Minutes of the 16 October 2014 Teleconference

[Andrew Josey]

All
These are the minutes of the 16 October 2014 teleconference
regards
Andrew
------
Minutes of the 16 October 2014 Teleconference Austin-679 Page 1 of 1
Submitted by Andrew Josey, The Open Group. 17th October 2014


Attendees
Andrew Josey, The Open Group
David Clissold, IBM
Mark Ziegast, SHware Systems (partial)
Don Cragun, IEEE PASC OR
Martin Rehak, Oracle, The Open Group OR
Geoff Clare, The Open Group
Eric Blake, Red Hat
Matthew Dempsky
Richard Hansen, BBN

Apologies
Nick Stoughton, USENIX, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22 OR
Joerg Schilling, FOKUS Fraunhofer
Mark Brown, Canonical

* General news

On the PASC PAR approval progress - still open. Don currently has the action to progress.


* Outstanding actions

+Bug 0000251: Forbid newline, or even bytes 1 through 31 (inclusive), in filenames OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=251
Don has an action to produce a proposal.

+Bug 0000561: NUL-termination of sun_path in Unix sockets OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=561
Eric has an action to update the proposal.

+Bug 0000573: Please add '+' to the portable filename character set OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=573
Joerg has an action to prepare a proposed change.

+Bug 0000592: consistent use of struct timespec OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=592
Jim had provided additional information in bugnote 1627.
This was discussed and Jim took an action to provide further information.

+Bug 0000598: OH shading and new interfaces OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=598
Eric has an action to propose a new solution with self-contained headers.

+Bug 0000517: EBNF support OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=517
Action on Joerg to look at this.

+Bug 0000633: SIGEV_THREAD delivery renders many signal interfaces unsafe
OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=633
We noted that feedback has settled down on the mailing list, and
will discuss next session.

+Bug 0000657: Conditions under which fmemopen() write a NUL to the buffer
are insufficiently specified OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=657
Eric has an action to propose wording to clarify the behavior for
fmemopen(), and also to contact the glibc developers to get their
feedback.

+Bug 0000658: Undefined/unspecified behavior clauses in description of
open have race conditions OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=658
It was noted that there is some overlap with changes in TC1. Eric took an
action to update the proposal to resolve the overlaps appropriately.

+Bug 0000615: pthread_setcancelstate should be async-signal-safe OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=615
We now have reports on AIX and Apple. Jim to report back on whether
pthread_cancelstate() is async-signal-safe on Solaris. Andrew to ask
HP whether pthread_cancelstate() is async-signal-safe on HP-UX.


+Bug 0000672: Necessary step(s) to synchronize filename operations on disk
OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=672

Geoff has a new proposed resolution in note 1618. Decided to solicit input
from FS developers. Eric to go to Linux, David to AIX and Jim to Solaris.
Jim has completed his action (see bugnote 1691).
Andrew should chase HP and Apple for input.

+Bug 0000663: Specification of str[n]casecmp is ambiguous reopened
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=663

Action on David to follow up with the IBM developers about the EBCDIC
collation sequence.

Bug 696 either NAME_MAX shouldn't be optional, or readdir_r() needs clarification
http://www.austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=696

Don has an action to propose a resolution.

Bug 0000721: Internal storage vs static storage OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=721

This item is still open.

Bug 0000375: Extend test/[...] conditionals: ==, <, >, -nt, -ot, -ef OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=375

This is still left open due to discussions pending on the reflector.

Bug 0000789: Add set -o pipefail OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=789


* Current Business


- Open Actions
Bug #851: pthread_atfork orphans handlers in unloaded shared libraries OPEN
http://www.austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=851

Bug #854: requirement for additional built-in utilities to be searched for via $PATH was not and is not existing practice OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=854

Action: Andrew to ask David Korn to comment on this bug and the previous email discussion of the issue (seq 21270).

Action repeated - a followup was sent to David.

Bug #859: Add posix_random family of interfaces OPEN
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=859

Action on The Open Group Base WG to respond whether they will sponsor.
Completed

Action: Andrew to followup on the outstanding items for 851,854 and 859 to
see if we can move them forward.
Completed 854 and 859
On 859 Andrew has started an email ballot in the Base Working Group.


- Bug processing

We discussed the email item from David Korn (mail seq 21621) related
to signal handlers:

"By default, when a signal handler is invoked, the signal is blocked
and then released when the signal handler completes.

Is there any way in the standard to specify that the signal remains
blocked when the signal handler completes?

My implementation of queued signals in ksh93 needs to store each
of the siginfo_t structs for signals that have trap handlers until
the trap handlers are executed. My implementation calls malloc()
in the signal handler to get memory to store the siginfo_t structs,
but posix does not require that malloc() be async safe.

While our malloc() implementation is asyc safe, the standard does
not require this and therefore it can't use a standard malloc.

If the signal could be blocked until the handler function is called,
queued signals could be implemented in a portable fashion."


There is not anything in the standard that currently addresses this,
but the standards developer feel that if there was a proposal to
add such behavior it could be addressed in a future revision.


Bug 0000875: Effects and validity of dependencies on inferred targets in makefiles Accepted as Marked
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=875

An interpretation is required.

This item is tagged for Issue 8.

Interpretation response:
The standard is unclear on this issue, and no conformance distinction
can be made between alternative implementations based on this. This
is being referred to the sponsor.

Rationale:
None.

Notes to the Editor (not part of this interpretation):
On page 2943 line 97362-97366 section make

In the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section, change from:

When no target rule is found to update a target, the inference rules
shall be checked. The suffix of the target (.s1) to be built is
compared to the list of suffixes specified by the .SUFFIXES special
targets. If the .s1 suffix is found in .SUFFIXES, the inference
rules shall be searched in the order defined for the first .s2.s1
rule whose prerequisite file ($*.s2) exists. If the target is
out-of-date with respect to this prerequisite, the commands for
that inference rule shall be executed.

to:

When no target rule with commands is found to update a target, the
inference rules shall be checked. The suffix of the target (.s1)
to be built is compared to the list of suffixes specified by the
.SUFFIXES special targets. If the .s1 suffix is found in .SUFFIXES,
the inference rules shall be searched in the order defined for the
first .s2.s1 rule whose prerequisite file ($*.s2) exists. If the
target is out-of-date with respect to this prerequisite, the commands
for that inference rule shall be executed. Dependencies added by
target rules without commands shall not affect the selection of the
applicable inference rule.

Bug #876: allow implementations to fail on 'cat a >> a' Accepted
http://www.austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=876

An interpretation is required.

Interpretation response:
The standard states that the cat utility is required to copy the
files named as operands to standard output even if standard output
is redirected to one of those input files, and conforming implementations
must conform to this. However, concerns have been raised about this
which are being referred to the sponsor.

Rationale:
A cat command which redirects its standard output to a file that
is also named as n file operand is likely to run until the output
file reaches the maximum output file size allowed for that process
or the underlying filesystem runs out of space. This is a common
application error that accidentally consumes a lot of space needed
by other users on the system. Therefore, many implementations of
the cat utility check for this condition and, when it is found,
print a diagnostic message and exit with a non-zero exit status.
This behavior is not currently allowed by the standard, but should
be.

Notes to the Editor (not part of this interpretation):
Make the changes suggested in the Desired Action.


Next Steps
----------
The next call is on October 23, 2014 (a Thursday)
(Andrew sends his apologies)

Calls are anchored on US time. (8am Pacific)

This call will be for the regular 90 minutes.

http://austingroupbugs.net

An IRC channel will be available for the meeting
irc://irc.freenode.net/austingroupbugs

An etherpad is usually up for the meeting, with a URL using the date format as below:

http://posix-aA9aGynHYqB/thfjNshNs9i2O/***@public.gmane.org:9001/p/201x-mm-dd
password=2115756#

--------
Andrew Josey The Open Group
Austin Group Chair Apex Plaza, Forbury Road
Email: a.josey-7882/***@public.gmane.org Reading,Berks.RG1 1AX,England
Tel:[phone] US fax: [phone]
Mobile:[phone] UK fax: [phone]