   ____  _   _     
  |  _ \| |_| |__    
  | |_) | __| '_ \                    ``Only those who attempt
  |  __/| |_| | | |                     the absurd can achieve
  |_|    \__|_| |_|                     the impossible.''

  GNU Pth - GNU Portable Threads   
  Version 1.1.0 (19-Aug-1999)      
                             
  ABSTRACT

  Pth is a very portable POSIX/ANSI-C based library for Unix platforms
  which provides non-preemptive priority-based scheduling for multiple
  threads of execution ("multithreading") inside server applications.
  All threads run in the same address space of the server application,
  but each thread has it's own individual program-counter, run-time
  stack, signal mask and errno variable.

  The thread scheduling itself is done in a cooperative way, i.e. the
  threads are managed by a priority- and event-based non-preemptive
  scheduler. The intention is that this way one can achieve better
  portability and run-time performance than with preemptive scheduling.
  The event facility allows threads to wait until various types of
  events occur, including pending I/O on filedescriptors, asynchronous
  signals, elapsed timers, pending I/O on message ports, thread and
  process termination, and even customized callback functions.

  Additionally Pth provides an optional emulation API for POSIX.1c
  threads ("Pthreads") which can be used for backward compatibility to
  existing multithreaded applications.

  Pth was successfully tested on FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BSDI,
  GNU/Linux, Solaris, HPUX, OSF/1, AIX, IRIX, UnixWare, SINIX,
  ReliantUNIX, AmigaOS and AUX. And it should should automatically
  adjust itself to remaining Unix platforms, too.

  COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

  Copyright (c) 1999 Ralf S. Engelschall <rse@engelschall.com>

  This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public
  License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
  version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

  This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
  Library General Public License for more details.

  You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
  License along with this library (see file COPYING); if not, write
  to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite
  330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA, or contact Ralf S. Engelschall
  <rse@engelschall.com>.

  INSTALLATION

  For instruction on how to build and install the GNU Pth package please
  have a look at the INSTALL document.

  HOME AND DOCUMENTATION

  The documentation and latest release can be found on

  http://www.gnu.org/software/pth/
  ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/pth/
                                       Ralf S. Engelschall
                                       rse@engelschall.com
                                       www.engelschall.com
