[CC += linux-man] Hi, On Sat, Jan 17, 2026 at 10:05:30PM +0100, наб wrote: > Not off-rip, and, as noted, I don't consider viewing the domain > from this angle useful. > > But, illustratively, > SUSv1 self-IDs as System Interface Definitions Issue 4, Version 2 > SUSv2 self-IDs as System Interface Definitions Issue 5 > SUSv3 self-IDs as The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition > QED Hmmm, and XPGv3 and XPGv4 are Issue 3 and 4. So, SVID 3 forked away (now it makes sense why SVID 2 says "Issue 2" but SVID 3 says "Third Edition"), and then possibly merged back later. :) I've applied some small patches: commit f17241696722c472c5fcd06ee3b7af7afc3f1082 Author: Alejandro Colomar Date: Sun Jan 18 02:12:29 2026 +0100 man/man7/standards.7: XPGv3 and XPGv4 were Issue 3 and Issue 4 Cc: наб Cc: Seth McDonald Signed-off-by: Alejandro Colomar diff --git a/man/man7/standards.7 b/man/man7/standards.7 index ad244067f..7f1ad3ca4 100644 --- a/man/man7/standards.7 +++ b/man/man7/standards.7 @@ -295,11 +295,15 @@ .SS POSIX and SUS .B XPG3 Released in 1989, this was the first release of the X/Open Portability Guide to be based on a POSIX standard (POSIX.1-1988). +It is also known as +.IR Issue\~3 . This multivolume guide was developed by the X/Open Group, a multivendor consortium. .TP .B XPG4 A revision of the X/Open Portability Guide, released in 1992. +It is also known as +.IR Issue\~4 . This revision incorporated POSIX.2. .TP .B XPG4v2 commit f15e61d56be7b7799f31e667aad61b10a3d64f75 Author: Alejandro Colomar Date: Sun Jan 18 02:08:06 2026 +0100 man/man7/standards.7: Fix names of SVID revisions, and add links Cc: наб Cc: Seth McDonald Signed-off-by: Alejandro Colomar diff --git a/man/man7/standards.7 b/man/man7/standards.7 index 19a7f12b2..ad244067f 100644 --- a/man/man7/standards.7 +++ b/man/man7/standards.7 @@ -75,15 +75,17 @@ .SS Unix/TS .B System V release 2 (SVr2) This was the next System V release, made in 1985. The SVr2 was formally described in the -.I "System V Interface Definition version 1" +.I "System V Interface Definition Issue 1" .RI ( "SVID 1" ) published in 1985. .TP .B System V release 3 (SVr3) This was the successor to SVr2, released in 1986. This release was formally described in the -.I "System V Interface Definition version 2" -.RI ( "SVID 2" ). +.UR https://bitsavers.org/pdf/att/unix/SVID/System_V_Interface_Definition_Issue_2_Volume_1_1986.pdf +.I "System V Interface Definition Issue 2" +.RI ( "SVID 2" ) +.UE . .TP .B System V release 4 (SVr4) This was the successor to SVr3, released in 1989. @@ -91,8 +93,10 @@ .SS Unix/TS Manual: Operating System API (Intel processors)" (Prentice-Hall 1992, ISBN 0-13-951294-2) This release was formally described in the -.I "System V Interface Definition version 3" -.RI ( "SVID 3" ), +.UR https://archive.org/details/systemvinterface0001unse/ +.I "System V Interface Definition Third Edition" +.RI ( "SVID 3" ) +.UE , and is considered the definitive System V release. .TP .B SVID 4 commit c7c2b4668a6b84994a2c14535ab22f9e841c3991 Author: Alejandro Colomar Date: Sun Jan 18 01:54:33 2026 +0100 man/man7/standards.7: SUSv2 is Issue 5 Cc: наб Cc: Seth McDonald Signed-off-by: Alejandro Colomar diff --git a/man/man7/standards.7 b/man/man7/standards.7 index 4b21df5a8..19a7f12b2 100644 --- a/man/man7/standards.7 +++ b/man/man7/standards.7 @@ -315,8 +315,8 @@ .SS POSIX and SUS .TP .B SUSv2 Single UNIX Specification version 2. -Sometimes also referred to (incorrectly) as -.IR XPG5 . +Sometimes also referred to as +.IR Issue\~5 . This standard appeared in 1997. Systems conforming to this standard can be branded .IR UNIX\~98 . > > > Early POSIX.1 and .2 derived much of their wording from their > > > respective antecedent documents and some sentences still blame back > > > to the SysIII manual. > > It would be good to document for example things like "this standard was > > incorporated in that later standard", to have a rough idea of the > > standard lineages. > At a 10km POV "newer standards copy stuff from older standards", > which is neither novel nor interesting to the reader, > and at a precise POV this is book-sized. The details of how these frobnicate themselves can be documented per page if necessary, or omitted if unimportant. But a 10 km (or 40 yr) overview is important to keep, because otherwise when someone talks about the SVID or XPG, I have no clue of what they are talking about. I've recently learnt some of that lost history, most of it thanks to you, but otherwise I'd be blind; and I'd like to make it possible for others to also know what people are talking about when they mention ancient standards or systems. In my head, there's now a tree which looks more or less like this (oversimplified, and maybe technically incorrect in some places): V1 V2 V3 V4 V5-- 1BSD /--- OpenBSD V6-----\ 2BSD /------ NetBSD V7---------\ 3BSD - 4BSD - 4.3BSD Lite -- | \------ FreeBSD SysIII Unix/TS 4 X3J11 SysVr1 | SysVr2 => SVID Issue 1 | SysVr3 => SVID Issue 2 ---------\ C89 SysVr4 => SVID 3rd Ed. POSIX.1-1988 =========> XPG Issue 3 | SVID 4th Ed. POSIX.1-1990,POSIX.2 => XPG Issue 4 C95 | XPG Issue 4, v2 ======> SUSv1 | POSIX.1-1996 | | | /-------------------------------SUSv2 (Issue 5) C99 - - - - - - - - - - - -> |/-------------/ | POSIX.1-2001, SUSv3 (Issue 6) | POSIX.1-2008, SUSv4 (Issue 7) C11 | C17 - - - - - - - - - - - -> POSIX.1-2024, SUSv5 (Issue 8) C23 This tree is quite useful to me, even though they frobnicated a lot more between them. At least I now have a rough idea of the context each standard had, and thus the possible frobnications. I've CCed the list so that this tree is documented there. It might be useful. Have a lovely night! Alex --