libatomic-ops for Debian
------------------------

Libatomic-ops implements a large collection of operations, each one
of which is a combination of an (optional) atomic memory operation,
and a memory barrier.  It also implements associated feature-test
macros that determine whether a particular operation is available
on the current target hardware (either directly or by synthesis).
Libatomic-ops attempts to replace various existing files with similar
goals, since they usually do not handle differences in memory barrier
styles with sufficient generality.

This package is only available as a static library; much of the magic
is in the header files anyway.

Please be aware of the dual nature of the license, from LICENSING.txt

Two small libraries are built and installed:

- libatomic_ops.a is a support library, which is not needed on some platforms.
  This is intended to be usable, under some mild restrictions, in free or
  proprietary code, as are all the header files.  See doc/LICENSING.txt.
- libatomic_ops_gpl.a contains some higher level facilities.  This code is
  currently covered by the GPL.  The contents currently correspond to
  the headers atomic_ops_stack.h and atomic_ops_malloc.h.

NB: the Debian package has been enabled to build on any architecture.
However, only i386, ia64 and amd64 have been fully tested due to
limited access to some of the other architectures.  Corrections are
welcome.

The M68K port was contributed by Roman Zippel <zippel@linux-m68k.org>,
and is not currently part of the upstream source.

 -- Ian Wienand <ianw@gelato.unsw.edu.au>, Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:47:19 +1000
