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diff --git a/pnotify/pnotify-0.2/README b/pnotify/pnotify-0.2/README new file mode 100644 index 0000000..23d5a55 --- /dev/null +++ b/pnotify/pnotify-0.2/README @@ -0,0 +1,123 @@ + + pnotify + + pnotify is an event notification framework for monitoring files and + directories. It is designed to be portable across different Unix-like + operating systems, and currently supports Linux and BSD. The + [1]pnotify API is very similar to the [2]inotify API under Linux. + ___________________________________ + + [3]Download | [4]Documentation | [5]Mailing list + ___________________________________ + +Rationale + + Kernel-based filesystem event notification is a relatively new + phenonemon, and several different approaches have been taken by + various operating systems. Linux uses inotify, BSD uses kqueue, Apple + has kqueue and it's own Spotlight system calls, Solaris has FEM, + Windows has the NTFS Change Journal and the ReadDirectoryChangesW + function, and so forth. + + The goal of pnotify is to provide a simple, cross-platform API for + monitoring filesystem events. The library will conceal all of the + messy implementation-specific details from the user and help them to + write more portable programs. + +History + + pnotify was born out of an effort to port the inotify API from Linux + to BSD. This initial effort took the form of a userspace library that + would translate inotify requests into their kqueue(4) equivalent. + After some time, it became clear that kqueue was not sophisticated + enough to support all of the functionality of inotify. There was also + the problem of threadsafety; inotify relies on shared global data + structures, which is normal within the kernel but complicates the + design of a userspace library. + + Eventually, it became clear that a new API was needed to address these + portability and threadsafety issues. This new API became 'pnotify', to + indicate that it is a portable subset of the inotify API. + +Supported Platforms + + pnotify has been ported to the following platforms: + * Linux 2.6 + * OpenBSD 4.0 + * NetBSD 3.0 + * MacOS/X 10.4 + + There are platforms that are not supported due to lack of developer + resources. Interested parties with access to these platforms are + encouraged to port the library to their platform. For example: + + * Sun OpenSolaris will soon get a similar API called FEM that could + be supported. + * Microsoft Windows has a filesystem event notification mechanism + + At the current time, there is no generic polling mechanism to use as a + fallback for systems that don't have a kernel event mechanism like + inotify or kqueue. + +Usage + + When you run './configure && make && make install', pnotify is built + as a shared library and installed under the /usr/local prefix. + + Even though pnotify is built as a shared library by default, it is + easier for application developers to include pnotify.c and pnotify.h + in their source tree and not depend on the existence of a shared + library. + +Download + + The source code may be downloaded from the [6]download page. You may + also check out a working copy of the latest development sources by + issuing the following command: + + svn checkout http://pnotify.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ pnotify + + If you just want a quick peek at the source code, you can browse the + [7]webSVN repository + +Documentation + + * The pnotify(3) manpage in [8]HTML or [9]PostScript format. + * Doxygen-generated API reference manual (coming soon) + +Mailing List + + There is a mailing list for discussion about the pnotify library. + Click [10]here to sign up, post a question or comment, or browse + through the archives. + +Contact the Author + + For more information, contact Mark Heily at [11]devel@heily.com + +Related Links + + * [12]FAM - the original, unmaintained monitoring utility from SGI. + * [13]gamin - the modern FAM replacement. Part of the GNOME project. + * [14]libevent - a library for building event-driven servers. + Supports socket events, but not filesystem events. + _________________________________________________________________ + + (C) 2007 Mark Heily. + +References + + 1. file://localhost/pnotify/manpage.html + 2. http://linux.die.net/man/7/inotify + 3. file://localhost/pnotify/index.html#download + 4. file://localhost/pnotify/index.html#docs + 5. file://localhost/pnotify/index.html#mlist + 6. http://code.google.com/p/pnotify/downloads/list + 7. http://pnotify.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ + 8. file://localhost/pnotify/manpage.html + 9. file://localhost/pnotify/manpage.ps + 10. http://groups.google.com/group/pnotify/topics + 11. mailto:devel@heily.com + 12. http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/ + 13. http://www.gnome.org/~veillard/gamin/ + 14. http://monkey.org/~provos/libevent/ |