ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945:2009
(Main)Information technology — Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX®) Base Specifications, Issue 7
Information technology — Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX®) Base Specifications, Issue 7
ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945:2009 defines a standard operating system interface and environment, including a command interpreter (or "shell"), and common utility programs to support applications portability at the source code level. ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945:2009 is intended to be used by both application developers and system implementers and comprises four major components (each in an associated volume). General terms, concepts, and interfaces common to all volumes of this standard, including utility conventions and C-language header definitions, are included in the Base Definitions volume. Definitions for system service functions and subroutines, language-specific system services for the C programming language, function issues, including portability, error handling, and error recovery, are included in the System Interfaces volume. Definitions for a standard source code-level interface to command interpretation services (a "shell") and common utility programs for application programs are included in the Shell and Utilities volume. Extended rationale that did not fit well into the rest of the document structure, which contains historical information concerning the contents of ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945:2009 and why features were included or discarded by the ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945:2009 developers, is included in the Rationale (Informative) volume. The following areas are outside the scope of ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945:2009: graphics interfaces; database management system interfaces; record I/O considerations; object or binary code portability; system configuration and resource availability. ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945:2009 describes the external characteristics and facilities that are of importance to application developers, rather than the internal construction techniques employed to achieve these capabilities. Special emphasis is placed on those functions and facilities that are needed in a wide variety of commercial applications.
Technologies de l'information — Spécifications de base de l'interface pour la portabilité des systèmes (POSIX®), Issue 7
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INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC/
STANDARD IEEE
First edition
2009-09-15
Information technology — Portable ®
Operating System Interface (POSIX )
Base Specifications, Issue 7
Technologies de l'information — Spécifications de base de l'interface ®
pour la portabilité des systèmes (POSIX ), Issue 7
Reference number
All rights reserved
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...
INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC/
STANDARD IEEE
First edition
2009-09-15
Information technology — Portable ®
Operating System Interface (POSIX )
Base Specifications, Issue 7
Technologies de l'information — Spécifications de base de l'interface ®
pour la portabilité des systèmes (POSIX ), Issue 7
Reference number
All rights reserved
PDF disclaimer
This PDF file may contain embedded typefaces. In accordance with Adobe's licensing policy, this file may be printed or viewed but
shall not be edited unless the typefaces which are embedded are licensed to and installed on the computer performing the editing. In
downloading this file, parties accept therein the responsibility of not infringing Adobe's licensing policy. Neither the ISO Central
Secretariat nor IEEE accepts any liability in this area.
Adobe is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Details of the software products used to create this PDF file can be found in the General Info relative to the file; the PDF-creation
parameters were optimized for printing. Every care has been taken to ensure that the file is suitable for use by ISO member bodies
and IEEE members. In the unlikely event that a problem relating to it is found, please inform the ISO Central Secretariat or IEEE at the
address given below.
© IEEE 2001-2008
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from either ISO or IEEE at the respective
address below.
ISO copyright office Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Case postale 56 • CH-1211 Geneva 20 3 Park Avenue, New York • NY 10016-5997, USA
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11 E-mail stds.ipr@ieee.org
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Web www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii Copyright © 2001-2008, IEEE and The Open Group. All rights reserved
Foreword
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Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of
ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established
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and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
IEEE Standards documents are developed within the IEEE Societies and the Standards Coordinating
Committees of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board. The IEEE develops its standards
through a consensus development process, approved by the American National Standards Institute, which
brings together volunteers representing varied viewpoints and interests to achieve the final product. Volunteers
are not necessarily members of the Institute and serve without compensation. While the IEEE administers the
process and establishes rules to promote fairness in the consensus development process, the IEEE does not
independently evaluate, test, or verify the accuracy of any of the information contained in its standards.
The main task of ISO/IEC JTC 1 is to prepare International Standards. Draft International Standards adopted
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ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945 was prepared by The Open Group (as The Open Group Technical Standard Base
Specifications, Issue 7) and the Portable Applications Standards Committee of the Computer Society of the
IEEE (as IEEE Std 1003.1™-2008). It was adopted by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information
technology, Subcommittee SC 22, Programming languages, their environments and system software
interfaces, in parallel with its approval by the ISO/IEC national bodies, under the “fast-track procedure” defined
in the Partner Standards Development Organization cooperation agreement between ISO and IEEE. IEEE is
responsible for the maintenance of this document with participation and input from ISO/IEC national bodies.
