Single Unix Specification

The Single UNIX Specification (SUS) is the collective name of a family of standards for computer operating systems, compliance with which is required to qualify for using the "UNIX" trademark. The core specifications of the SUS are developed and maintained by the Austin Group, which is a joint working group of IEEE, ISO JTC 1 SC22 and The Open Group. If an operating system is submitted to The Open Group for certification, and passes conformance tests, then it is termed to be compliant with a UNIX standard such as UNIX 98 or UNIX 03.

Very few BSD and Linux-based operating systems are submitted for compliance with the Single UNIX Specification, although system developers generally aim for compliance with POSIX standards, which form the core of the Single UNIX Specification.

The SUS emerged from a mid-1980s project to standardize operating system interfaces for software designed for variants of the Unix operating system. The need for standardization arose because enterprises using computers wanted to be able to develop programs that could be used on the computer systems of different manufacturers without reimplementing the programs. Unix was selected as the basis for a standard system interface partly because it was manufacturer-neutral.

In 1988, these standards became IEEE 1003 (also registered as ISO/IEC 9945), or POSIX, which loosely stands for Portable Operating System Interface.

In the early 1990s, a separate effort known as the Common API Specification or Spec 1170 was initiated by several major vendors, who formed the COSE alliance in the wake of the Unix wars. This specification became more popular because it was available at no cost, whereas the IEEE charged a substantial fee for access to the POSIX specification. Management over these specifications was assigned to X/Open who also received the Unix trademark from Novell in 1993. Unix International (UI) merged into Open Software Foundation (OSF) in 1994 only to merge with X/Open to form The Open Group in 1996.

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