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Apr 16, 2017 at 8:52 vote accept Darren
Aug 4, 2025 at 16:05
Apr 11, 2017 at 8:35 comment added Kusalananda @MattiVirkkunen After a re-read of the standard I noticed that the guidelines do apply to utilities "written specific to a local system or that are components of a larger application". It is still unclear what the difference between an "application" and a "utility" really is. On one hand it defines "utility" as a POSIX shell utility, on the other, it refers to utilities developed for a local system, as part of an application.
Apr 11, 2017 at 8:31 comment added Kusalananda @IlmariKaronen I have re-read the section in the standard and provided a more nuanced answer.
Apr 11, 2017 at 8:28 history edited Kusalananda CC BY-SA 3.0
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Apr 11, 2017 at 6:42 history edited Kusalananda CC BY-SA 3.0
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Apr 10, 2017 at 20:25 comment added hobbs There is an "only" in the sentence you quoted. It comes at an awkward point in the phrase, probably due to committee editing, but it still has the same effect.
Apr 10, 2017 at 17:16 comment added Kusalananda @IlmariKaronen Correct. The guidelines are for implementing the utilities described in the standard itself.
Apr 10, 2017 at 16:20 comment added Ilmari Karonen Note that the "should"->"shall" reinterpretation in the guidelines you linked to applies only to "utilities [described in] in the Shell and Utilities volume of POSIX.1-2008". Even if the OP's application claimed POSIX compliance, it still (presumably) wouldn't actually be one of the utilities described in the POSIX standard.
Apr 10, 2017 at 11:48 comment added Matti Virkkunen Does the naming of an application have anything to do with the naming of system utilities?
Apr 10, 2017 at 10:37 comment added fpmurphy XBD defines should as follows: "For an implementation that conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-XXXX, describes a feature or behavior that is recommended but not mandatory. An application should not rely on the existence of the feature or behavior. An application that relies on such a feature or behavior cannot be assured to be portable across conforming implementations. For an application, describes a feature or behavior that is recommended programming practice for optimum portability."
Apr 10, 2017 at 10:30 comment added Kusalananda @Darren Yes, you might be right. There might be an "invisible" comma before "from" (or "only").
Apr 10, 2017 at 10:25 history edited Kusalananda CC BY-SA 3.0
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Apr 10, 2017 at 10:22 comment added Darren I don't think they actually claim to be POSIX compliant anywhere. Interestingly, the application name is 10 characters long so they fail on that front too. BTW, the way I read point 2 is "it should only include lower case and digits - I think the final "only" covers the entire clause. Maybe a question for english.stackexchange.com :)
Apr 10, 2017 at 10:21 history edited Kusalananda CC BY-SA 3.0
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Apr 10, 2017 at 10:16 history answered Kusalananda CC BY-SA 3.0