AUPY - Application Utility for Python
Version: 1.0
Released on: November 20, 2007
Version: 2.0
Released on: October 10, 2008

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IMPORTANT NOTICE:
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The codebase for Aupy2 is outdated and needs to be improved.
Some backwards compatible features (for Aupy1.0 style use) are buggy.
A updated version, using Python2.7 and current best practices is being
done in my spare time.  The current version should still be considered
proof-of-concept.


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OVERVIEW:
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AUPY is a bundle of utilties used to create and use utility functions within
your python code to evaluate a program's performance and behavior.  While the
idea of application utility was originally developed for economic models
and later applied in AI applications, it is extremely useful to create 
self-aware and self-monitoring applications; crucial in creating applications
that exercise autonomic abilities and characteristics.

Autonomic applications exercise four core self-managing characteristics:
Self-Configuration:
Self-Healing:
Self-Optimization:
Self-Protecting:

Of these, AUPY can aid in achieving all except self-configuration.

These four characteristics can be employed at five levels of effectiveness
within autonomic systems, as defined by IBM:
Level 1 (Basic): All elements are managed independently; most systems today
Level 2 (Managed): Systems are collected and managed in groups.  System
  Awareness exists in some capacity and productivity is increased.
Level 3 (Predictive): The system collects and monitors data, recognizing
  patterns of operation and behavior.  This reduces the need for deep
  skills and system administration.
Level 4 (Adaptive): The system uses the monitored data and recognized
  patterns to take specific actions known as Service-Level Agreements.
  These actions manage performance, healing, and protection.
Level 5 (Autonomic): All components create a fully integrated and dynamic
  system completely managed by business rules and high level goals.

AUPY can aid in achieving up to level 4.



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FILE MANIFEST:
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aupe.py - all of the AUPY functionality and decorators.  This file is
  used to define utility functions, functions to be monitored,
  atomic transaction functions, time-out functions, and more.

aupe_ftp.py - a self-aware FTP class for ftplib.

aupe_socket.py - a self-aware socket library.  Currently it monitors throughput

binary_dl_client.py - an ftp client that is self-aware, using aupe_ftp, and
  optionally aupe_socket

example.py - example usage of aupe and its abilities

proc.py - a wrapper to gather information on linux systems from /proc

socket.py - a soft link to either aupe_socket.py or _org_socket.py, the
  originally socket library.  Pointing this to aupe_socket.py inheritly
  makes ALL networked applications exercise the abilities of having
  application level utility for network operations.


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NOTES:
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AUPY IS DEPENDENT ON PCAP

There is still a lot of work to be done and aupy should be considered a
proof-of-concept of bringing elementary level application utility into
a language.  I wrote the original functionality in about an hour to
illustrate to the Software Engineering Research Group at Drexel
University the benefits of basic autonomic abilities in software.


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CONTACT:
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Paul deGrandis
paul.degrandis@gmail.edu

Thanks for checking AUPY out!