1.1. General

The Linux Standard Base (LSB) defines a system interface for compiled applications and a minimal environment for support of installation scripts. Its purpose is to enable a uniform industry standard environment for high-volume applications conforming to the LSB.

These specifications are composed of two basic parts: A common specification ("LSB-generic" or "generic LSB"), ISO/IEC 23360 Part 1, describing those parts of the interface that remain constant across all implementations of the LSB, and an architecture-specific part ("LSB-arch" or "archLSB") describing the parts of the interface that vary by processor architecture. Together, the LSB-generic and the relevant architecture-specific part of ISO/IEC 23360 for a single hardware architecture provide a complete interface specification for compiled application programs on systems that share a common hardware architecture.

ISO/IEC 23360 Part 1, the LSB-generic document, should be used in conjunction with an architecture-specific part. Whenever a section of the LSB-generic specification is supplemented by architecture-specific information, the LSB-generic document includes a reference to the architecture part. Architecture-specific parts of ISO/IEC 23360 may also contain additional information that is not referenced in the LSB-generic document.

The LSB contains both a set of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and Application Binary Interfaces (ABIs). APIs may appear in the source code of portable applications, while the compiled binary of that application may use the larger set of ABIs. A conforming implementation provides all of the ABIs listed here. The compilation system may replace (e.g. by macro definition) certain APIs with calls to one or more of the underlying binary interfaces, and may insert calls to binary interfaces as needed.

The LSB is primarily a binary interface definition. Not all of the source level APIs available to applications may be contained in this specification.