16 May
2025
16 May
'25
4:01 p.m.
I'm curious if anyone has the scoop on this. To my knowledge the 1984
/usr/group standard constitutes the earliest attempt at a vendor-neutral UNIX
standard. AT&T then comes along in 1985 with the first issue of the SVID, based
largely on SVR2 from what I know.
What I'm not getting a good read on or not is if the SVID was literally a direct
response from AT&T to the creation of the /usr/group standard or if there was
already an impetus in AT&T's sphere of influence to produce such a definitive
document. In either case, AT&T does list the /usr/group standard as an
influence, but doesn't go into the detail of "we made this because
/usr/group's
standard exists" or "we made this ourselves and oh /usr/group also happens to
have a standard."
Even outside of this, did AT&T maintain anything comparable to the SVID in prior
years or was the manual essentially the interface definition?
Thanks for any recollections!
- Matt G.