LSB Commands and Utilities, Draft proposal

Jakob 'sparky' Kaivo jkaivo at ndn.net
Tue Jun 29 00:16:44 PDT 1999


Here's my first draft proposal for commands and utilities. I'm sure it can
be improved upon. Things I know need work:

1) There may be more commands that should be specified (e.g. the package
manager, /sbin/shutdown).

2) Where else should we diverge from UNIX98? Am I missing other things we
do differently? Do we try to fix util-linux or just say we do things the
util-linux way? Seriously, util-linux has more noncomforming but properly
named and proper basic funcionality commands than any other package.

3) Other ideas, questions, comments, suggetsions? Please, if you find a
Free Software/Open Source version of one of the programs listed with an N
in the Linux column on the web page, let me know. Note that this week I'll
probably be submitting patches to the maintainers of several of the
programs that are nearly compliant, so keep an eye on the web page for
updates.

---- 8< -- 8< -- Begin proposal -- 8< -- 8< ----
Linux Standard Base Commands and Utilities
Initial Proposal, v. 0.1

Introduction
------------
In an effort to maintain a commonality between Linux based operating systems
and other GNU-like operating systems, LSB uses as the basis for its command
and utility list the list of commands from the Single UNIX Specification,
version 2, also known as UNIX98. However, in some cases it is either not
possible for Linux based operating systems to comply and remain completely
Free Software/Open Source, and in other cases a different program is more
widely used on Linux based operating systems that provides the same
functionality. Those places where LSB diverges from UNIX98 are detailed here,
with rationale for each. For a listing of commands and utilities specified
by UNIX98, along with a link to descriptions of how each command should
operate and a note as to what package a Free Software/Open Source version of
that command is available, see http://www.linuxbase.org/cu/

Divergences
-----------

SCCS commands - admin, delta, get, prs, rmdel, sact, sccs, unget, val, what
Divergence: These commands are not required by LSB. Instead, {RCS and/or CVS}
are specified for LSB compliance.
Rationale: These commands are part of the SCCS package, a method of managing
and controlling revisions to files. I am not aware of a Free Software
implementation of SCCS. However, RCS and CVS do similar jobs, are available
as Free Software, and are presently in widespread use on Linux-based operating
systems.

Compression commands - pack, unpack, pcat, compress, uncompress, zcat
Divergence: These commands are not required by LSB. Instead, the equivalent
commands (gzip, gunzip, and zcat) from GNU Zip are specified for LSB compliance.
Rationale: Compress uses a patented algorithm and is therefore tricky to
redistribute. Pack is marked as a legacy command in UNIX98. GNU Zip is Free
Software unencumbered by patents, and also quite often produces better
compression ratios than compress, as well as being the current de facto
standard for compressed file distribution on Linux-based operating systems and
other GNU-like operating systems.

Printing commands - cancel, lp, lpstat, pr
Divergence: These commands are not required by LSB. Instead, the BSD printing
commands (lpq, lpr, lprm, lptest, lpc, lpd, lpf, and pac).
Rationale: These commands are from the System V style of managing printers.
Linux-based operating systems tend to use the BSD family of printing tools.

Archiving utilities - cpio, pax, tar
Divergence: UNIX98 marks cpio and tar as legacy and pax as mandatory. LSB
marks cpio and tar as mandatory and makes pax optional.
Rationale: Both tar and cpio are widely used in current package formats for
Linux-based operating systems (cpio being used by RPM and tar being used by
basically all software distribution).

---- 8< -- 8< -- End proposal -- 8< -- 8< ----

-- 
Jakob 'sparky' Kaivo - jkaivo at ndn.net - http://www.ndn.net/
"As time goes on, my signature gets shorter and shorter..." - me



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