ISO/IEC 9945 (parts 1 to 4):2003 defines a standard operating system interface and environment, including a command interpreter (or "shell"), and common utility programs to support applications portability at the source code level.

ISO/IEC 9945-1:2003 is a minor revision and, together with ISO/IEC 9945-2:2003, ISO/IEC 9945-3:2003 and ISO/IEC 9945-4:2003, cancels and replaces ISO/IEC 9945-1:2002, ISO/IEC 9945-2:2002, ISO/IEC 9945-3:2002 and ISO/IEC 9945-4:2002.

ISO/IEC 9945 (parts 1 to 4):2003 is the single common revision to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996 (IEEE Std 1003.1-1996), ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993 (IEEE Std 1003.2-1992), and the Base Specifications of The Open Group Single UNIX Specification, Version 2. ISO/IEC 9945 (parts 1 to 4):2003 is intended to be used by both applications developers and system implementors and comprises four major components (each in an associated volume).

General terms, concepts, and interfaces common to all volumes of ISO/IEC 9945 (parts 1 to 4):2003, including utility conventions and C-language header definitions, are included in the Base Definitions volume (ISO/IEC 9945-1:2003).

Definitions for system service functions and subroutines, language-specific system services for the C programming language, function issues, including portability, error handling, and error recovery, are included in the System Interfaces volume (ISO/IEC 9945-2:2003).

Definitions for a standard source code-level interface to command interpretation services (a "shell") and common utility programs for application programs are included in the Shell and Utilities volume (ISO/IEC 9945-3:2003).

Extended rationale that did not fit well into the rest of the document structure, containing historical information concerning the contents of ISO/IEC 9945 (parts 1 to 4):2003 and why features were included or discarded by the standard developers, is included in the Rationale (Informative) volume (ISO/IEC 9945-4:2003).

The following areas are outside the scope of ISO/IEC 9945 (parts 1 to 4):2003:

• Graphics interfaces
• Database management system interfaces
• Record I/O considerations
• Object or binary code portability
• System configuration and resource availability

ISO/IEC 9945 (parts 1 to 4):2003 describes the external characteristics and facilities that are of importance to applications developers, rather than the internal construction techniques employed to achieve these capabilities. Special emphasis is placed on those functions and facilities that are needed in a wide variety of commercial applications.