This first edition of ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945 cancels and replaces ISO/IEC 9945-1:2003, ISO/IEC 9945-2:2003,
ISO/IEC 9945-3:2003 and ISO/IEC 9945-4:2003, which have been technically revised. It also
incorporates the Technical Corrigenda ISO/IEC 9945-1:2003/Cor.1:2004, ISO/IEC 9945-2:2003/Cor.1:2004,
ISO/IEC 9945-3:2003/Cor.1:2004 and ISO/IEC 9945-4:2003/Cor.1:2004.
(blank page)
iv Copyright © 2001-2008, IEEE and The Open Group. All rights reserved
Standard for Information Technology– ®
Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX )
Base Specifications, Issue 7
IEEE Computer Society
Sponsored by the
Portable Applications Standards Committee
and
The Open Group
IEEE
™
IEEE Std 1003.1 -2008
3 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016-5997, USA (Revision of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2004)
1 December 2008
TM
1003.1
(blank page)
vi Copyright © 2001-2008, IEEE and The Open Group. All rights reserved
™
IEEE Std 1003.1 -2008
(Revision of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2004)
The Open Group Technical Standard
Base Specifications, Issue 7
Standard for Information Technology— ®
Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX )
Base Specifications, Issue 7
Sponsor
Portable Applications Standards Committee
of the
IEEE Computer Society
and
The Open Group
Approved 26 September 2008
IEEE-SA Standards Board
Approved 24 July 2008
The Open Group
Abstract
™
POSIX.1-2008 is simultaneously IEEE Std 1003.1 -2008 and The Open Group Technical Standard Base Specifications,
Issue 7.
POSIX.1-2008 defines a standard operating system interface and environment, including a command interpreter (or
“shell”), and common utility programs to support applications portability at the source code level. POSIX.1-2008 is
intended to be used by both application developers and system implementors and comprises four major components
(each in an associated volume):
• General terms, concepts, and interfaces common to all volumes of this standard, including utility conventions and
C-language header definitions, are included in the Base Definitions volume.
• Definitions for system service functions and subroutines, language-specific system services for the C
programming language, function issues, including portability, error handling, and error recovery, are included in
the System Interfaces volume.
• Definitions for a standard source code-level interface to command interpretation services (a “shell”) and common
utility programs for application programs are included in the Shell and Utilities volume.
• Extended rationale that did not fit well into the rest of the document structure, which contains historical
information concerning the contents of POSIX.1-2008 and why features were included or discarded by the
standard developers, is included in the Rationale (Informative) volume.
The following areas are outside the scope of POSIX.1-2008:
• Graphics interfaces
• Database management system interfaces
• Record I/O considerations
• Object or binary code portability
• System configuration and resource availability
POSIX.1-2008 describes the external characteristics and facilities that are of importance to application developers, rather
than the internal construction techniques employed to achieve these capabilities. Special emphasis is placed on those
functions and facilities that are needed in a wide variety of commercial applications.
Keywords
application program interface (API), argument, asynchronous, basic regular expression (BRE), batch job, batch system,
built-in utility, byte, child, command language interpreter, CPU, extended regular expression (ERE), FIFO, file access ®
control mechanism, input/output (I/O), job control, network, portable operating system interface (POSIX ), parent, shell,
stream, string, synchronous, system, thread, X/Open System Interface (XSI)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
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The Open Group
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All rights reserved.
Published 1 December 2008 by the IEEE. Printed in the United States of America by the IEEE.
PDF: ISBN 978-0-7381-5798-6 STD95820
CDROM: ISBN 978-0-7381-5799-3 STDCD95820
Published 1 December 2008 by The Open Group. Printed in the United Kingdom by The Open Group.
Doc. Number: C082
ISBN: 1-931624-79-8
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, in an electronic retrieval system or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
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This standard has been prepared by the Austin Group. Feedback relating to the material contained within this standard may be submitted by using the
Austin Group web site at www.opengroup.org/austin/defectform.html.
viii Copyright © 2001-2008, IEEE and The Open Group. All rights reserved. Base Specifications, Issue 7
IEEE
IEEE Standards documents are developed within the IEEE Societies and the Standards Coordinating Committees of the
IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board. The IEEE develops its standards through a consensus
development process, approved by the American National Standards Institute, which brings together volunteers
representing varied viewpoints and interests to achieve the final product. Volunteers are not necessarily members of the
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