[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 19 (Friday, January 28, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page ]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-1818]
[Federal Register: January 28, 1994]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
[Docket No. 931107-3307]
RIN 0693-AA70
Proposed Federal Information Processing Standard for Portable
Operating System Interface (POSIX)--Part 2: Shell and Utilities
AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to announce the proposed Federal
Information Processing Standard (FIPS), Portable Operating System
Interface (POSIX)--Part 2: Shell and Utilities, which adopts Draft
International Standard ISO/IEC 9945-2:1992, Information Technology--
Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)--Part 2: Shell and
Utilities as a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). ISO/IEC
9945-2:1992, which defines a command language interpreter (shell) and a
set of utility programs, is expected to be approved as an International
Standard (IS) in 1994. The FIPS will adopt the final IS after it is
approved.
Prior to the submission of the proposed FIPS to the Secretary of
Commerce for review and approval, it is essential to assure that
consideration is given to the needs and views of manufacturers, the
public, and State and local governments. The purpose of this notice is
to solicit such views.
This proposed FIPS contains two sections: (1) An announcement
section, which provides information concerning the applicability,
implementation and maintenance of the standard; and (2) a
specifications section which deals with the technical requirements of
the standard. Only the announcement section of the standard is provided
in this notice. Interested parties may obtain copies of the
specifications (ISO/IEC 9945-2) from the IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes
Lane, P.O. Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331, telephone 1-800-678-
4333.
DATES: Comments on this proposed FIPS must be received on or before
April 28, 1994.
ADDRESSES: Written comments concerning the proposed FIPS should be sent
to: Director, Computer Systems Laboratory, ATTN: Proposed FIPS for
POSIX.2, Technology Building, room B154, National Institute of
Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.
Written comments concerning this proposed FIPS will be made part of
the public record and will be made available for inspection and copying
in the Central Reference and Records Inspection Facility, room 6020,
Herbert C. Hoover Building, 14th Street between Pennsylvania and
Constitution Avenues NW., Washington, DC 20230.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sheila Frankel, National Institute of
Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, telephone (301) 975-
3297.
Dated: January 24, 1994.
Samuel Kramer,
Associate Director.
Proposed Federal Information Processing Standards Publication
(date)
Announcing the Standard for Portable Operating System Interface
(POSIX)--Part 2: Shell and Utilities
Federal Information Processing Standards Publications (FIPS PUBS)
are issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology after
approval by the Secretary of Commerce pursuant to section 111(d) of the
Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 as amended by
the Computer Security Act of 1987, Public Law 100-235.
Name of Standard. Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)--Part
2: Shell and Utilities.
Category of Standard. Software Standard, Operating Systems.
Explanation. This publication announces the adoption of Draft
International Standard ISO/IEC 9945-2:1992, Information Technology--
Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)--Part 2: Shell and
Utilities as a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). ISO/IEC
9945-2:1992, which defines a command language interpreter (shell) and a
set of utility programs, is expected to be approved as an International
Standard (IS) in 1994. The FIPS will adopt the final IS after it is
approved.
This standard is for use by computing professionals involved in
system and application software development and implementation and is
part of a series of specifications needed for application portability.
This standard addresses the Applications Portability Profile functional
area that deals with methods by which a person interacts with the
operating systems.
Approving Authority. Secretary of Commerce.
Maintenance Agency. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute
of Standards and Technology, Computer Systems Laboratory.
Cross Index. Draft International Standard ISO/IEC 9945-2:1992,
Information Technology--Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)--
Part 2: Shell and Utilities.
Related Documents
a. Federal Information Resources Management Regulations subpart
201-20.333, Standards, and subpart 201-39.1002, Federal Standards.
b. Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 151-2,
Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)--System Application Program
Interface [C Language].
c. Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 160, C.
d. ISO/IEC 9899: Information Technology--Programming Languages--C.
e. Test Methods for Measuring Conformance to POSIX, IEEE Std
1003.3-1991.
f. Test Methods for Measuring Conformance to POSIX, IEEE Proposed
Std 2003 (Draft 1.0).
g. Test Methods for Measuring Conformance to POSIX.1, IEEE Std
2003.1-1992.
h. Test Methods for Measuring Conformance to POSIX.2, IEEE Proposed
Std 2003.2 (Draft 8).
i. Interpretation Procedures for Federal Information Processing
Standards for Software, FIPS PUB 29-3, 1992 October 29.
j. NVLAP Program Handbook, Computer Applications Testing POSIX
Conformance Testing, NISTIR 4522, March 1991 (latest revision).
k. NIST POSIX Testing Policy--General Information, April 15, 1993
(latest revision).
l. NIST POSIX Testing Policy, Certificate of Validation
Requirements, FIPS 151-2, August 15, 1993 (latest revision).
