P331r BSI IST/5/-/15 (POSIX) POSIX Panel Activity Report 17 September 1996 IST/5/-/15 has met once since the last IST/5 meeting, on the 6- September, where it took presentations from Derek Jones on Knowledge Software's OSPC API validation suite, and from Andrew Josey on the evolution of the X/Open Single Unix Specification. The panel also considered a number of outstanding ISO POSIX ballots. 1. ISO Business, Recommended Votes, etc: SC22 N2210: PDAM Registration Ballot for: PDAM5 to ISO 9945-1: Information technology - Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), Part 1: System Application Program Interface (API) (C Language) [see N1843; deadline 1996-12-02] This refers to IEEE P1003.1a D13. Nick Stoughton is active in the IEEE PASC group which is developing the document. The Panel recommends a YES vote, with the comment that the latest available draft should be the one presented for the following PDAM ballot. SC22 N2211: CD Registration Ballot for: CD 15068-4: Information technology - Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) System Administration - Part 4: Printing Interfaces [see N1812; deadline 1996-12-02] The document referred to is P1387-4 D8. Martin Kirk is active in the IEEE PASC group which is developing the work. The Panel recommends a YES vote, with the comment that the latest available draft should be the one presented for the following PDAM ballot. SC22 N2212: PDAM Registration Ballot for: PDAM6 to ISO 9945-1: Information technology - Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), Transparent File Access [see N2008; deadline 1996-12-02] The relevant document here is 1003.1f. This work item has been dormant for some time, one reason being that it has been awaiting a stable base document from the application of other amendments. The Panel recommends a YES vote, with the comment that the latest available draft should be the one presented for the following PDAM ballot. SC22 N2213: Concurrent PDAM registration and approval ballots for ISO/IEC 9945-1 Posix Part 1, Protocol Independent Interfaces (PII) [IEEE P1003.1g/D6.4; deadline 1996-12-02] David Cannon has been active in the IEEE group which is developing the document. The Panel recommends a YES vote, with the comment that the latest available draft should be the one presented for the following PDAM ballot. SC22 N2214: WD ISO/IEC 9945-1 Posix Part 1 amendment: Additional realtime extension (C language) [IEEE P1003.1j/D5; division of work item request will be discussed at 1996 SC22 plenary] The Panel recommends that IST/5 vote YES to the SC22 division of work item. Real Time is currently one of the more active areas in POSIX, and this 'Advanced Real Time' extension will be of real use in a number of application areas. SC22 N2215: CD registration ballot for CD 13210, revision of ISO/IEC 13210, Requirements and Guidelines for Test Method Specifications and Test Method Implementations for measuring conformance to Posix standards [IEEE P2003/D7.0; deadline 1996-12-02] The Panel has had members active in the IEEE group which is preparing this draft: Test Method specifications are a crucial part of the POSIX suite of standards and the Panel is keen to see this work promoted in ISO. The Panel recommends a YES vote, with the comment that the latest available draft should be the one presented for the following PDAM ballot. 2. UK Participation in WG15 Work Items: IST/5 has asked its panels to comment on the level of participation in each of the SC22 Work Items for which they are responsible, indirectly, through the corresponding ISO Working Group. The list of Work Items currently assigned to WG15 follows, but after discussion in the IST/5/-/15 meeting on 6-September, the Panel felt a blanket response was appropriate: IST/5/-/15 attempts to participate actively in all WG15 Work Items. A number of Panel members, past and present, (are or have actively participated in the IEEE PASC working groups where the bulk of the work is done in developing the draft documents, and the panel has a good degree of confidence that the UK's views are adequately expressed in those documents. Where the Panel has (or has had) no member active in a particular IEEE development group, it attempts to track the work once it becomes visible to the ISO process, and to apply any UK input at that point. WG15 work items: 22.21.01.01 POSIX System Interface (LIS) CD expected 1996 22.21.04.01 POSIX C Binding IS 9945-1:1990 published 22.21.01.02.01 Addendum on Realtime extensions DAM 1/9945-1:1990 approved 22.21.04.01 Technical Corrigendum 1 (to realtime extensions) COR 1/9945-1:1990 approved 22.21.01.02.02 Addendum on Threads extensions DAM2/9945-1:1990 ballot approved 22.21.01.03.01 Addendum on Distributed Services - Transparent File Access PDAM 6/9945-1:1990 registration ballot due 12/2/96 22.21.01.03.03 Addendum on Distrib. Services - Protocol Independent Interfaces Concurrent PDAM registration and PDAM ballot due 12/2/96 22.21.01.04 Addendum on Batch Services Project Subdivision approved 9/94 22.39 POSIX Part 1: System API Addendum (add'l basic services) PDAM 5/9945-1:1990 registration ballot due 12/2/96 22.40 POSIX Part 1: System API Addendum for Realtime NP approved 3/92; WD circulated 6/96 22.42 POSIX Part 1: System API Security Addendum PDAM 3/9945-1 ballot approved 22.xxx POSIX Part 1: System API Additional Realtime Extension Project subdivision to be considered at 9/96 SC22 plenary; WD circulated 8/96 22.21.02.01 POSIX Part 2: Shell & Utilities IS 9945-2:1993 published 22.21.02.02 User Portability Extensions CD ballot approved; document merged with 22.21.02.01 22.21.02.03 Amendment 1 on Batch Services DAM 1/9945-2 ballot due 7/21/96 22.41 POSIX Part 2: Shell & Utilities Amendment 2 PDAM 2/9945-2 registered 