PIOUS
			(Parallel I/O System)

		       Distribution Information


I) Introduction

PIOUS, the Parallel Input/OUtput System, implements a parallel file system
for applications executing in a parallel-distributed computing environment.
PIOUS supports parallel applications by providing coordinated access to file
objects with guaranteed consistency semantics.  For performance, PIOUS
declusters file data to exploit the combined file I/O and buffer cache
capacities of networked computer systems.

PIOUS is being made available to the user community at large and is intended
to serve both as a platform for supporting high-performance parallel
applications, and as a tool for parallel file system research.


II) Environment

PIOUS has been implemented within the PVM 3 parallel-distributed computing
environment.  PVM is well established and widely used and thus represents
a logical choice of platforms for the PIOUS package.  However, PIOUS is
easily ported to any platform providing similar functionality.  The PIOUS
documentation contains information on porting PIOUS to other environments.

The PVM 3 distribution can be obtained via ftp from netlib2.cs.utk.edu.


III) Obtaining PIOUS

The PIOUS software and documentation is available via anonymous ftp from
ftp.mathcs.emory.edu in the directory pub/pious1. Source code is stored as
a compressed/uuencoded tar file, with a version prefix label of the form
pious1.x.y.  The corresponding user's guide and reference manual is stored
as a compressed/uuencoded postscript file, with a version prefix label of the
form piousUG1.x.

The PIOUS user's guide contains detailed information on installing PIOUS.
To restore the user's guide to postscript format, execute the following
commands, where x represents the release level number:

% uudecode piousUG1.x.ps.z.uu
% uncompress piousUG1.x.ps.Z

Note that the directory pub/pious1 contains the latest version of PIOUS.
Previous versions can be found in the directory pub/pious1/PreviousReleases.


IV) Copyright Information

The PIOUS software is distributed under the terms of the GNU Library General
Public License Version 2 (LGPL), as published by the Free Software Foundation,
and is provided "as is" without any warranty.  A copy of the LGPL is included
with the software distribution and details the terms of the license.
Note that the LGPL does allow proprietary applications to make use of the
PIOUS software.


V) Support

The developers of PIOUS will provide support as time permits. Questions and
problems should be directed to pious@mathcs.emory.edu. Please be as specific
as possible in any bug reports, and be sure to include machine type as well
as operating system, PVM, and PIOUS version numbers.

For now it is recommended that the news group comp.parallel.pvm be used as
an avenue for discussion about PIOUS.  If PIOUS gains a sufficient user base
or is ported to other metacomputing environments, then the developers will
initiate a vote for the creation of a PIOUS news group.


VI) Bug Report

Any bugs that are known to exist for a particular release are listed
in the file BUGRPRT, along with a workaround (if any) and the release
that corrects the problem.  This report will be updated as problems
are encountered and resolved.

It is highly recommended that this report be consulted BEFORE installing
PIOUS on your system.