POSIX

POSIX (an acronym for Portable Operating System Interface, the X is probably just a marker reminding that it concerns UNIX) is an effort, sponsored by the IEEE, to standardize the variants of the UNIX operating system (OS), also known as IEEE 1003. The project began circa 1985.

POSIX specifies the user and software interfaces to the OS in some 15 different documents. The standard user command line and scripting interface is the Korn shell. Other user-level programs, services and utilities include awk, echo, ed, and numerous (hundreds) others. Required program-level services include basic I/O (file, terminal, and network) services.

A test suite for POSIX accompanies the standard. It is called PCTS or the Posix Conformance Test Suite.

Since the IEEE has been charging very high rates for POSIX documentation and not allowing on-line publication of the standards, there has been a tendency toward the "Single UNIX Specification" standard, which is open, accepts input from anyone, and is freely available on the Internet. It is made by The Open Group.

For Linux systems, several common extensions and complementary de facto-standards are provided by the linux standard base.