Guide to UNIX® 03 Certification

Copyright © 2002-2015 The Open Group, All Rights Reserved

Issue 1.1, May 29 2015



Table of Contents

1.  Introduction

1.1  Summary of Web References

2.  How to Achieve UNIX 03 Certification

2.1  Understanding the Program
2.2  Confidentiality
2.3  Preparation for Certification
2.4  Certification
2.5  The Open Brand Trademark License Agreement (TMLA)

3.  Product Registration

3.1  The First Step - Completing the Trademark License Agreement
3.2  The UNIX 03 Conformance Statement
3.3  Submitting Initial Certification Information
3.4  Initial Submission Check
3.5  Formal Testing for Certification
3.6  Completion of Certification
3.7  The Appeals Process

4.  Renewals and Certified Product Updates

4.1 The Renewals Process
4.2 Certified Product Updates

5.  Certification Checklist

Change History

October 2003 Issue 1

May 2015 Issue 1.1


1. Introduction

This document is a guide for suppliers who want to submit products for UNIX 03 certification within the Open Brand Certification Program. This document guides you through all the steps required for certification.

UNIX 03 certification is given to those products or range of products that have been certified by The Open Group as having demonstrated their conformance to the applicable Conformance Requirements. The detailed requirements for conformance are identified in the UNIX 03 Product Standard and its subsidiary Product Standards. Only suppliers of Certified Products may use the Open Brand certification trademark in connection with their product.

UNIX 03 Certification is governed by the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement (TMLA). You must agree to the terms and conditions outlined the TMLA to certification. For your convenience, significant highlights of the UNIX 03 certification process are outlined below, and the following sections give more comprehensive information.

  1. The Certification Authority for UNIX 03 certification is The Open Group.
  2. You will be granted a license to use the Open Brand certification trademark in connection with your product when your product has passed the applicable certification Test Suite(s) and you have formally agreed to all the required terms.
  3. The TMLA must be signed by both an authorized signatory from your company and The Open Group in order to have a product certified.
  4. A certified product is subject to re-certification on a periodic basis as stated in the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement.
  5. All product information supplied to the Certification Authority will be treated as confidential..
  6. The Open Group Certification Authority may, from time to time, request proof that your product remains in compliance with the requirements outlined in the UNIX 03 Conformance Requirements, as required by the TMLA.

At the end of this document is a Certification Checklist to help you make sure that your product registration is complete.

Note: In the event of any conflicts, this guide defers to the the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement (TMLA), and the UNIX 03 Product Standards.

1.1 Summary of Web References

A summary of the external web references is given below:

http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/ Information on The Open Group's Open Brand Certification Program
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/tmla.pdf The Open Brand Trademark License Agreement
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/docs/UNIX03_Certification_Guide.html The Guide to UNIX 03 Certification
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/docs/UNIX03-tcd.pdf UNIX 03 Test Campaign Definition Form
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/ The Open Group Certification Register
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/complist.htm Product Standards
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/testing/dates.html The list of currently authorized Test Suites
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/PR/ The UNIX 03 Certification Problem Reporting System and Database
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/docs/faq.html The Frequently Asked Questions File
http://www.opengroup.org/csq Conformance Statement Questionnaires

2. How to Achieve UNIX 03 Certification

This guide details the steps you are required to take to achieve certification, and provides information on how to perform each of these steps.

The process involves:

Note: Certification should not commence until all the requirements for a UNIX 03 system are met.

2.1 Understanding the Certification Program

To become familiar with the program, you should read the following program documents:

2.1.1 The Open Brand Trademark License Agreement

It is best to start with the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement, which is the foundation of the program. It provides information on the legal framework for certification in the program, what it means to be certified, what is required to get a product certified, and how to make sure that a product remains certified.

2.1.2 The UNIX 03 Product Standard

The UNIX 03 Product Standard should then be read to understand the detailed Conformance Requirements against which a product can be certified. Product Standards provide a mapping between certification, specifications, and the Test Suites needed to demonstrate conformance.

The UNIX 03 Product Standard is built out of the following subsidiary Product Standards:

2.1.3 The Practical Guide to The Open Brand

UNIX 03 certification is part of the Open Brand certification program. A link to the Practical Guide to the Open Brand is available at http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/. The Guide is designed primarily for those who wish to apply to register products within the Open Brand certification program, although it will be of value to those who, for procurement purposes, wish to examine the requirements and establish the exact terms for product registration. The Guide provides a description of the operation of the Open Brand for all available Product Standards. For readers unfamiliar with the Open Brand, we recommend reading the Introduction, referring as necessary to the individual chapters for an explanation of Product Standards, Conformance Statements, Indicators of Compliance, Testing, and so on.

2.2 Confidentiality

Your company and product details are absolutely confidential between you and The Open Group. This is effective once you sign the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement, which is a prerequisite to registering a product. The Open Group does not make any certification information available to any third party, including consultants or members, without written permission of the supplier.

Upon successful completion of the certification process, the certified product will be included in the publicly available Certification Register at http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/. However, to enable you to launch a Certified Product, you may request that certification remain confidential for up to six months from the date of written notification by the Certification Authority that a product has achieved certification.

2.3 Preparation for Certification

The objective of The Open Group UNIX 03 certification program is to encourage and facilitate the development and market availability of products that meet the Single UNIX Specification, Version 3. The Test Suites and test procedures have a dual role in this context: first, they help developers and quality assurance teams to ensure the product meets the specifications and, second, they are used to ensure that only the eligible products are marketed as compliant.

Prior to applying for certification you should perform internal development.

You should read the UNIX 03 Product Standards referring to the Indicators of Compliance section to identify the required certification tests. The certification tests comprise automated Test Suites. You should then perform quality assurance testing using the conformance Test Suite(s), test procedures, checklists, and any additional verification methods you deem appropriate, to ensure the product meets the applicable Conformance Requirements and is ready for entry into the certification program.

2.3.1 Authorized Test Suites

You should note that, for formal testing, only currently authorized versions of the UNIX 03 certification Test Suites and procedures can be used. So, for informal testing it is vital that you use an authorized version. The Open Group maintains a list of the currently authorized certification Test Suites at http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/testing/dates.html.

Below is information on how to find further information on the Test Suites and where to report any bugs.

2.3.2 Problems and Problem Reporting

If you have problems with running the certification Test Suites, first read the documentation provided with the certification Test Suites . If this does not answer your questions, check the Frequently Asked Questions file at http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/docs/faq.html. If you still cannot find an answer, report the problem to the Test Suite Maintenance Authority (TSMA) via http://www.opengroup.org/testing/support/.

If you are using one of the authorized Test Suites and getting failures but are certain that your product conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, check the Problem Report information database held at http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/PR. The online Problem Report database contains known information on existing bugs and interpretations of the specification. The issue may already be resolved by a UNIX 03 specification Interpretation, or by an agreed Test Suite Deficiency. If it is not, you should raise a new Problem Report; see http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/PR.

2.4 Certification

Certification is a formal process. Under the terms of the TMLA, you, as a supplier of a Certified Product, warrant and represent that the product meets all the Conformance Requirements applicable to the Product Standard against which it is certified and implements all the features claimed in the Conformance Statement.

The obligations, terms, and conditions of certification are fully set out in the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement (TMLA).

This document is available via The Open Group Certification web page at http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/.

It is necessary to read this document before you start the certification process in order to fully understand the policies and requirements.

2.5 The Open Brand Trademark License Agreement (TMLA)

The Open Brand Trademark License Agreement requires signature. It is recommended that you commence the process to complete the TMLA as soon as possible to save delays later in the certification process. A TMLA must be completed before a product can complete the certification process and be entered onto the Certification Register.

The TMLA only needs to be entered into once per organization. When it is in place, multiple products can be certified. If you are an existing customer in the Open Brand program, your company has already entered into this agreement. To confirm this, contact the Certification Authority.


3. Product Registration

You should also refer to http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/testing/checklist/ which is a product registration checklist for UNIX 03.

3.1 The First Step: The TMLA

Prior to commencing a product registration, you should submit a completed Open Brand Trademark License Agreement (TMLA) to The Open Group.

3.2 The UNIX 03 Conformance Statement

The next step is to complete the Conformance Statements for the four subsidiary Product Standards required for UNIX 03 to describe your product and how it meets the Conformance Requirements. Your Conformance Statements will be linked into the Certification Register entry for the product once it is certified. Note that you cannot complete the UNIX 03 Conformance Statement until the subsidiary conformance statements have been submitted and approved. The template Conformance Statement Questionnaires (CSQs) for UNIX 03 certification is available from http://www.opengroup.org/csq/csqdata/blanks/.

You must create a Conformance Statement using a html editor.

The Conformance Statement includes information about the product and product family to be certified, which includes at least the following:

3.3 Submitting Initial Certification Information

Applying for certification requires you to submit some initial information to The Open Group. The initial submission involves sending a covering letter (including your company details and contact details), completing a Registration Form for the UNIX 03 Product Standards and constituent Product Standards, and supplying payment details (a cheque or purchase order number).

