NetBSD OS to Add Elements of the POSIX Standard

March 2, 2006

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) and The Open Group granted permission to the NetBSD Foundation to incorporate more than 1,400 interfaces from the joint IEEE 1003.1 POSIX standard and The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6 into its NetBSD operating system (OS).

This benefits developers in the NetBSD Project and software engineers using NetBSD as their target platform. NetBSD developers can use standard documentation to express that a NetBSD OS conforms to the POSIX standard.

The step also gives engineers who write software to run on NetBSD an understanding of how to create portable programs using IEEE 1003.1 - Standard for Information Technology: Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX).

The POSIX standard, which also forms the core volumes of Version 3 of The Open Group's Single UNIX Specification, defines a set of fundamental services needed for the construction of portable application programs. The more than 1,400 interfaces from the standard include header files, interfaces for system and library calls and utilities.

"This permission will benefit our users, to whom standards compliance means a great deal. It is also a huge step forward for some of our developers, especially those whose native language is not English, in that documentation can be adopted which accurately, succinctly and clearly describes all software features and uses," said Alistair Crooks, president of the NetBSD foundation.

For information on POSIX, visit http://posixcertified.ieee.org.

Source: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE).