OCaml-Sem

General project information
Project description
Readme notice
Getting the source
Installing
License
Links
Further OCamlDoc documentation

General project information

Author: Paul Argentoff, AKA argent_smith, argentoff at gmail.com.
Version: 0.0.2
Status: alpha, testers wanted.

Project description

Sem is an OCaml module implementing support of POSIX semaphores. The package contains code in C and OCaml programming languages. Once compiled it makes a usual OCaml library usable in both byte-code and native code development.

The initial goal of "ocaml-sem" project was to make a library which could be used by an OCaml programmer to operate with OS's POSIX semaphores. Since Google returned no result, I've decided to write my own code implementing a features the task could require.

The library implements an interface between OS POSIX semaphore API and OCaml-based application. The library is well self-documented since it builds the set of HTML documentation in traditional OCaml ocamldoc style.

Using this library a programmer can easily construct code creating, accessing and destroying POSIX semaphores. The set of semaphore operations contain all basic functions I've found in FreeBSD "sem" API:

The library is to be distributed as an open-source under the terms of BSD license which would allow the library to be freely used and/or co-developed by anyone.

More documentation on the library's interface and implementation can be found in the code which is well commented and documented according to basic OCaml documentation tradition.

README notice

This is OCaml "Sem" library. It is intended to be a first (AFAIK) try to implement POSIX semaphores in OCaml.

Further documentation on library installation and usage you may find in INSTALL and sem.mli files.

The library was made following the pattern of POSIX semaphore infrastructure of FreeBSD.

Since it's an early alpha you are welcome to change it or suggest new ideas in order to make it usable on any platform of your fantasy ;).

DONE:

alpha building and testing on FreeBSD-5 platform.

TODO:

port of C part to other platforms (if needed);
automake/autoconf support (contributors are welcome);
higher order functions implementing an easy-to-use high level interface to the library;
OO implementation for the fans ;)

BUGS:

all sem* calls using a handle of a closed semaphore (after Sem.sem_close) lead to a core dump (signals either 6 or 11) as tested on FreeBSD-5. This issue has its roots somewhere deeply inside libc or kernel, I dunno as for now.

NOTES:

you have to enable POSIX semaphores in your OS kernel in order to use the functions described under "Named semaphore operation" in sem.mli file.

Getting the source

HTTP: Right here;
FTP: Latest source code is available at my FTP site;
SourceForge: OCaml-Sem project page.

Installing

To build this package you should have:

installed OCaml distribution (tested with 3.08) with Unix library;
findlib (tested with 1.0.3).

Then, issue the following commands:

$ make all
$ make install

Additionally, you may

make docs

License

BSD License

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the "Ratmir-TeleKom, Ltd." nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

OCamlMakefile notice

OCamlMakefile is a part of ocaml-make package by Markus Mottl; it is made under GNU LGPL and can be freely found at http://www.oefai.at/~markus