Standards Reports

Linux Gets a Boost - The Our Standard Report Editor, Standards David Blackwood, welcomes dialogue between EPORTS R Standard Base: Linux has the fastest market growth rate this column and you, the readers. Please send of any operating system (OS) in the your comments to [email protected]. world, and it is being developed faster

How Will It Benefit TANDARDS

than any OS in history. However, for S Linux to move into the enterprise and Linux? serve as the host for enterprise applica- tions, a set of common standards is by Bill Claybrook needed. Without standards and com- Aberdeen Group mon application programming inter- [email protected] faces (APIs), independent software vendors (ISVs) and other developers [Editor’s Note: This is the kind of docu- must decide which of the more than 250 ment that IT VP’s in large corporations Linux distributions to target for hosting read all the time. It’s interesting to see how their applications. On the upside, stan- it’s written and how it asserts various dards will bring a greater market share points of view in a persuasive way. It for Linux, allowing for its continuing reminds me ever-so-slightly of the old growth. Developers, distributors, ISVs, /usr/group standardization process. systems vendors, and especially users It is also interesting to try to discern where will surely benefit. money is moving and to notice the In response to the need for Linux stan- reliance on brand names, logos, and dards, the (FSG) trademarks. A huge part of the IT world has initiated two key projects – the relies on these sorts of assurances rather (LSB) and the than employing their own technical gurus. Linux Internationalization Standard Enjoy!] (Li18nux). This article is reprinted with the permis- The LSB provides binary and behavioral sion of Aberdeen Group, and is the - protocols that increase compatibility lectual property of Aberdeen Group. among Linux distributions; it also enables LSB-compliant applications to Linux is knocking on the enterprise run on any LSB-compliant Linux distri- door – and quickly making inroads. bution. Li18nux is a standard for creat- The speed with which Linux enters ing a foundation for language the enterprise depends to a large globalization of Linux-compliant distri- extent on the availability of enter- butions and applications. prise applications running on Linux. Note that LSB 1.1 compliance and The Free Standards Group is help- Li18nux 1.0 compliance are two separate ing to accelerate this effort via its concepts. Thus, a distribution can be Linux Standard Base (LSB) and LSB 1.1 compliant without being Li18nux 1.0 compliant – and vice versa. Li18nux initiatives. This InSight (The focus in this article is LSB 1.1.) gives a preview of the LSB and out- The FSG Workgroups for LSB 1.1 and lines the benefits associated with Li18nux 1.0 will deliver complete, writ- deploying LSB-compliant software. ten documentation articulating what is needed to make Linux distributions and other Linux-based software compliant. In addition, they will deliver compliance

June 2002 ;login: THE LINUX STANDARD BASE 59 test suites for each standard. For addi- also contains some hardware-specific system call that opens a pipe to a tional LSB and Li18nux information, see code. The LSB component is expected to process). http://www.freestandards.org. grow over time with the addition of Outside the bounds of the Linux distri- libraries, e.g., C++, but only those that The FSG is an independent, non-profit bution, but with direct access to the are stable (subject to infrequent change) organization dedicated to accelerating LSB-specified ABI, are the development will be added to the LSB component. the use and acceptance of open source tool kit, commercial applications, etc. technologies through the development One of the features of compliant devel- and promotion of standards. The FSG is opment tools is that they will restrict backed by important industry leaders potential missteps in developing com- including Caldera, Compaq, , pliant applications. , Hewlett-Packard (HP), Hitachi, Today, the GNU tool kit, which includes IBM, Intel, Oracle, , Sun, SuSE, the gcc compiler, is the only tool kit that Turbolinux, and key members of the has been adopted for the development open source development community. of compliant applications and middle- Motivation for Linux ware. In the future, however, other tool Standards kits could be shown to be compatible for developing compliant applications. For the past several years, ISVs have struggled with the task of porting their Any software package or that is applications to multiple OS platforms not specifically included in the LSB 1.1 including several Unix/RISC platforms. specification is considered to be outside Porting efforts are often time-consum- the scope of the standard. Adding a ing and costly. Once a port is completed, nonconforming package to an otherwise the ISV must support it. conforming does not prevent the distribution from conform- ISVs want access to as many markets as ing, unless the package removes or possible, but they do not want to repeat replaces a conforming part of the distri- the Unix/RISC phenomena – making bution. multiple ports to Linux. ISVs want to do a single port to Linux that will run on If an application developer goes outside many Linux distributions. Red Hat is the the LSB ABI, there are special rules to largest Linux distributor by far, but Figure 1: LSB View of Linux follow. These rules may require the other distributions find significant favor Distribution application developer to static-link in many geographical sectors around the Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2002 modules or bundle them with the appli- world. The LSB may be interpreted by cation to attain compliance. LSB 1.1 defines an Application Binary some as a way to “level the playing field” Interface (ABI), which is very similar to for distributors, but the real significance LSB Certification the POSIX.1 and POSIX.2 source speci- of the LSB rests in making long-term The LSB certification program is cur- fications. The LSBís ABI defines the API enterprise Linux deployments possible. rently under development; therefore, for developers to program to, and it some of the information provided Linux Standard Base 1.1 includes runtime definitions for binary below may differ slightly from the final LSB 1.1 standardizes the core function- compatibility. published details. LSB 1.1 specifies sepa- ality of Linux and core/primary Presently, an LSB-compliant Linux dis- rate sets of compliance test suites for libraries. Figure 1 depicts how a Linux tribution must supply 15 specific Linux distributions, Linux applications, distribution will be viewed post-LSB 1.1. libraries that define the ABIs. What LSB and Linux build environments. The LSB At the lowest level are the , 1.1 does not define, applications must Workgroup is responsible for develop- drivers, and hardware (architecture)- not use. For example, the vi (1) editor is ing the test suites and making them specific code. None of this code is not LSB-defined or LSB-compliant; available. directly affected by LSB 1.1. Above the therefore, it should not be called, via Linux kernel is the LSB component. It popen, by an application (popen is a

