| Guido van Rossum | ecde781 | 1995-03-28 13:35:14 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | \chapter{Optional Operating System Services} | 
 | 2 |  | 
 | 3 | The modules described in this chapter provide interfaces to operating | 
 | 4 | system features that are available on selected operating systems only. | 
 | 5 | The interfaces are generally modelled after the \UNIX{} or C | 
 | 6 | interfaces but they are available on some other systems as well | 
 | 7 | (e.g. Windows or NT).  Here's an overview: | 
 | 8 |  | 
 | 9 | \begin{description} | 
 | 10 |  | 
 | 11 | \item[signal] | 
 | 12 | --- Set handlers for asynchronous events. | 
 | 13 |  | 
 | 14 | \item[socket] | 
 | 15 | --- Low-level networking interface. | 
 | 16 |  | 
 | 17 | \item[select] | 
 | 18 | --- Wait for I/O completion on multiple streams. | 
 | 19 |  | 
 | 20 | \item[thread] | 
 | 21 | --- Create multiple threads of control within one namespace. | 
 | 22 |  | 
| Guido van Rossum | 3472026 | 1997-11-20 21:00:03 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 23 | \item[Queue] | 
 | 24 | --- A stynchronized queue class. | 
 | 25 |  | 
| Guido van Rossum | 571391b | 1997-04-03 22:41:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 26 | \item[anydbm] | 
 | 27 | --- Generic interface to DBM-style database modules. | 
| Guido van Rossum | dfb4120 | 1997-04-30 19:40:10 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 28 |  | 
| Guido van Rossum | 3472026 | 1997-11-20 21:00:03 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 29 | \item[whichdb] | 
| Guido van Rossum | 571391b | 1997-04-03 22:41:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 30 | --- Guess which DBM-style module created a given database. | 
 | 31 |  | 
| Guido van Rossum | dfb4120 | 1997-04-30 19:40:10 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 32 | \item[zlib] | 
 | 33 | \item[gzip] | 
 | 34 | --- Compression and decompression compatible with the | 
 | 35 | \code{gzip} program (zlib is the low-level interface, gzip the | 
 | 36 | high-level one). | 
 | 37 |  | 
| Guido van Rossum | ecde781 | 1995-03-28 13:35:14 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 38 | \end{description} |