Related On-Line Information. Information on the NIST POSIX Testing
Program is available on an electronic mail (Email) file server system.
Documents available are: registers of validated products, general
information on NIST POSIX testing policy, and information on
requirements for certificates of validation.
To access the system:
You must be able to send and receive Email via the Internet. For
most Email systems, send a message to posix@nist.gov. When the Email
system responds with ``Subject'', you may type anything. The next line
should be a basic command for the Email server to send you one or more
of the available documents. For example, to receive a listing of all
available files, enter: send index.
After you issue your send command and a carriage return, the next
line should signal the end of the Email message as required by your
Email system.
Your Email system may respond with EOT for the end of transmission.
The mail server program reads the message and sends the requested
document to the requester's Email address.
If you need help contact the Systems and Software Technology
Division, B266 Technology Building, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD 20899,
telephone: 301-975-3295.
Objectives. This FIPS permits Federal departments and agencies to
exercise more effective control over the production, management, and
use of the Government's information resources. The primary objectives
of this FIPS are:
a. To promote portability of computer application programs at the
source code level.
b. To simplify computer program documentation by the use of a
standard portable system interface design.
c. To reduce staff hours in porting computer programs to different
vendor systems and architectures.
d. To increase portability of acquired skills, resulting in reduced
personnel training costs.
e. To maximize the return on investment in generating or purchasing
computer programs by insuring operating system compatibility.
f. To allow people to operate a wide range of application platform
implementations without additional training or study.
Government-wide attainment of the above objectives depends upon the
widespread availability and use of comprehensive and precise standard
specifications.
Applicability. This FIPS shall be used for POSIX command language
interpreters and utilities that are either developed or acquired for
Government use. This FIPS is applicable to the entire range of computer
hardware, including:
a. Laptops,
b. Micro-computer systems,
c. Mini-computer systems,
d. Workstations,
e. Mainframes.
Specifications. The specifications for this FIPS are the
specifications contained in the Draft International Standard ISO/IEC
9945-2:1992, Information Technology--Portable Operating System
Interface (POSIX)--Part 2: Shell and Utilities, with the modifications
specified below. ISO/IEC 9945-2:1992 defines a command language
interpreter (shell) and a set of utility programs. ISO/IEC 9945-2:1992
(hereinafter referred to as POSIX.2) refers to and is a complement to
ISO/IEC 9945-1, Information Technology--Portable Operating System
Interface (POSIX)--Part 1: System Application Program Interface (API)
[C Language].
