From: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.unix
Subject: v27i195: team - portable multi-buffered tape streaming utility, Part01/01
Date: 13 Jan 1994 13:24:40 -0800
Approved: vixie@gw.home.vix.com
Message-ID: <1.758496249.28141@gw.home.vix.com>

Submitted-By: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
Posting-Number: Volume 27, Issue 195
Archive-Name: team/part01

There exist a few filters that help tapes streams by buffering IO and
allowing reads to overlaps with writes under Unix. Most of these filters
rely on relatively unportable features, for example SYSV like shared
memory.

team is a filter that runs essentially unchanged on any Unix version, as
it relies only on features present in V7. A number of team processes
(team members) share a common input fd and a common output fd, and they
take turns at reading from the former and writing to the latter; they
synchronize by using a ring of pipes between them, where a "read-enable"
and a "write-enable" token circulate.

team is not just very portable, but also portable and efficient. It also
has some bells & whistles, like command line options to specify the
number of processes in a team, the block size for IO, and the volume
size of the input or output media. It also optionally reports its
progress.

Previous versions of team have been circulating (e.g. via alt.sources)
for several years; I have not found a bug for a long time, even if
surely they will exist.

The team source is GPL'ed, and it comes with no warranty.

  Note: this program was developed entirely by the author in his own
  time, using his own resources, on his machine, in the context of 
  his own research activities. In no way has the University of Wales,
  Aberystwyth contributed aided or abetted to this work, for which
  they bear no responsibility whatsoever. I am grateful to UWA for the
  ability to use their systems (as a paying customer) to post this work.

	pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)