SUWG/N200005
Notice of Plan to Revise IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (ISO/IEC 9945-2)
Page 1 of 1
Title/Topic: Notice of plan to revise IEEE Std 1003.2-1992
From: Donald W. Cragun Type: Communications
Date: July 20, 2000 Related Documents: None
The IEEE PASC SUWG plans to submit a PAR to the IEEE SA Standards
Board to revise IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (POSIX.2) and to follow the
synchronization plan to revise ISO/IEC 9945-2.
The reason for doing this it that many procurement agencies write
proposals requesting system implementors to provide products that
conform to the latest POSIX.1 standard and the latest POSIX.2
standard. This works well with the current POSIX.1 and POSIX.2
standards But, when the revision of the current IEEE and ISO/IEC
POSIX.1 standards is adopted, system implementors would have to
provide systems providing conformance to shell and utilities
requirements mandated by POSIX.1-200x and by POSIX.2-1992.**
Although most utilities specified by POSIX.2-1992 are compatible with
POSIX.1-200x, there are a few differences that will preclude
concurrent conformance to both standards.
If the current POSIX.2 standard were withdrawn when the revised
POSIX.1 standard is adopted, system implementors would still be
unable to meet the requirement of concurrent conformance to POSIX.1
and POSIX.2 since there would be no POSIX.2 at that point.
Therefore, IEEE PASC SUWG will revise IEEE Std 1003.2 such that IEEE
Std 1003.2-200x conformance specifies conformance to IEEE Std
1003.1-200x. This will keep requirements for concurrent conformance
to POSIX.1 and POSIX.2 synchronized with the current and next
revision of the standards. By the time POSIX.2-200x would need to be
revised are reaffirmed, the industry will have had enough time to
retrain procurement agencies to only specify conformance to POSIX.1.
** The common revision of IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 [as amended], ISO/IEC
9945-1:1990 [as amended], and the Single UNIX Specification version 2
will contain the material currently contained in both POSIX.1 and
POSIX.2.