Re: Early POSIX versions seldom included in history sections

[Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>]

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On Sat, Dec 20, 2025 at 04:17:44PM +0000, Seth McDonald wrote:
> Hello again!

Hi Seth!

> I've noticed that in almost all man pages for POSIX functions, the
> history section documents only as far back as POSIX.1-2001, even when
> the function appeared in prior POSIX versions. For example, the man
> pages for close(2), read(2), and malloc(3) all list POSIX.1-2001 as the
> functions' first appearance in POSIX, when all three were included in
> POSIX.1-1988 (though read(2) got its current function signature in
> POSIX.1-1990).
> 
> But there are a few man pages that do actually go further back. By
> grep-ing the repo with
> 
> $ grep -E -nr -e 'POSIX.1-19[0-9]{2}' man
> 
> I get 28 matches, some of which are from functions' history sections,
> such as in the abs(3) and ctime(3) man pages. Which makes me think that
> either the history sections were intended to start at POSIX.1-2001 and
> these few exceptions were unintended/overlooked. Or the exact version of
> POSIX that most functions were introduced in was not known, while
> POSIX.1-2001 was freely available online as html to check.

It's the latter.  In the cases where we know old details, we've
documented them.  Otherwise, we've checked the standards that are easily
available (i.e., POSIX.1-2001 and later), and if we learn some API was
older, we can always go back and document it.

> If the reason is the latter, then I'd be happy to help here. I have
> access to POSIX.1-1988, POSIX.1-1990, and POSIX.1-1996, as well as SUS
> (1994) and SUSv2 (1997). So I can check each function and update their
> man page's history section with an earlier POSIX (or SUS) version if
> applicable. Though only if that's desirable for the man pages, of
> course; let me know if so.

Yup!  Thanks a lot!  That would be helpful.  :)


Have a lovely night!
Alex

> 
> ----
> Seth McDonald.
> sethmcmail at pm dot me (mailing lists)
> 2336 E8D2 FEB1 5300 692C  62A9 5839 6AD8 9243 D369




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