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+Normally, when SQLite writes to a database file, it waits until the write
+operation is finished before returning control to the calling application.
+Since writing to the file-system is usually very slow compared with CPU
+bound operations, this can be a performance bottleneck. This directory
+contains an extension that causes SQLite to perform all write requests
+using a separate thread running in the background. Although this does not
+reduce the overall system resources (CPU, disk bandwidth etc.) at all, it
+allows SQLite to return control to the caller quickly even when writing to
+the database, eliminating the bottleneck.
+
+  1. Functionality
+
+    1.1 How it Works
+    1.2 Limitations
+    1.3 Locking and Concurrency
+
+  2. Compilation and Usage
+
+  3. Porting
+
+
+
+1. FUNCTIONALITY
+
+  With asynchronous I/O, write requests are handled by a separate thread
+  running in the background.  This means that the thread that initiates
+  a database write does not have to wait for (sometimes slow) disk I/O
+  to occur.  The write seems to happen very quickly, though in reality
+  it is happening at its usual slow pace in the background.
+
+  Asynchronous I/O appears to give better responsiveness, but at a price.
+  You lose the Durable property.  With the default I/O backend of SQLite,
+  once a write completes, you know that the information you wrote is
+  safely on disk.  With the asynchronous I/O, this is not the case.  If
+  your program crashes or if a power loss occurs after the database
+  write but before the asynchronous write thread has completed, then the
+  database change might never make it to disk and the next user of the
+  database might not see your change.
+
+  You lose Durability with asynchronous I/O, but you still retain the
+  other parts of ACID:  Atomic,  Consistent, and Isolated.  Many
+  appliations get along fine without the Durablity.
+
+  1.1 How it Works
+
+    Asynchronous I/O works by creating a special SQLite "vfs" structure
+    and registering it with sqlite3_vfs_register(). When files opened via 
+    this vfs are written to (using the vfs xWrite() method), the data is not 
+    written directly to disk, but is placed in the "write-queue" to be
+    handled by the background thread.
+
+    When files opened with the asynchronous vfs are read from 
+    (using the vfs xRead() method), the data is read from the file on 
+    disk and the write-queue, so that from the point of view of
+    the vfs reader the xWrite() appears to have already completed.
+
+    The special vfs is registered (and unregistered) by calls to the 
+    API functions sqlite3async_initialize() and sqlite3async_shutdown().
+    See section "Compilation and Usage" below for details.
+
+  1.2 Limitations
+
+    In order to gain experience with the main ideas surrounding asynchronous 
+    IO, this implementation is deliberately kept simple. Additional 
+    capabilities may be added in the future.
+
+    For example, as currently implemented, if writes are happening at a 
+    steady stream that exceeds the I/O capability of the background writer
+    thread, the queue of pending write operations will grow without bound.
+    If this goes on for long enough, the host system could run out of memory. 
+    A more sophisticated module could to keep track of the quantity of 
+    pending writes and stop accepting new write requests when the queue of 
+    pending writes grows too large.
+
+  1.3 Locking and Concurrency
+
+    Multiple connections from within a single process that use this
+    implementation of asynchronous IO may access a single database
+    file concurrently. From the point of view of the user, if all
+    connections are from within a single process, there is no difference
+    between the concurrency offered by "normal" SQLite and SQLite
+    using the asynchronous backend.
+
+    If file-locking is enabled (it is enabled by default), then connections
+    from multiple processes may also read and write the database file.
+    However concurrency is reduced as follows:
+
+      * When a connection using asynchronous IO begins a database
+        transaction, the database is locked immediately. However the
+        lock is not released until after all relevant operations
+        in the write-queue have been flushed to disk. This means
+        (for example) that the database may remain locked for some 
+        time after a "COMMIT" or "ROLLBACK" is issued.
+
+      * If an application using asynchronous IO executes transactions
+        in quick succession, other database users may be effectively
+        locked out of the database. This is because when a BEGIN
+        is executed, a database lock is established immediately. But
+        when the corresponding COMMIT or ROLLBACK occurs, the lock
+        is not released until the relevant part of the write-queue 
+        has been flushed through. As a result, if a COMMIT is followed
+        by a BEGIN before the write-queue is flushed through, the database 
+        is never unlocked,preventing other processes from accessing 
+        the database.
+
+    File-locking may be disabled at runtime using the sqlite3async_control()
+    API (see below). This may improve performance when an NFS or other 
+    network file-system, as the synchronous round-trips to the server be 
+    required to establish file locks are avoided. However, if multiple 
+    connections attempt to access the same database file when file-locking
+    is disabled, application crashes and database corruption is a likely
+    outcome.
+
+
+2. COMPILATION AND USAGE
+
+  The asynchronous IO extension consists of a single file of C code
+  (sqlite3async.c), and a header file (sqlite3async.h) that defines the 
+  C API used by applications to activate and control the modules 
+  functionality.
+
+  To use the asynchronous IO extension, compile sqlite3async.c as
+  part of the application that uses SQLite. Then use the API defined
+  in sqlite3async.h to initialize and configure the module.
+
+  The asynchronous IO VFS API is described in detail in comments in 
+  sqlite3async.h. Using the API usually consists of the following steps:
+
+    1. Register the asynchronous IO VFS with SQLite by calling the
+       sqlite3async_initialize() function.
+
+    2. Create a background thread to perform write operations and call
+       sqlite3async_run().
+
+    3. Use the normal SQLite API to read and write to databases via 
+       the asynchronous IO VFS.
+
+  Refer to sqlite3async.h for details.
+
+
+3. PORTING
+
+  Currently the asynchronous IO extension is compatible with win32 systems
+  and systems that support the pthreads interface, including Mac OSX, Linux, 
+  and other varieties of Unix. 
+
+  To port the asynchronous IO extension to another platform, the user must
+  implement mutex and condition variable primitives for the new platform.
+  Currently there is no externally available interface to allow this, but
+  modifying the code within sqlite3async.c to include the new platforms
+  concurrency primitives is relatively easy. Search within sqlite3async.c
+  for the comment string "PORTING FUNCTIONS" for details. Then implement
+  new versions of each of the following:
+
+    static void async_mutex_enter(int eMutex);
+    static void async_mutex_leave(int eMutex);
+    static void async_cond_wait(int eCond, int eMutex);
+    static void async_cond_signal(int eCond);
+    static void async_sched_yield(void);
+
+  The functionality required of each of the above functions is described
+  in comments in sqlite3async.c.
+