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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>GLib Overview</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.65.1"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="GLib Reference Manual"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="GLib Reference Manual"><link rel="previous" href="index.html" title="GLib Reference Manual"><link rel="next" href="glib-building.html" title="Compiling the GLib package"><link rel="chapter" href="glib.html" title="GLib Overview"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-building.html" title="Compiling the GLib package"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-cross-compiling.html" title="Cross-compiling the GLib package"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-compiling.html" title="Compiling GLib Applications"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-running.html" title="Running GLib Applications"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-changes.html" title="Changes to GLib"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-resources.html" title="Mailing lists and bug reports"><link rel="chapter" href="glib-fundamentals.html" title="GLib Fundamentals"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Basic-Types.html" title="Basic Types"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Limits-of-Basic-Types.html" title="Limits of Basic Types"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Standard-Macros.html" title="Standard Macros"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Type-Conversion-Macros.html" title="Type Conversion Macros"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Byte-Order-Macros.html" title="Byte Order Macros"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Numerical-Definitions.html" title="Numerical Definitions"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Miscellaneous-Macros.html" title="Miscellaneous Macros"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Atomic-Operations.html" title="Atomic Operations"><link rel="chapter" href="glib-core.html" title="GLib Core Application Support"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-The-Main-Event-Loop.html" title="The Main Event Loop"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-Threads.html" title="
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How to compile GLib itself
</dt><dt><a href="glib-cross-compiling.html">Cross-compiling the GLib package</a> - 
How to cross-compile GLib
</dt><dt><a href="glib-compiling.html">Compiling GLib Applications</a> - 
How to compile your GLib application
</dt><dt><a href="glib-running.html">Running GLib Applications</a> - 
How to run and debug your GLib application
</dt><dt><a href="glib-changes.html">Changes to GLib</a> - 
Incompatible changes made between successing versions of GLib
</dt><dt><a href="glib-resources.html">Mailing lists and bug reports</a> - 
Getting help with GLib
</dt></dl></div><p>
GLib is a general-purpose utility library, which provides many useful data 
types, macros, type conversions, string utilities, file utilities, a main 
loop abstraction, and so on. It works on many UNIX-like platforms, Windows,
OS/2 and BeOS. GLib is released under the GNU Library General Public License 
(GNU LGPL). 
    </p><p>
The general policy of GLib is that all functions are invisibly threadsafe with the 
exception of data structure manipulation functions, where, if you have two threads
manipulating the <span class="emphasis"><em>same</em></span> data structure, they must use a lock to
synchronize their operation.
    </p></div><table class="navigation" width="100%" summary="Navigation footer" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="middle"><td align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="index.html"><b>&lt;&lt; GLib Reference Manual</b></a></td><td align="right"><a accesskey="n" href="glib-building.html"><b>Compiling the GLib package &gt;&gt;</b></a></td></tr></table></body></html>