@node About, White Paper, Top, Top

@chapter 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

(@uref{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.

@menu

* Availability::                Where to get LibGTop

* Supported Platforms::         Supported Platforms

* Mailing List::                Helping with LibGTop development

* Thanks::                      People who contributed to LibGTop

@end menu

@node Availability, Supported Platforms, About, About

@section Availability

The master source of LibGTop is the GNOME CVS tree

(see @uref{http://www.gnome.org} for details), but you can also get the

latest release tarballs from

@display

@uref{ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/libgtop/}

@end display

@noindent

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 @code{LIBGTOP_STABLE_1_0} branch in CVS.

Actual development occurs in the @code{libgtop-GNOME-2-0-port} which is

currently versioned 1.90.0.

@node Supported Platforms, Mailing List, Availability, About

@section Supported Platforms

The stable branch currently supports the following platforms:

@itemize @bullet

@item 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.

@item 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.

@end itemize

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:

@itemize @bullet

@item 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.

@item 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.

@item 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.

@end itemize

@node Mailing List, Thanks, Supported Platforms, About

@section Mailing List

There is a @email{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 @uref{http://www.home-of-linux.org/gnome/libgtop}.

@node Thanks,  , Mailing List, About

@section Thanks

At the place I'd like to thank the following people who contributed to

LibGTop (listed in chronological order):

@itemize @bullet

@item Sebastian Wilhelmi who had the initial idea of LibGTop and helped

me a lot in the early beginning.

@item Josh Sled for the initial FreeBSD port.

@item Jeremy Lea for his BSD patches.

@item Timur Bakeyev for the BSDI port.

@item Drazen Kacar and the other people on the LibGTop development mailing

list for the Solaris port.

@item Kevin Vandersloot for the effort to port to GNOME 2.0.

@item All people sending me patches, having good ideas, ...

@item Everyone I have forgotten in this list ...

@end itemize