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POSIX.1-2013 man pages for Linux

From:  "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w-AT-public.gmane.org>
To:  "linux-man-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA-AT-public.gmane.org" <linux-man-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA-AT-public.gmane.org>, lkml <linux-kernel-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA-AT-public.gmane.org>
Subject:  IEEE/TOG grant permission to distribute POSIX.1-2013 man pages for Linux
Date:  Wed, 22 Jan 2014 16:56:48 +0100
Message-ID:  <52DFEA40.8020305@gmail.com>
Cc:  mtk.manpages-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w-AT-public.gmane.org, Andrew Josey <ajosey-7882/jkIBncuagvECLh61g-AT-public.gmane.org>, Felix Janda <felix.janda-1KBjaw7Xf1+zQB+pC5nmwQ-AT-public.gmane.org>
Archive‑link:  Article

Hello all,

The manual pages produced by the Linux man-pages project attempt
to document deviations between Linux behavior and the POSIX.1 standard.
However, the pages are no substitute for the standard itself.

In 2004, the IEEE and The Open Group decided to grant permission to the 
Linux man-pages project to distribute parts of the then-current version
of POSIX.1 in manual page format. That decision provided an extremely
valuable resource for Linux programmers who wanted to write applications
that are portable across UNIX systems. Evidence of that value has been
demonstrated by regular requests in the last few years that the project
should update its copy of the POSIX manual pages to the latest
version provided by The Austin Group (the umbrella group that works
on development of the POSIX.1 standard).

We are pleased to announce that, once again, the IEEE and The Open Group
have kindly granted us permission to distribute extracts from the 
latest version of the POSIX.1 standard:

    IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information 
    Technology--Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), 
    The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 
    Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and 
    Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.

(For those curious about the "2013" designation, this is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 

Thanks to some excellent scripting work by Felix Janda, the source 
files supplied by IEEE and The Open Group have been cleanly converted 
to  "man" format. The result is that portions of the standard are now
made available for easy reference  as (1139!) manual pages. Those 
pages are divided into three sections:

    Section 0p = POSIX headers (specifications for header files)
    Section 1p = POSIX utilities (i.e., specifications shell commands)
    Section 3p = POSIX functions (specifications for functions)

Tarballs containing the pages can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/man-pages...
and
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/man-pages...

Please note that all pages carry the following disclaimer:

    In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original 
    IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open 
    Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can 
    be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

    Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
    most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the 
    source files to man page format. To report such errors, see 
    https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

Thanks,

Michael

--
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/
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to post comments

POSIX.1-2013 man pages for Linux

Posted Jan 22, 2014 18:51 UTC (Wed) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link]

One of my browser tabs at work is always the POSIX spec. It is an excellent reference.

I assume they're non-free

Posted Jan 22, 2014 18:57 UTC (Wed) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (11 responses)

I wanted to see the licence, but you have to register if you want to download the specs. I won't bother. With that sort of restriction before you can even see the licence, I'm guessing the docs are non-free and won't be in Debian any time soon.

If I guessed wrong, I'd be happy to hear it.

I assume they're non-free

Posted Jan 22, 2014 19:02 UTC (Wed) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link] (6 responses)

WTF are you talking about? Those are direct links to the tarballs. The license is:

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and
The Open Group, have given us permission to reprint portions of
their documentation.

In the following statement, the phrase ``this text'' refers to
portions of the system documentation.

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri-
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

This notice shall appear on any product containing this material.

Redistribution of this material is permitted so long as this notice and
the corresponding notices within each POSIX manual page are retained on
any distribution, and the nroff source is included. Modifications to
the text are permitted so long as any conflicts with the standard
are clearly marked as such in the text.

Pretty free actually

Posted Jan 22, 2014 19:18 UTC (Wed) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (5 responses)

> WTF are you talking about?

The link in the story: http://www.unix.org/online.html

I click it and see: "Register to read or download the specification".

That last paragraph you quoted looks like a licence notice alright:

> Redistribution of this material is permitted so long as this notice and
> the corresponding notices within each POSIX manual page are retained on
> any distribution, and the nroff source is included. Modifications to
> the text are permitted so long as any conflicts with the standard
> are clearly marked as such in the text.

Is that the entire licence? Not just a summary?

If so, it's pretty free alright. Better than I was expecting after I saw the website. Not sure if Debian would accept it.

Pretty free actually

Posted Jan 22, 2014 20:10 UTC (Wed) by andresfreund (subscriber, #69562) [Link]

Debian has non-free, in which it already has manpages-posix{,-dev}.

Pretty free actually

Posted Jan 22, 2014 20:12 UTC (Wed) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link]

Well, if you click on the online version, then yes, you must register.

But the email clearly states

"
Tarballs containing the pages can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/man-pages...
and
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/man-pages...
"

The other stuff is just the original HTML version.

Pretty free actually

Posted Jan 22, 2014 20:27 UTC (Wed) by pbonzini (subscriber, #60935) [Link] (2 responses)

It's probably not Debian-free just like the GFDL's invariant sections aren't, but it's pretty good.

Pretty free actually

Posted Jan 22, 2014 20:35 UTC (Wed) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link] (1 responses)

Yes. It's really the same license as the old version included in man-pages <= 2.80, AFAICT. And those are included as manpages-posix in Debian non-free.

Pretty free actually

Posted Jan 23, 2014 2:44 UTC (Thu) by mkerrisk (subscriber, #1978) [Link]

> Yes. It's really the same license as the old version
> included in man-pages <= 2.80, AFAICT.

Yes, that's correct.

I assume they're non-free

Posted Jan 22, 2014 21:25 UTC (Wed) by lambda (subscriber, #40735) [Link] (3 responses)

Note that while you have to register to browse from the main page to the specifications, you can actually just Google for "opengroup keyword" and click through to the appropriate page. I do this pretty frequently when I want to find out if something is POSIX standard and thus has a reasonable chance of working on another platform or is Linux or Mac OS X specific (since I'm usually working on one of those platforms, but may not have others handy to test against). I think I even registered at one point, but it's easier to use the Google trick than it is to look up my login information.

I assume they're non-free

Posted Jan 22, 2014 22:33 UTC (Wed) by shruggy (guest, #94695) [Link]

Actually, no need to google. This page is linked from the Wikipedia article on POSIX:
http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/

I assume they're non-free

Posted Jan 23, 2014 1:28 UTC (Thu) by wahern (subscriber, #37304) [Link] (1 responses)

The problem with the Google approach is you never know which Issue you're going to get. Several issues have been published as HTML, and often times you get Issue 6 or even Issue 5. So you have to extent your search parameters, and... meh.

I just download the tarball they make available and unpack it locally. That way it's easy to get to the index, and I can also grep through the standard if I want, which is occasionally useful.

I assume they're non-free

Posted Jan 24, 2014 2:16 UTC (Fri) by dmoulding (subscriber, #95171) [Link]

1) Google "posix.1-2008"
2) Click the first result
3) Bookmark the page
3) Enjoy easy access to the current issue, registration-free
4) ????
5) Profit!


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