You must also submit a UNIX 03 Test Campaign Definition form. Where a Product Standard allows alternate Indicators of Compliance, you must select your choice of the Indicator of Compliance, for example for Internationalized Terminal Interfaces you need to select between hard or soft conformance.

3.4 Initial Submission Check

Once the above stages have been completed, the Certification Authority will perform an initial check of the completeness and correctness of the submission, including the Conformance Statements.

3.4.1 Confirmation of the Test Campaign Definition

If your submission is complete and correct, the Certification Authority will confirm within six working days the definition of the specific test campaign for your product registration and will return the completed document to you.

The next steps are to perform formal testing and then submission of the test results. Where test result data is available in electronic form it should be uploaded via ftp to The Open Group (please contact the Certification Authority who will establish an ftp account for this purpose).

3.5 Formal Testing for Certification

Formal testing is a self-test activity with results submitted to the Certification Authority for audit. At this point, you need to make sure you understand the required test campaign that has been defined by the Certification Authority; that is, which Test Suites and procedures are required to be used for certification testing (see below for an outline of a typical campaign). You also need to make sure that you have obtained a currently authorized version of the certification Test Suite(s), since other versions will not be valid for formal testing.

You can obtain help and information as described in Preparation for Certification.

3.5.1 Test Journals from Automated Test Suites

Test results submitted from the automated Test Suites should always include the full journal output from an uninterrupted run of the applicable Test Suite. If this is not possible, a Problem Report must be raised stating the nature of the problem and you should wait for a response from the Certification Authority before proceeding further.

When submitting test results for audit, you are required to upload test journals for each applicable Test Suite. If there are failed test results, then you need to provide a text file giving references to granted Problem Reports. For automated Test Suites that produce a test journal in a format other than the Test Environment Toolkit (TET) journal, the Certification Authority will define the exact requirements in the test campaign definition.

The rest of this section applies to automated Test Suites that produce a TET Journal.

The failed test results in a test journal that require resolution are those with a status of FAIL, UNINITIATED, UNRESOLVED, or UNREPORTED. The resolution process requires you to provide a valid reference to an approved Problem Report from the Problem Reporting database for each failed test case. An approved Problem Report is one which has resulted in an agreed Interpretation of the specification, a Test Suite Deficiency, or a Certification System Deficiency. These apply to specific releases of the specification, Test Suite, or certification system.

Any other test results in the journal that require manual resolution are denoted FIP (further information provided) or INSPECT. The resolution process requires you to provide an assertion that the test case resolves to a PASS result for your system, and optionally to provide brief commentary. No reference is required to an approved Problem Report for FIP or INSPECT results.

3.5.3 Test Campaign Definition

For an initial certification, a standard set of Indicators of Conformance are defined in the Product Standards. The test campaign definitions are drawn up from this set by the Certification Authority, and will have been supplied earlier in the certification process. A summary follows of the Indicators of Conformance by Product Standard:

Product Standard Test Campaign
UNIX 03
  • The test campaign is that of the subsidiary product standards.
Internationalized System Calls and Libraries Extended V3
  • Test journal output from an uninterrupted run from authorized versions of the following test suites: VSX4, VSX5, VSU5, VSTH, and VSART (reader/writer locks). Optionally test journal output from VSRT, VSART (complete), VSTRE and VSTRC dependent on which option groups are supported.

  • For the test journal output, any failure results need to be resolved by reference to associated granted Interpretations, Test Suite Deficiencies, or Certification System Deficiences from the Problem Report database.

Commands and Utilities V4
  • A Test Report from an uninterrupted run of an authorized version of the VSC5 Test Suite
  • For the test journal output, any failure results need to be resolved by reference to associated granted Interpretations, Test Suite Deficiencies, or Certification System Deficiences from the Problem Report database.

C Language V2
  • The requested output files from a valid release of either the Perennial or Plum Hall test suites.

    Perennial: An authorized version of the CVSA test suite. Submit the test results per the 'Perennial CVSA C99 Conformance Validation Procedures'.

    Plum Hall: An authorized version ofthe CVS test suite.

    For Perennial and Plum Hall please submit the results by ftp or email the files to the Conformance Administrator. For UNIX 03 conformance the ISO C compiler is required to be the c99 utility.

