ISO/IEC 9945 Project Editor Status Report Austin-286 Page 1 of 1 Submitted by Andrew Josey, The Open Group. March 1, 2006 This report is from the ISO/IEC 9945 Project Editor and documents the outputs of the most recent meeting of the Austin Group. The Austin Common Standards Revision Group (CSRG) is a joint technical working group that manages the joint specification that is ISO/IEC 9945 (POSIX), IEEE Std 1003.1 and The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6. The working group met at the Standards Council of Canada, Ottawa, ON, co-joint with the ISO POSIX Advisory Group, on February 21-24 2006 to consider the goals and plan the precise milestones for the next revision of the standard. Deliverables from the plenary meeting include a project plan detailing the timeline and draft contents, together with the proposed ballot cycle. This is available as http://www.opengroup.org/austin/docs/austin_284.html At the time of writing the Base documents input to the revision activity are expected to be as follows: ISO/IEC 9945:2003 Parts 1 to 4 (Part 1: Base Definitions, Part 2: System Interfaces, Part 3: Shell and Utilities, Part 4: Rationale) including the technical corrigenda: ISO/IEC 9945-1:2003/Cor.1:2004(E) ISO/IEC 9945-2:2003/Cor.1:2004(E) ISO/IEC 9945-3:2003/Cor.1:2004(E) ISO/IEC 9945-4:2003/Cor.1:2004(E) (technically identical to IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition and The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, 2004 edition) ISO/IEC 9899:1999 Programming Languages -- C. (latest technical corrigenda and defect reports) The Open Group Extended API Sets Parts 1 through 4 Plus any additional submissions that meet the criteria and deadlines The initial scope document drafted at the meeting will be used to create the Project Authorization Request (PAR). It is planned to submit the PAR to IEEE PASC in June 2006. We are currently investigating the paperwork required for a revision at the ISO level. It is not clear from the JTC 1 directives whether or not a NWI or division of work is needed to conduct a revision (, and historically SC 22 has not required such an action). The 9945 Project Editor has sent in a request to the ISO SC22 Secretariat to form an editing group for the revision. The draft scope is available as: http://www.opengroup.org/austin/docs/austin_285.txt It is anticipated that the scope of the revision will include the following: -The addition of new functionality from The Open Group Extended API Sets Parts 1 through 4 -Issues raised by ISO TR 24715:200x, "Conflicts between POSIX and the LSB". -Additions to the specification raised as new work items, to reflect current practice and knowledge, as proposed by ISO SC22, the IEEE, or The Open Group by July 31st 2006 -A review of the use of fixed path filenames within the standard, for example the at, batch and crontab utilities that presently have a requirement for use of the directory /usr/lib/cron -A review of features marked as Legacy or obsolescent in the Base documents and consider the status of such items. -A review of existing interfaces to decide whether any of them should be marked obsolescent. This is a way to transition features to allow a future withdrawal. Possible candidates include the Batch Environment Services and Utilities option from XCU and the POSIX tracing option in XSH -Issues raised by Austin Group Interpretations against ISO/IEC 9945 (IEEE Std 1003.1) -Issues raised by Defect Reports as recorded in the Aardvark reports and SD/5 -A review of the options within the standard, and whether its possible to reduce the number of them. For example, it might be that the threads, barriers and spinlocks options be migrated to the Base functionality. Such a move of functionality from an option into the Base would need to include an update to the subprofiling considerations appendix to record the grouping by name and the list of associated functions. Looking forward, a plan has been prepared with a draft schedule (see Austin/284). This anticipates that there will be either five or six drafts. The first and second drafts are anticipated to be produced during 2006. The first draft will fold in changes only to existing material, and no new submissions. The second draft will include the new submissions and be the first feature complete draft. Its anticipated that this will go for a three month review, including IEEE and ISO ballots. At ISO we expect to do a concurrent CD registration and CD ballot. A plenary meeting would be held to resolve the bug reports in February 2007. Draft three would be the first draft on which the narrowing down rules within IEEE and the Austin Group will be applied and subsequent drafts will then aim to take the document through to completion of the relevant approval ballots in the sponsoring bodies. It is anticipated that the next revision will complete by September 2008. At the plenary the Austin Group took the decision to extend the first call for proposed submissions of new material to March 31 2006 (see note ii). The criteria for adoption remain unchanged as in Appendix A below. For external documents that meet the criteria, a full proposal should be submitted including detailed editing instructions by July 31 2006. At the meeting it was also noted that the next SC22 Plenary meeting is to be held in London, and that due to the proximity the 9945 Project Editor should attend that meeting in person. Further information on the Austin Group can be obtained at http://www.opengroup.org/austin/faq.html ----- Notes: (i) Numbered documents and Standing Documents can be obtained from the Austin Group Document register at http://www.opengroup.org/austin/docreg.html (ii) Submissions of new material should be submitted to the Austin Group Chair. The initial submission should be less than 500 words and include a list of proposed interfaces together with a description of purpose. ----- Appendix A: Criteria for Inclusion of new interfaces The recommended criteria for development of new interfaces to enable them to be considered for inclusion in a future revision are as follows: 1.There must be a written specification that has undergone a formal consensus based approval process and is suitable for inclusion. Parties interested in submitting new work items through one of the three organizations within the Austin Group (The Open Group, IEEE, ISO/IEC) should contact the appropriate Organizational Representative for further information and advice on how each organization handles new work items. Submissions from other organizations will also be considered. Items 2 through 4 below apply to all submissions regardless of origin. 2.There must be an implementation, preferably a reference implementation. 3.The specification must be "sponsored" by one of three organizations (The Open Group, IEEE, ISO/IEC) within the Austin Group, i.e. they would support and champion its inclusion. 4.Submitters must provide an outline plan of the editing instructions to merge the document with the Austin Group specifications, and assistance to the Austin Group editors as required to complete the merger. For an example, see http://www.opengroup.org/sophocles/show_mail.tpl?source=L&listname=austin-group-l&id=434