		   Tie::MmapArray perl module

		 Copyright (c) 1999, Ford & Mason Ltd

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of either:

	a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
	Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any
	later version, or

	b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this kit.

    This program 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 either
    the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this kit,
    in the file named "Artistic".  If not, you can get one from the Perl
    distribution. You should also have received a copy of the GNU General
    Public License, in the file named "Copying". If not, you can get one
    from the Perl distribution or else write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

DESCRIPTION

The Tie::MmapArray module lets you use mmap to map in a file as a perl
array rather than reading the file into dynamically allocated
memory. It depends on your operating system supporting UNIX or
POSIX.1b mmap, of course.  (Code to use the equivalent Win32 functions
has been contributed but is not yet tested.)


INSTALLATION

Prerequisites are perl 5.003 and an operating system that has an
implementation of mmap(2) with either the traditional or the
POSIX.1b API.

Type
    perl Makefile.PL
to write a personalised Makefile for your system.
If your platform supports dynamic loading then just type
    make
    make test
and provided you see "All tests successful" you can install it with
    make install

If you need/want instead to make a statically linked perl which
contains the module, then type
    make perl
    make test

Documentation is included in pod format in MmapArray.pm itself. The
"make install" step will install an Tie::MmapArray(3) man page or else
you can use
    perldoc Tie::MmapArray
which will find the documentation whether it has been installed or
if you run it from the Tie::MmapArray distribution directory.


Andrew Ford
27 Dec 1999
