source/ext/VFS

---------------------

---  Description  ---



  The bfVFS library allows an application to link or mount many different

  directories from the file system, thus creating a unified application-level

  Virtual File System. Additionally, file archives can be used as read-only

  locations in the VFS. For now only uncompressed 7-zip ans SLF archives are

  supported.



  The library supports multiple platforms and was tested under Windows with

  MSVC 2008 and 2010, MinGW and Linux gcc.



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---  Build  ---



  Instead of system-dependant project or makefiles, bfVFS uses the system-

  independant CMake for its configuration (see www.cmake.org). To compile the

  source code you can start the CMake GUI (consult the CMake documentation

  for that) and choose the source and destination directories. Then, in

  multiple configure runs, you can setup the build configuration and finally

  generate the system dependant project or makefiles. Both in-source and

  out-of-source builds are supported.



  You can select the following options:



  BUILD_BFVFS_SHARED  - creates a DLL or a shared library when selected



  BFVFS_WITH_7ZIP     - enables support for 7-zip archives, also compiles 

                        the 7z library itself (either as static or shared

	                    library)



  BFVFS_WITH_SLF      - enables SLF support



  ** advanced options **

  BFVFS_7ZIP_MT       - compiles the 7-zip library with multithreading

                        support (Windows only)



  BFVFS_DEBUG_CMAKE   - prints configuration results



  NOTE: Although in the configuration phase the prefix BFVFS is used, the

        code itself uses the shorter VFS_ or vfs_ or vfs:: prefix/namespace.

        If you can think of situations where this can lead to a conflict with

        other libraries, please inform me about it.

  

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---  External libraries  ---



  The bfVFS uses two external libraries, "utfcpp" (http://utfcpp.sourceforge.net/)

  and "7-zip" (http://www.7-zip.org/).

  

  utfcpp is used for unicode strings, as C++ does not (yet) support then

  natively, and its use is mandatory. 

  

  The 7-zip library is only used for the archive format, compression is not

  supported (yet). If you don't want or cannot use the 7-zip library code

  you can simple deactivate it in the CMake configuration or remove it from

  source tree (see ext/7z). The 7-zip library is the, slightly modified,

  C-code portion from the LZMA SDK. The bfVFS library uses the 7-zip library

  to read-in 7z archives. Creating uncompressed 7z archives is also suppored,

  but self implemented.

  

  As a second archive format the SLF format is supported (which probably

  stands for SirTech Library Format). This is for historical reasons of the

  bfVFS library.

  

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---  Feedback  ---



  Contact me under   john.bf.smith at googlemail.com

  or go to           http://sourceforge.net/projects/bfvfs/