POSIX.2 contains a number of features that are labelled
obsolescent. These features violate the general syntactic guidelines of
POSIX.2. They were included in POSIX.2 to provide upward compatibility
of existing applications, and may be deleted from POSIX.2 at some
future date. The POSIX.2 standard requires that strictly conforming
applications do not use any of these features. It is strongly
recommended that agencies that require the POSIX.2 FIPS prohibit users
from using these features. Therefore, the following obsolescent
features are not required for a system to be compliant with the POSIX.2
FIPS. (For each feature a reference to the associated POSIX.2 text is
provided):
Zero-length prefix in the PATH environment variable [See
POSIX.2 Subclause 2.6 Lines 2699-2700]
The -option in the set special built-in utility [See
POSIX.2 Subclause 3.14.11 Lines 1599-1600 and 1726-1730]
The awk string function length with no argument and no
parentheses [See POSIX.2 Subclause 4.1.7.6.2.2 Lines 621-622]
The octal number form of the mode operand in the chmod
utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause 4.7.7 Lines 2090-2091]
The -option in the ed utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause
4.20.1 Lines 3529-3530; Subclause 4.20.3 Line 3542]
The -option in the env utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause
4.21.1 Lines 4034-4035; Subclause 4.21.3 Line 4048]
The -perm [-]onum primary in the find utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 4.24.4 Lines 4361-4368]
The egrep and fgrep utilities [See POSIX.2 Subclause
4.28.1 Lines 4793-4799; Subclause 4.28.2 Lines 4815-4832; Subclause
4.28.3 Lines 4850-4851]
The -number option in the head utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 4.29.1 Lines 4953-4954; Subclause 4.29.3 Lines 4971-4974]
The -j field, -j1 field, and -j2 field options and the -o
list option (where list is composed of multiple arguments) in the join
utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause 4.31.1 Lines 5133-5135; Subclause 4.31.3
Lines 5168-5170 and 5182-5184]
The -signal-name and -signal-number options in the kill
utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause 4.32.1 Lines 5259-5261; Subclause 4.32.3
Lines 5294-5311]
The +pos1 and -pos2 options in the sort utility and the -o
output option following a file operand [See POSIX.2 Subclause 4.58.1
Lines 9583-9585; Subclause 4.58.3 Lines 9599-9601, 9618-9620, and 9674-
9675; Subclause 4.58.7 Lines 9746-9762]
The -[number] [c/l] [f] and +[number] [c/l] [f] options in
the tail utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause 4.60.1 Lines 10058-10060;
Subclause 4.60.3 Lines 10098-10105]
The date--time operand in the touch utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 4.63.1 Lines 10337-10338; Subclause 4.63.4 Lines 10403-10416]
The -s option in the tty utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause
4.66.1 Lines 10659-10660; Subclause 4.66.3; Lines 10669-10671]
The octal number form of the mask operand in the unmask
utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause 4.67.4 Lines 10755-10756 and 10759-
10760]
The -n and +m options in the uniq utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 4.69.1 Lines 10890-10891; Subclause 4.69.3 Lines 10918-10919]
If the User Portability Utilities Option is required, the following
obsolescent features are not required for a system to be compliant with
the POSIX.2 FIPS:
The - and +command options in the ex utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 5.10.1 Lines 985-986; Subclause 5.10.3 Lines 1004 and 1028]
The -tabstop and -tab1, tab2, . . . tabn options in the
expand utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause 5.11.1 Lines 2056-2057; Subclause
5.11.3 Lines 2083-2085]
The +command option in the more utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 5.18.1 Lines 2726-2727; Subclause 5.18.3 Line 2769]
The - option in the newgrp utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause
5.19.1 Lines 3123-3124; Subclause 5.19.3 Line 3185]
The -increment option in the nice utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 5.20.1 Lines 3242-3243; Subclause 5.20.3 Line 3260]
The nice__value option in the renice utility; combinations
of the [-p] pid, -g gid, and -u user options [See POSIX.2 Subclause
5.24.1 Lines 3795-3798; Subclause 5.24.3 Lines 3837-3838, 3847-3848,
and 3850-3851; Subclause 5.24.4 Lines 3860-3864]
The -line__count option in the split utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 5.25.1 Lines 3906-3907; Subclause 5.25.3 Line 3942]
The - and -number options in the strings utility [See
POSIX.2 Subclause 5.26.1 Lines 3996-3997; Subclause 5.26.3 Lines 4010
and 4014]
The +command option in the vi utility [See POSIX.2
Subclause 5.35.1 Lines 4722-4723; Subclause 5.35.3 Line 4744]
If the C-Language Development Utilities Option is required, the
following obsolescent features are not required for a system to be
compliant with the POSIX.2 FIPS:
The -c option in the lex utility [See POSIX.2 Subclause
A.2.1. Lines 218-219; subclause A.2.3 Line 231]
Recommendations
Users of this standard should be aware that it does not require the
Portable Operating System Interfaces (POSIX)--Part 2: Shell and
Utilities to be implemented on a FIPS 151-2 conforming implementation.
