Ada Spawn Manager
=================

The Ada spawn manager implements the concept described in the GNAT GPL
package System.OS_Lib. It is used to solve the problem of spawning
processes at arbitrary times from multitasking Ada programs:

[quote, GNAT COMPILER COMPONENTS, SYSTEM.OS_LIB specification]
____
If the parent is using tasking, and needs to spawn subprocesses at arbitrary
times, one technique is for the parent to spawn (very early) a particular
spawn-manager subprocess whose job is to spawn other processes. The
spawn-manager avoids tasking. The parent sends messages to the spawn-manager
requesting it to spawn processes, using whatever inter-process communication
mechanism you like, such as sockets.
____

The Ada spawn manager uses UNIX domain sockets provided by the Anet library to
implement fast and simple IPC.

Licence
-------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (C) 2012 secunet Security Networks AG
Copyright (C) 2012 Reto Buerki <reet@codelabs.ch>

Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNAT Modified
General Public License (GMGPL).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Download
--------

Release version
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No releases yet, stay tuned.

Development version
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The current development version of the spawn manager is available through its git
repository:

  $ git clone http://git.codelabs.ch/git/spawn-manager.git

A browsable version of the repository is also available here:
http://git.codelabs.ch/?p=spawn-manager.git

Build
-----
To compile the spawn manager on your system, you need to have the following
software installed:

* GNAT compiler:
  http://www.gnu.org/software/gnat/gnat.html

* Anet - Ada Networking Library:
  http://www.codelabs.ch/anet/

If you want to run the unit tests before installation (which is recommended) you
furthermore need to have the following installed:

* Ahven (Test-Framework):
  http://ahven.stronglytyped.org/

Testing
-------
The project contains a unit test suite which can be run by entering the
following command:

  $ make tests

All tests should be marked with *PASS* behind the test name.

Installation
------------
To install the spawn manager on your system, type the following:

  $ make PREFIX=/usr/local install

If no `PREFIX` is specified, `$(HOME)/ada` is used as install destination.