the IEEE can be found at http://www.ieee.org.
Notes to editors:
The Open Group is a trademark of The Open Group.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the US
and other countries.
POSIX is a registered trademark of the IEEE Inc.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
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