1From: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
2Newsgroups: comp.sources.unix
3Subject: v27i195: team - portable multi-buffered tape streaming utility, Part01/01
4Date: 13 Jan 1994 13:24:40 -0800
5Approved: vixie@gw.home.vix.com
6Message-ID: <1.758496249.28141@gw.home.vix.com>
7
8Submitted-By: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
9Posting-Number: Volume 27, Issue 195
10Archive-Name: team/part01
11
12There exist a few filters that help tapes streams by buffering IO and
13allowing reads to overlaps with writes under Unix. Most of these filters
14rely on relatively unportable features, for example SYSV like shared
15memory.
16
17team is a filter that runs essentially unchanged on any Unix version, as
18it relies only on features present in V7. A number of team processes
19(team members) share a common input fd and a common output fd, and they
20take turns at reading from the former and writing to the latter; they
21synchronize by using a ring of pipes between them, where a "read-enable"
22and a "write-enable" token circulate.
23
24team is not just very portable, but also portable and efficient. It also
25has some bells & whistles, like command line options to specify the
26number of processes in a team, the block size for IO, and the volume
27size of the input or output media. It also optionally reports its
28progress.
29
30Previous versions of team have been circulating (e.g. via alt.sources)
31for several years; I have not found a bug for a long time, even if
32surely they will exist.
33
34The team source is GPL'ed, and it comes with no warranty.
35
36  Note: this program was developed entirely by the author in his own
37  time, using his own resources, on his machine, in the context of
38  his own research activities. In no way has the University of Wales,
39  Aberystwyth contributed aided or abetted to this work, for which
40  they bear no responsibility whatsoever. I am grateful to UWA for the
41  ability to use their systems (as a paying customer) to post this work.
42
43	pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
44
45