Internationalized Terminal Interfaces
  • For hard conformance, a Test Report from an uninterrupted run of the curses section of an authorized version of the VSU5 Test Suite
    • For the test journal output, any failure results need to be resolved by reference to associated granted Interpretations, Test Suite Deficiencies, or Certification System Deficiences from the Problem Report database.

  • For soft conformance, no test report is required.

For renewals and certification updates, you should refer to Renewals and Certified Product Updates for policy on how the Certification Authority will define the applicable test campaigns.

3.6 Completion of Certification

If your submission is complete, which includes the TMLA and payment details being in place, you will be notified of successful certification within 25 working days.

If for any reason the submission was not complete, you will be notified so that any corrections can be made and resubmitted. Such a resubmission needs to be done within 60 calendar days unless an extension has been granted by the Certification Authority. The initial fee covers one set of corrective actions.

The details of the Certified Product will then be put on the Certification Register, which is a public document, unless you have requested that it remains confidential. To keep the certification confidential, this option should be selected on the Registration Form at the time the product is submitted.

When a product certification has been made public, you will be sent a certificate by electronic mail.

You should note that certification is valid for a defined period, as stated in the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement. At the end of that period, if you wish your product to remain certified, you will need to renew your product's certification (see Renewals and Certified Product Updates for more information).

3.7 Appeals Process

You may appeal decisions made by The Open Group as stated in the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement. Any request for appeal should be sent by electronic mail to obconformance(at)opengroup.org. Receipt of such a request will be acknowledged within six working days by the Certification Authority and the appeals process invoked.


4. Renewals and Certified Product Updates

4.1 The Renewals Process

A certified product has a defined period for its initial certification, after which it must be renewed or the product will no longer continue to be certified. The Certification Authority will notify you approximately two months in advance by electronic mail (so it is important to maintain your contact information) when a renewal is due.

Renewal implies that your product continues to conform and that you will continue to support your product for the duration of the renewal period.

Renewals are undertaken by contacting the Certification Authority, who will supply a renewal form for you to complete.

You may be required to re-test your product. This depends on whether the Certification Authority is aware of any issues that would highlight the need to re-test. If you are required to re-test, the Certification Authority will inform you of the test requirements, and allow you to upload new test results for your product.

You can then elect to renew for the next certification period.

4.2 Certified Product Updates

If you make any changes to your Certified Product, you may be required to re-test or re-certify. Please consult the Certification Authority for guidance. In some cases, a complete "full certification" may be required if the update is considered to be equivalent to a new product in certification terms.


 5. Certification Checklist

The following checklist is provided to assist with completion of your product registration:

Understanding the Certification Program and Process    
  Have you read the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement? YES/NO
  Have you read the UNIX 03 Product Standards? YES/NO
  Have you read the Practical Guide to the Open Brand? YES/NO
Preparation for Certification    
  Have you read the Open Brand Certification Frequently Asked Questions file? YES/NO
  Have you identified the currently authorized Test Suites required for your product? YES/NO
  Have you completed your UNIX 03 development and informal testing? YES/NO
  Have you filed all the necessary Problem Reports? YES/NO
Legal Agreements    
  Have you read the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement? YES/NO
  Have you passed the above agreement to your legal representative? YES/NO
Product Registration    
  Has the TMLA been completed and submitted to The Open Group? YES/NO
  Do you have an account (userid/password) to access The Open Group's CSQ system? YES/NO
  Have you completed the UNIX 03 Conformance Statements for your product? YES/NO
  Have you submitted a cover letter with details about your company, your designated contacts, and payment information for this product registration? YES/NO
  Have you completed a registration form for the UNIX 03 Product Standard and constituent Product Standards? YES/NO
  Have you completed the UNIX 03 Test Campaign Definition form describing your proposed formal test campaign? YES/NO
  Has the Certification Authority approved your initial submission and defined your formal test campaign for your product? YES/NO
  Have you obtained the correct authorized versions of the Test Suites and procedures for the formal test campaign for your product? YES/NO
  Have you completed formal testing of your product? YES/NO
  Have you uploaded the formal test results, for all the test suites required in the approved test campaign definition form ? YES/NO
  Have you resolved all non-PASS results by references to Problem Reports resulting in agreed Interpretations or Test Suite Deficiencies? YES/NO
  Have you resolved any FIP results manually? YES/NO
  If you require the registration to be kept confidential, did you confirm that on your Registration Form? YES/NO
  Have you read the detailed testing checklist for UNIX 03 at http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/testing/checklist/ YES/NO

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© The Open Group 2002-2015
Updated 29 May 2015