Provides an object-oriented interface to either the POSIX mmap() or Win32 equivalent APIs to memory map a file into a process's address space for general memory access. IPC::Mmap provides only a minimal interface without the additional overhead of tie'd variables or locking enforced in other modules (e.g., Sys::Mmap, Win32::MMF); hence, the application is responsible for performing read()'s and write()'s on the IPC::Mmap object, and calling any needed lock() and unlock() methods, as required by concurrent processes. Memory mapped files provide an alternate shared memory mechanism for multiple processes. The technique maps the OS's file system buffers for a given file into each mmap()'ing process's virtual memory space, thereby permitting each process to essentially share the same physical memory. Refer to the excellent "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment", Stevens et al., Addison-Wesley Publisher for a detailed reference on the POSIX implementation. IPC::Mmap provides OS-agnostic wrappers for both the POSIX and Win32 memory mapped file capabilities.