Developing LSB-certified applications

Five steps to binary-compatible Linux applications

The Linux Standard Base, or LSB, is a joint project by several Linux distributions under the organizational structure of the Free Standards Group to standardize the internal structure of Linux-based operating systems. The LSB is based on the POSIX specification, the Single UNIX Specification, and several other open standards, but extends them in certain areas.

According to themselves:

The goal of the LSB is to develop and promote a set of standards that will increase compatibility among Linux distributions and enable software applications to run on any compliant system. In addition, the LSB will help coordinate efforts to recruit software vendors to port and write products for Linux.

The LSB compliance may be certified for a product by a certification procedure. The certification is carried out by The Open Group in cooperation with The Linux Foundation (merger of the Free Standards Group and the Open Source Development Labs)

The LSB specifies for example: standard libraries, a number of commands and utilities that extend the POSIX standard, the layout of the file system hierarchy, run levels, the printing system, including spoolers as CUPS and tools like Foomatic and several extensions to the X Window System.