Stxxl: Documentation for STXXL library

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
utilization of multiple processor cores for internal computation

Supported Operating Systems

Linux (kernel >= 2.4.18)
Mac OS X
FreeBSD
other POSIX compatible systems should work, but have not been tested
Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7

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 4.6 c++0x |    x     PMODE       x       PMODE 
  GCC 4.6       |    x     PMODE       x       PMODE 
  GCC 4.5 c++0x |    x     PMODE       x       PMODE 
  GCC 4.5       |    x     PMODE       x       PMODE 
* GCC 4.4 c++0x |    x     PMODE       x       PMODE 
  GCC 4.4       |    x     PMODE       x       PMODE 
  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 12.0.191 |    x¹    PMODE¹²     x¹      PMODE¹²
  ICPC 12.0.191 |    x¹    MCSTL¹      x¹      MCSTL¹
* ICPC 11.1.075 |    x¹    MCSTL¹      x¹      MCSTL¹
  ICPC 11.0.084 |    x¹    MCSTL¹      x¹      MCSTL¹
  ICPC 10.1.026 |    x¹    MCSTL¹      x¹      MCSTL¹
  ICPC 10.0.026 |    x¹    MCSTL¹      x¹      MCSTL¹
  ICPC 9.1.053  |    x¹      -         x¹        -
  ICPC 9.0.032  |    x¹      -         x¹        -
  clang++ 2.9   |    x       -         x         -
  MSVC 2010 10.0|    -       -         x         -
* MSVC 2008 9.0 |    -       -         x         -
  MSVC 2005 8.0 |    -       -         x         -

 x   = full support
 o   = partial support
 -   = unsupported
 ?   = untested
 PMODE = supports parallelization using libstdc++ parallel mode
 MCSTL = supports parallelization using the MCSTL library (superseded by
       PMODE, introduced in gcc 4.3)
 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 with gcc 3.x
       icpc 9.1: use with gcc before 4.2
       icpc 10.x, 11.x, 12.0 with mcstl support: use with gcc 4.2
       icpc 12.0 with pmode support: use with gcc 4.3
 ²   = gcc 4.3 only provides partial support for the libstdc++ parallel mode,
       full support requires gcc 4.4 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 1.40.0, 1.42.0 and 1.46.1. Other versions may work, too, but older versions will not get support.

Instructions on installation, usage, configuration

Installing from subversion

Questions

Questions concerning use and development of the STXXL library should be posted to the FORUMS. Please search the forum before posting, your question may have been answered before.

Bug Reports

Bugs should be reported in the Bugzilla Bug Tracker

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.