pTools -- Process Information Utilities

OVERVIEW
The pTools project is an attempt to duplicate the functionality of
the Sun Microsystems /usr/proc/bin/ toolset.  Each of the tools will
behave in a similiar manner and return the same relevent information for
the inspected process.

DEPENDENCIES
The pTools requires the procps development library files.  These are available
from http://procps.sourceforge.net/  Specifically libproc and the associated header
files.

INSTALLATION
The pTools installation is a two step process.  The tools must be compiled
as well as patching the Linux kernel with the provided diff file.  The pTools
installation can be performed as follows:

I.  User-space tool compilation
	1.  Unarchive the pTools distribution.
		gunzip -c pTools-x.x.tar.gz | tar xf -

	2.  Execute the configure script in the project root directory.
		cd PTOOLS_ROOT ; ./configure
	
	3.  Run make
		make

Unfortunately there is no 'install' target yet.  The ptools reside in individual
directories located in PTOOLS_ROOT/src/  Each can be copied to the appropriate directory
on your system, or executed from the src directory.

II. Kernel build instructions
The Linux kernel must be patched to use the pTools.  The current patch applies to the 2.4.7
kernel version.  Subsequent revisions will have the kernel version noted in the file name, but
the version is always located in the first few lines of the diff file as well.  Using a 'head' on
the diff file will present the information.  To patch the kernel the following must be performed.
	1.  Unarchive the kernel source code where you want to build it.  Usually /usr/src/

	2.  Copy the diff file from the pTools distribution into KERNEL_ROOT.

	3.  Patch the kernel with the following command.
		patch -p1 < PTOOLS_DIFF_FILE

	4.  Rebuild and reboot the kernel.

MAINTAINER
This project is currently maintained single handedly by Stephen Oberther.  It is
the result of a Masters Project for the Computer Science department at Florida
State University.  Stephen (I) can be contacted at oberther@cs.fsu.edu.


