About LibGTop
*************

LibGTop is a library to get system specific data such as CPU and Memory Usage and information about running Processes.

On Systems like Solaris or Digital Unix where you need special privileges to get those data, it uses a setuid/setgid server to do so.

Even if LibGTop is a part of the GNOME desktop environment (http://www.gnome.org), the main interface of LibGTop is totally independent from any particular desktop environment, so you can also use it as a standalone library in any piece of GPLed software.

Availability
============

The master source of LibGTop is the GNOME CVS tree (see http://www.gnome.org for details), but you can also get the latest release tarballs from

     ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/libgtop/

or any of its mirror sites.

The latest stable version of LibGTop is 1.0.12 which is also the one that comes together with GNOME 1.0. It belongs to LIBGTOP_STABLE_1_0 branch in CVS. Actual development occurs in the libgtop-GNOME-2-0-port which is currently versioned 1.90.0.

Supported Platforms
===================

The stable branch currently supports the following platforms:

  * All versions of Linux

     LibGTop was tested under Linux 2.0.x and 2.2.x on the ix86 and the alpha, but it should also work without problems on SparcLinux or Linux 2.4.x.

     Note: I'm speaking of the Linux kernel here, not the GNU/Linux operating system.

  * FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD

     LibGTop was tested under FreeBSD 2.2.6 and 3.0, NetBSD 1.3.2 and OpenBSD 2.4. Support for NetBSD 1.4 was added in LibGTop 1.0.2.

The platforms listed above are known to be stable and working. However, if you're using the latest development version, you can use it on the following platforms as well:

  * BSD/OS

     There is a port for BSD/OS (aka BSDI) 2.x and 3.x from Timur Bakeyev which should also work with 4.x. This isn't tested very well, but it should be working.

  * Digital Unix

     There is some basic support for Digital Unix (formerly DEC OSF/1) V3.2C, but this may still be a bit unstable. I'm currently working on this port as time permits so it should be fully supported soon.

  * Solaris

     The Solaris port currently works on Solaris 7 and maybe also on other releases. Thanks a lot to Drazen Kacar and everyone who helped working on this port. They have really done excellent work here and I'm pretty sure that this port will be fully functional on most Solaris versions in near future.

Mailing List
============

There is a libgtop-devel-list@egroups.com mailing list for people who want to help with the development of LibGTop.

It is meant as a low-traffic, but high content-list where we can discuss technical details such as adding new sysdeps ports etc.

Especially, I'd like to see people with a deeper knowledge of operating systems internals joining my list so we can discuss technical details of the sysdeps code.

It is *not* for users that want to know how to compile LibGTop etc.

You can subscribe to this mailing list and view the mailing list archives on the LibGTop Page at http://www.home-of-linux.org/gnome/libgtop.

Thanks
======

At the place I'd like to thank the following people who contributed to LibGTop (listed in chronological order):

  * Sebastian Wilhelmi who had the initial idea of LibGTop and helped me a lot in the early beginning.

  * Josh Sled for the initial FreeBSD port.

  * Jeremy Lea for his BSD patches.

  * Timur Bakeyev for the BSDI port.

  * Drazen Kacar and the other people on the LibGTop development mailing list for the Solaris port.

  * Kevin Vandersloot for the effort to port to GNOME 2.0.

  * All people sending me patches, having good ideas, ...

  * Everyone I have forgotten in this list ...