Package Proc::Generic Version 0.02

This is the Proc::Generic package.  It provides a generic interface to
running background processes.  Through this interface, users can run
background processes on different operating systems without concerning
themselves about the specifics of doing this.  Users of this package
create new Proc::Generic objects that provide an object oriented
interface to process management.  The following methods are provided
to users of the Proc::Generic package:

	new:        start a new background process.
	alive:      test to see if the process is still alive.
	die:        reliably try to kill the process.
	wait:       wait for the process to exit and return the exit status.
	start_time: return the time that the process started.
	end_time:   return the time when the exit status was retrieved.

A generic function, timed_system, is also included that lets a
background process run for a specified amount of time, and if the
process did not exit, then the process is killed.

This package currently works on both Unix and Win32 platforms.  Users
of this package on Win32 systems needs to install the libwin32-?.??
package by Gurusamy Sarathy (gsar@umich.edu) available from CPAN.

AVAILABILITY

The latest version of this package is available from a CPAN
archive near you in CPAN/authors/id/B/BZ/BZAJAC/Proc-Background-0.02.tar.gz
or from the author by contacting Blair Zajac <blair@gps.caltech.edu>.

INSTALLATION

In order to use this package you will need Perl version 5.004_04 or
better.

If you are running on a Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT
system, then first install the latest libwin32-x.x package from CPAN
available as CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-x.x.zip or
CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-x.x.tar.gz.

Once that is completed, you install Proc::Generic as you would install
any perl module library, by running these commands:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make test
	make install

You can edit the configuration section of Makefile.PL to select which
programs to install in addition to the library itself.  If you don't
want to install any programs (only the library files) and don't want
to mess with the Makefile.PL then pass the '-n' option to Makefile.PL:

	perl Makefile.PL -n

If you want to install a private copy of this package in some other
directory, then you should try to produce the initial Makefile with
something like this command:

	perl Makefile.PL LIB=~/perl

DOCUMENTATION

See the CHANGES file for a list of recent changes.  POD style
documentation is included in all modules and scripts.  These are
normally converted to manual pages end installed as part of the "make
install" process.  You should also be able to use the 'perldoc'
utility to extract documentation from the module files directly.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1998 Blair Zajac. All rights reserved.  This package is
free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
terms as Perl itself.