60 Vol. 27, No. 3 ;login: pliance testing andsticktheLSB-com- like IBMandHP– cancomplete com- platinum members–largecompanies LSB LSBcompliance testing. of quality compliance testersparty –to ensure the become involved inìlicensingî third- itwill However, change over time. could butthisstrategy auditing efforts, in theactualLSB-compliant testing and notlikelyThe FSGwill become involved andISVs. dleware forLinux, systems vendors mid- with distributors, involve will Certification atleastLinux the Certification? How to(andWhoWill) Do application). from which to create anLSB-compliant provides asamplebuildenvironment (LSB1.1 ant applicationcanbebuilt. anLSB-compli- checked to determine if ified ABIs andheaderdefinitionsare theLSB-spec- Linux build environment, For the etc. test applications, asetof run successfully adhere to theFHS, the ABIs, thatdefine must supplythe15libraries distribution a pliant Linux distribution, To successfully qualifyasanLSB-com- error reports. Implementation) andexamining the (ortheLSBSample ant distribution their application(s)onanLSB-compli- becoming LSB-compliant by running problems may thatthey encounter in of thetypes of opers cangetapreview ISVsandotherapplicationdevel- tions. LSB) andtwo LSB-compliant distribu- tains mostlyjustwhatisspecifiedby the tion (aminimalLinux system thatcon- work ontheLSBSampleImplementa- the applicationisrequired to betested to Lastly, theapplication. of the installation Standard (FHS)questionsisasked about Filesystem Hierarchy asetof addition, In executable (ELF). andlinkingformat and linker, theLSBruntime libraries, using onlyLSB-specified ABIs and theapplicationsare to determine if theLSBchecks For applicationtesting, June 2002 ;login: H IU TNADBASE STANDARD LINUX THE announced that it will notdeployannounced thatitwill non- First Boston (CSFB)hasalready Credit Suisse Linux-based solutions. andsupplierswhodevelop distributors the many of of The LSBhasthesupport Conclusions on many LSB-compliant distributions. ware product thatisguaranteed to work The result isanLSB-compliant middle- self-compliance testing. orthird-party other Linux-based software could do Vendors whodevelop middleware or theLSB. of uct onbehalf theprod- andtheFSGbrands comply, to anagreement the provider signs testing The results are registered, choice. of several otherLinux distributions rerun thetests foranapplication on testing companying athird-party to Second-level involves certification hir- LSB-compliant. then proclaiming thattheapplicationis and theLSB, theresultsistering with reg- LSB-compliant Linux distributions, itsapplicationsontwo against oneof LSB-compliant application test suites anISVlike the running Oracle example, for involves, First-level certification certification. There are two levels of SuSE Linux onIBMservers. supports) processcertification whenitships(or notneedto repeatwill theSuSE Linux forexample, IBM, support. tributors) on thearchitectures (thedis- thatthey utors have thesedistributions certified that Linux distrib- will “trust” etc., Dell, Compaq, IBM, Systems vendors like HP, support. andRISC–thatthey nium, Ita- ware architectures –such asIA-32, hard- onthevarious their distributions are responsible forcertifying etc., SuSE, such asRed Hat, Linux distributors, to obtainthelogo. companies use independentthird-party other companies could berequired to However, havethat they beencertified. indicating pliant logoontheirproducts, and users. attractive andlesscostly forsuppliers more Linux intheenterprise ment of Standards make thelong-term deploy- software forLinux. development of to produce standard interfaces forthe Li18nux by 1.0are theFSG goodstarts LSB1.1and compliant products. havebusiness will to produce LSB1.1- supplier thatwantsto doenterprise orLinux-baseddistributor software any Linux According to ourresearch, 2002. LSB 1.1software after theendof 61 STANDARDS REPORTS