Module IO

Changes made in the current development cycle can be found in the changelog.

Description (classes)

Basic classes and global functions for IO and object persistency

Synopsis

This module provides the basic IO functionality for the AIPS++ classes. There are two IO mechanisms:
  1. Class AipsIO provides the object persistency mechanism. The templated global functions in AipsIOCarray.h form a little layer upon AipsIO. They provide the means to put or get a C-style array of any type.
  2. Class ByteSinkSource and its ancestors provide a general IO mechanism.

Both use the underlying IO framework which define where and how the data is written. The how-part is defined by classes derived from TypeIO as shown in the OMT diagram. There are three such classes:

  1. CanonicalIO reads/writes data in canonical (machine-independent) format. This should be used when data are meant to be exportable. It uses the conversion functions in class CanonicalConversion .
  2. RawIO reads/writes data in native (machine-dependent) format. This can be used when data are not exported.
  3. ConversionIO reads/writes in an external format as defined at construction time. This can be used when the external format can be one of several (e.g. VAX or IBM for a WSRT archive tape). In this way the format has to be defined only once and thereafter is it handled correctly by the polymorphism mechanism.
The where-part is defined by classes derived from ByteIO as shown in the OMT diagram. There are a few such classes:
  1. RegularFileIO uses a regular file to hold the data. Internally it uses FilebufIO (see below).
  2. FilebufIO uses the stdio system to do IO in a buffered way. It uses an internal buffer to do physical IO only when needed. See the description of C-functions like fopen, fread or do man stdio for more information.
  3. FiledesIO uses the UNIX IO-functions like open, read to do IO directly. It does not use an internal buffer. Instead it always do a physical IO. It is meant for IO operations where large chunks of a file are accessed and for IO on sockets, pipes, etc..
  4. MemoryIO uses a (possibly expandable) buffer in memory to hold the data.

The IO framework is easily expandable. Once can for instance think of a class AsciiIO derived from TypeIO to hold data in ASCII format.
A class TapeIO could be derived from ByteIO to access tape files. This class can also contain functions to skip to a tape file, which the user can call directly. Similarly a class RemoteTapeIO could be developed.

Classes

AipsIO -- AipsIO is the object persistency mechanism of AIPS++. (full description)
AipsIOCarray -- Templated functions to get/put a C-style array from/into AipsIO. (full description)
BaseSinkSource -- Shared base class for ByteSink and ByteSource. (full description)
BucketCache -- Cache for buckets in a part of a file (full description)
BucketCache_CallBack -- Define the type of the static read and write function. (full description)
BucketFile -- File object for the bucket cache. (full description)
ByteIO -- Abstract base class for IO on a byte stream. (full description)
ByteSink -- Class for write-only access to data in a given format. (full description)
ByteSinkSource -- Class for read/write access to data in a given format. (full description)
ByteSource -- Class for read-only access to data in a given format. (full description)
CanonicalIO -- Class for IO in canonical format. (full description)
ConversionIO -- Class for IO in a converted format. (full description)
FileLocker -- Class to handle file locking. (full description)
FilebufIO -- Class for buffered file IO. (full description)
FiledesIO -- Class for IO on a file descriptor. (full description)
LECanonicalIO -- Class for IO in little endian canonical format. (full description)
LargeFilebufIO -- Class for buffered IO on a large file. (full description)
LargeFiledesIO -- Class for IO on a large file descriptor. (full description)
LargeRegularFileIO -- Class for IO on a regular large file. (full description)
LockFile -- Class to handle file locking and synchronization. (full description)
MemoryIO -- Class for IO to a memory buffer. (full description)
RawIO -- Class for IO in local format. (full description)
RegularFileIO -- Class for IO on a regular file. (full description)
StreamIO -- Class for IO on connection oriented socket (full description)
TapeIO -- Class for IO on a tape device (full description)
TypeIO -- Abstract base class for IO of data in a type-dependent format (full description)