Users should also be aware that certain utilities and functions are
optional in ISO/IEC 9945-2:1992. To provide the greatest support for
application portability, it is recommended that an implementation
conforming to this FIPS also provide the following features:
1. User Portability Utilities Option (POSIX2__UPE, POSIX.2 Section
5) and Full Terminal Operations Option (POSIX2-__CHAR__TERM, POSIX.2
Section 2.14).
2. A FIPS 151-2 conforming operating system interface.
3. Software Development Utilities Option (POSIX2__SW__DEV, POSIX.2
Section 6), when software will be developed or source-level software
will be installed on the systems being acquired.
4. C-Language Development Utilities Option (POSIX2__C__DEV, POSIX.2
Annex A), when software written in the C language will be developed or
installed on the systems being acquired.
5. C-Language Bindings Option (POSIX2__C__BIND, POSIX.2 Annex B),
when software written in the C language will be used on the systems
being acquired.
6. FORTRAN Development Utilities Option (POSIX2__FORT__DEV, POSIX.2
Annex C.) when software written in FORTRAN will be developed or
installed on the systems being acquired.
7. FORTRAN Runtime Utilities Option (POSIX2__FORT__RUN, POSIX.2
Annex C), when FORTRAN software will be used on the systems being
acquired.
Furthermore, it is strongly recommended that Federal users require
Feature 1 and, in addition, ensure that purchased systems are capable
of supporting Features 2-5, listed above. Even when these features are
not needed at the time of initial purchase, changed requirements may
demand some or all of these in the future, either for the development
of new applications, for the importing of applications from other
systems, or to maximize compatibility among multiple in-house systems.
Implementation. This standard becomes effective six (6) months
after date of publication of the final document in the Federal Register
announcing approval of the standard by the Secretary of Commerce. This
standard is compulsory and binding for use in all solicitations and
contracts for new operating systems and/or applications development
where POSIX shell and utility interfaces are required.
a. Acquisition of Conforming Portable Shell and Utilities.
Organizations developing applications which are to be acquired after
the publication date of this standard and which have applications
portability as a requirement should consider the use of this FIPS.
Conformance to this FIPS should be considered whether the operating
system environments are:
1. Developed internally,
2. Acquired as part of an ADP system procurement,
3. Acquired by separate procurement,
4. Used under an ADP leasing arrangement, or
5. Specified for use in contracts for programming services.
b. Interpretation of the FIPS for Shell and Utilities. NIST
provides for the resolution of questions regarding the FIPS
specifications and requirements, and issues official interpretations as
needed. All questions about the interpretation of this FIPS should be
addressed to: Director, National Computer Systems Laboratory, Attn:
POSIX Shell and Utilities FIPS Interpretation, National Institute of
Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.
c. Validation of Conforming Operating Systems Environments. NIST is
developing cooperatively with industry a validation suite for measuring
conformance to this standard. This suite will be required for testing
conformance of POSIX Shell and Utilities implementations. These testing
requirements will be announced at a future date.
Where to Obtain Copies: Copies of this publication are for sale by
the National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of
Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. (Sale of the included specifications
document is by arrangement with the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, Incorporated.) When ordering, refer to Federal
Information Processing Standards Publication ________ (FIPSPUB
________), and title. Payment may be made by check, money order, or
deposit account.
Appendix A--Application Portability Profile
The POSIX Shell and Utilities FIPS is the second component of a
series of specifications needed for the operating system services
area of an applications portability profile. FIPS 151-1 (and its
replacement, FIPS 151-2) provided the crucial first step by
providing a vendor independent interface specification between an
application program and an operating system. When fully extended,
POSIX will provide the functionality required to support source code
portability for a wide range of applications across many different
machines and operating systems.
NIST has published Special Publication 500-210, Application
Portability Profile (APP), The U.S. Government's Open System
Environment Profile, OSE/1, Version 2.0, June 1993. The APP has been
developed to provide sufficient functionality to accommodate a broad
range of application requirements. The functional components of the
APP constitute a framework for organizing standard elements that can
be used to develop and maintain portable applications. A key aspect
of the APP is that it is based on an open system environment defined
by non-proprietary specifications. Components may be added or
deleted as technology changes and as Federal government requirements
change.
[FR Doc. 94-1818 Filed 1-27-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-CN-M
