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Introduction

This is the README for `pv' ("Pipe Viewer"), a terminal-based tool for monitoring the progress of data through a pipeline. It can be inserted into any normal pipeline between two processes to give a visual indication of how quickly data is passing through, how long it has taken, how near to completion it is, and an estimate of how long it will be until completion.

Documentation

A manual page is included in this distribution. If you have a web browser such as `lynx' handy, you may view the file `doc/index.html' to get started. If you prefer plain text, then look at `doc/quickref.txt'.

Compilation

To compile the package, type "sh ./configure", which should generate a Makefile for your system. You may then type "make" to build everything. Note that GNU `make' is required; this may be installed as `gmake' on some systems, so if typing "make" gives an error, try "gmake" instead.

See the file `doc/INSTALL' for more about the `configure' script.

Developers note that you can do "./configure --enable-debugging" to cause debugging support to be built in, and "--enable-profiling" builds in profiling support (see "man gprof"). Also note that doing "make index" will generate an HTML code index (using "ctags" and "cproto"); this index lists all files used, all functions defined, and all TODOs marked in the code.