PASC Interpretation Request: ---------------------------- Reference: #4 From: The Open Group Date: 2006 Oct 17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 Defect Report concerning (number and title of International Standard or DIS final text, if applicable): AEP:POSIX(R) Realtime and Embedded Application Support: IEEE Std 1003.13-2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 Qualifier (e.g. error, omission, clarification required): 3 Error=1 , Omission=2, Clarification=3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9 References in document (e.g. page, clause, figure, and/or table numbers): 1.4 Units of Functionality, Table 1-18 Units of Functionality requirements (PR#37) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10 Nature of defect (complete, concise explanation of the perceived problem): POSIX.13-2003 introduced a POSIX_JOB_CONTROL unit of functionality to replace the _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL option referenced by POSIX.13-1998. This was necessary since _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL is no longer an option in POSIX.1-2001. It relates the unit of functionality to the 1003.1-2001 requirement via a note attached to the definition of the unit of functionality: "(1) There was a _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL option in an earlier version of the POSIX standards that specified these functions." It is not clear whether this is sufficient for PSE51, PSE52 and PSE53 implementations to override the requirement in POSIX.1-2001 to define the symbol (_POSIX_JOB_CONTROL) with a value greater than zero. Is an implementation of PSE51-53 allowed to set the 1003.1-2001 symbol _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL to -1 or zero (in the zero case having sysconf() return -1 to indicate that Job control is not supported)? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11 Solution proposed by the submitter (optional): POSIX.13 should state that _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL need not be defined with a value greater than zero for PSE51-53. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Interpretation: ---------------- The standard is unclear on this issue, and no conformance distinction can be made between alternative implementations based on this. This is being referred to the sponsor. Rationale: The 1003.13 standard is unclear in the connection between the POSIX_JOB_CONTROL option group and the _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL symbol from 1003.1. It appears that the intent was that for PSE51-53 implementations could define _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL as -1 or zero. This should be explicitly stated in a future revision. Notes to editors for a future revision (not part of the interpretation): ----------------------------------------------------------------------- There needs to be an explicit statement added in the next revision about the value of _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL for PSE profiles where the Job Control Unit of Functionality is not supported. There is a similar issue for the other historical POSIX.1 options whose constants in are required to indicate support, namely _POSIX_SAVED_IDS and _POSIX_VDISABLE. POSIX.13 lists them in Table 1-19 as POSIX.1 options (required for PSE54, not required for PSE51/52/53) and they are in the PSE54 list of required options (Table 9-2). This is a defect in POSIX.13 since _POSIX_SAVED_IDS and _POSIX_VDISABLE are not options in POSIX.1-2001. Forwarded to interpretations group: Tue Oct 17 10:01:35 BST 2006 Proposed resolution: Thu Oct 19 17:28:18 BST 2006 Final resolution: Mon Jun 2 17:40:14 BST 2008