6/96 22.43 POSIX Part 2: Shell & Utilities Security Addendum PDAM 3/9945-2 ballot approved 22.21.03.01 POSIX System Administration Project approved 10/89 22.21.03.02 Addendum on Batch Services Project Subdivision approved 9/94 22.21.03.03 Part 4: Printing Interfaces CD Registration ballot due 12/2/96 22.21.03.04 Part 2: Software Administration CD registration & CD 15068-2 ballot approved 22.21.03.05 Part 3: User & Group Account Management Concurrent CD registration & CD 15068-3 ballot approved 22.21.04.02 POSIX Ada Binding: Part 1 - Binding for System API, Part 2 - Binding for Realtime DIS 14519-1 approved. Second WD circulated 4/95 22.38 Guide to the POSIX Open System Environment DTR 14252 ballot passed 22.37 Test Methods for Measuring Conformance to PASC Standards IS 13210:1994 published. CD 13210 registration ballot for revision due 12/2/96 14515-1 System Interface Test Methods NP approved 7/94 14515-1.01 Initial System API TM DIS 14515-1 ballot approved 14515-1.02 Real Time Extensions TM Project Subdivision approved 9/94; WD circulated 6/96 14515-2 Shell & Utilities Test Methods Concurrent CD registration and CD 14515-2 ballot approved 14766 Guide for POSIX National Profiles and National Locales NP approved 11/95 3. The Millenium Issue: IST/5 has asked its panels to report on any problems or issues with the standards for which they are responsible relating to the millenium date change - from 1999 to the year 2000. 9945-1:1990 references a number of C language functions and routines defined in 9899:1990 which use the 'date': time(time_t *tloc) Get system time asctime(const struct tm *timeptr) Date as string ctime(const time_t *timer) Local date as string gmtime(const time_t *timer) UTC as tm struct localtime(const time_t *timer) Local date as tm struct mktime(struct tm *timeptr) Time since Epoch strftime(char *s, size_t maxsize, const char *format, const struct tm *timeptr) Date as formatted string 9945-2:1992 makes a number of references to the date, primarily the date command: date [-u] [+format] Write the date and time [according to the optional format]. The output includes the century by default, but the %y format effector will truncate the year to the last two digits. The system APIs in general use a long integer to represent the current time in seconds since 00:00:00, 1-January-1970 (the 'Epoch'). These system APIs will continue to pass a correct and sensible representation of the time as the date changes from 1999 to 2000. It is, however, always possible to write an application using POSIX APIs which will fail unpredictably on and after 00:00:00, 1-January-2000, due to it ignoring the most significant digits of the year. POSIX standards do allow applications to access the full date where they need to. Possibly a more significant (if more remote) problem will arise sometime in 2038, when the number of seconds since midnight, 1-January-1970 will overflow the signed 32-bit integer often used in Unix (tm) systems (and C libraries) to hold the current time (time_t). The 9945-1:1990 standard states (B4.5.1: Get System Time) 'This version of POSIX.1 does not address this problem. However, the use of the new time_t type is mandated in order to ease the eventual fix.' 4. IST/5/-/15 Requests of IST/5: IST/5/-/15 asks IST/5 to approve the following delegation to WG15 in October: Nick Stoughton Pert Systems PUKE Martin Kirk X/Open Andrew Josey X/Open David Cannon University of Exeter IST/5/-/15 asks IST/5 to note that the May 1997 meeting of WG15 will be held at the Conference Centre of the University of Exeter, UK. IST/5/-/15 understands that 'entertainment' funds are normally available for such meetings, at the discretion of the BSI, and requests IST/5 to approve such funds as it deems appropriate for the WG15 May meeting, and to advise IST/5/-/15 of the sum to be made available. At the IST/5/-/15 meeting of 6-September, David Cannon asked the Panel to urgently consider the need to select a replacement for him as Convener of the group, since funding for his attendance of WG15 meetings will not continue after May 1997. The panel unanimously approved Nick Stoughton's offer to take up the duties of Convener, and IST/5/-/15 hereby commends its choice to IST/5. Nick has been active in the IEEE POSIX groups for a number of years, currently in the 1003.1 (9945-1) group, although he is a relative newcomer to IST/5/-/15 and the ISO POSIX world, having attended the last pair of meetings. Nick's contact details will be passed to the IST/5 secretary. On a personal note I would like to thank the members and especially the chairs and secretaries of IST/5 for your encouragement and support over the years that I have held tenancy as Convener of IST/5/-/15; I very much appreciate having had the opportunity to work with you all, and I thank you for your tolerance of the seemingly endless amounts of POSIX work and votes which you have helped to completion. Unfortunately my leaving does not signal an end to either the flow of POSIX drafts, or of occasional input from myself - I hope to maintain contact at least electronically in the future. 5. Future POSIX-Related Meetings: 1996: 23-27 September ISO JTC1/SC22 Chiswick, UK (*) 20-25 October IEEE Posix groups Brussels, Belgium 28-31 October ISO JTC-1/SC22/WG15 Munich, Germany 29 November IST/5/-/15 ** Meeting Cancelled ** 10 December IST/5 BSI, London (* - revised date) 1997: 12-17 January IEEE Posix groups San Diego, Ca 28-February IST/5/-/15 X/Open offices, Reading 13-18 April IEEE Posix groups Jackson Hole, Wy 19-23 May ISO JTC-1/SC22/WG15 Exeter, UK 13-18 July IEEE Posix Groups Nashua, Nh October IEEE Posix Groups Minneapolis, Mn 20-24 October ISO JTC-1/SC22/WG15 Cornwall, Canada (c/w IEEE) David Cannon IST/5/-/15 17-September-1996