Documentation for STXXL library

1.2.1

The core of STXXL is an implementation of the C++ standard template library STL for external memory (out-of-core) computations, i.e., STXXL implements containers and algorithms that can process huge volumes of data that only fit on disks. While the compatibility to the STL supports ease of use and compatibility with existing applications, another design priority is high performance. Here is a selection of STXXL performance features:

• transparent support of multiple disks
• variable block lengths
• overlapping of I/O and computation
• prevention of OS file buffering overhead
• algorithm pipelining

Supported Operating Systems

• Linux (kernel >= 2.4.18)
• Solaris
• Mac OS X
• other POSIX compatible systems should work, but have not been tested
• Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Supported Compilers

The following compilers have been tested in different STXXL configurations. Other compilers might work, too, but we don't have the resources (systems, compilers or time) to test them. Feedback is welcome.

The compilers marked with '*' are the developer's favorite choices and are most thoroughly tested.

                |         parallel            parallel
                |  stxxl   stxxl     stxxl     stxxl
  compiler      |                   + boost   + boost
----------------+----------------------------------------
* GCC 4.3 c++0x |    x     PMODE²      x       PMODE²
  GCC 4.3       |    x     PMODE²      x       PMODE²
* GCC 4.2       |    x     MCSTL       x       MCSTL
  GCC 4.1       |    x       -         x         -
  GCC 4.0       |    x       -         x         -
  GCC 3.4       |    x       -         x         -
  GCC 3.3       |    o       -         o         -
  GCC 2.95      |    -       -         -         -
* ICPC 10.1.017 |    x¹    MCSTL¹      x¹      MCSTL¹
  ICPC 10.0.026 |    x¹    MCSTL¹      x¹      MCSTL¹
  ICPC 9.1.053  |    x¹      -         x¹        -
  ICPC 9.0.032  |    x¹      -         x¹        -
  MSVC 2008 9.0 |    -       -         x         -
  MSVC 2005 8.0 |    -       -         x         -

 x   = full support
 o   = partial support
 -   = unsupported
 ?   = untested
 MCSTL = supports parallelization using the MCSTL library
 PMODE = supports parallelization using libstdc++ parallel mode
 ¹   = you may have to add a -gcc-name=<gcc-x.y> option if the system default
       gcc does not come in the correct version:
       icpc 9.0: use gcc 3.x
       icpc 9.1: use gcc before 4.2
       icpc 10.x with mcstl support: use gcc 4.2
 ²   = MCSTL has been superseded by the libstdc++ parallel mode in GCC 4.3,
       requires g++ 4.3.2 (prerelease) or later

Supported BOOST versions

The Boost libraries are required on Windows platforms using MSVC compiler and optional on other platforms.

STXXL has been tested with Boost 1.34.1. It also compiles using Boost 1.35.0 without problems, but hasn't been thoroughly tested in this setting. Other versions may work, too, but older versions won't get support.

Installation and Usage Instructions

• Installation (Linux/g++)
• Installation (Solaris/g++)
• Installation (Windows/MS Visual C++ 8.0)
• Installation of the older Stxxl versions (earlier than 0.9) (Linux/g++)

• Installing from subversion

Questions

• Questions concerning use and development of the STXXL library and bug reports should be posted to the FORUMS or mailed to Roman Dementiev.

• FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

License

STXXL is distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
You can find a copy of the license in the accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or online at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt.