<p>The purpose of this package is to allow efficient and flexible input/output operations from <strong class="pkg">GAP</strong>. This is achieved by providing bindings to the low-level I/O functions in the C-library. On top of this an implementation of buffered I/O in the <strong class="pkg">GAP</strong> language is provided. Further, a framework for serialisation of arbitrary <strongclass="pkg">GAP</strong> objects is implemented. Finally, an implementation of the client side of the HTTP protocol is included in the package.</p>
<p>This package allows to use file based I/O, access to links and file systems, pipes, sockets, and the UDP and TCP/IP protocols.</p>
<p>By default the <strong class="pkg">IO</strong> package is not automatically loaded by <strong class="pkg">GAP</strong> when it is installed. You must load the package with <code class="code">LoadPackage("IO");</code> before its functions become available.</p>
<p>For bug reports, feature requests and suggestions, please use our <span class="URL"><a href="https://github.com/gap-packages/io/issues">issue tracker</a></span>.</p>
