This guide, intended as an explanation of the POSIX standard and as a reference for the POSIX.1 programming library, helps you write more portable programs. Most UNIX systems today are POSIX compliant because the federal government requires it for its purchases. Even OSF and UI agree on support for POSIX.

Unfortunately, given the manufacturer's documentation, it can be difficult to distinguish system-specific features from those features defined by POSIX. The POSIX Programmer's Guide is especially helpful if you are writing programs that must run on multiple UNIX platforms. This guide also helps you convert existing UNIX programs for POSIX compliance.

Contents include:

• Introduction to POSIX.
• Basics of writing a POSIX-compliant program.
• Input/output facilities of the Standard C library.
• The file system as defined by POSIX.
• Operations of POSIX Input/Output system, pipes, and FIFOs.
• Creating and terminating processes and signals.
• Obtaining information about the environment.
• Communication line settings and a cu-like utility.
• POSIX and Standard C, including features and portability pitfalls.
• Internationalization.
• Complete list of library functions in alphabetic order.
• Complete list of data structures and their members.
• All error codes.
• Standard headers and the information that they define.
• Related publications.