6 Jim Tcl v0.77 - reference manual for the Jim Tcl scripting language
15 jimsh [<scriptfile>|-]
16 jimsh -e '<immediate-script>'
22 * <<CommandIndex,Command Reference>>
23 * <<OperatorPrecedence,Operator Precedence>>
24 * <<BuiltinVariables, Builtin Variables>>
25 * <<BackslashSequences, Backslash Sequences>>
29 Jim Tcl is a small footprint reimplementation of the Tcl scripting language.
30 The core language engine is compatible with Tcl 8.5+, while implementing
31 a significant subset of the Tcl 8.6 command set, plus additional features
32 available only in Jim Tcl.
34 Some notable differences with Tcl 8.5/8.6 are:
36 1. Object-based I/O (aio), but with a Tcl-compatibility layer
37 2. I/O: Support for sockets and pipes including udp, unix domain sockets and IPv6
39 4. Support for references (`ref`/`getref`/`setref`) and garbage collection
40 5. Builtin dictionary type (`dict`) with some limitations compared to Tcl 8.6
41 6. `env` command to access environment variables
42 7. Operating system features: `os.fork`, `os.wait`, `os.uptime`, `signal`, `alarm`, `sleep`
43 8. Much better error reporting. `info stacktrace` as a replacement for '$errorInfo', '$errorCode'
44 9. Support for "static" variables in procedures
45 10. Threads and coroutines are not supported
46 11. Command and variable traces are not supported
47 12. Built-in command line editing
48 13. Expression shorthand syntax: +$(...)+
49 14. Modular build allows many features to be omitted or built as dynamic, loadable modules
50 15. Highly suitable for use in an embedded environment
51 16. Support for UDP, IPv6, Unix-Domain sockets in addition to TCP sockets
55 Changes between 0.77 and 0.78
56 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
57 1. Add serial/tty support with `aio tty`
58 2. Add support for 'jimsh -'
59 3. Add hidden '-commands' option to many commands
60 4. Add scriptable autocompletion support in interactive mode with `tcl::autocomplete`
62 Changes between 0.76 and 0.77
63 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
64 1. Add support for `aio sync`
65 2. Add SSL and TLS support in aio
67 4. Added support for boolean constants in `expr`
68 5. `string is` now supports 'boolean' class
69 6. Add support for `aio lock` and `aio unlock`
70 7. Add new `interp` command
72 Changes between 0.75 and 0.76
73 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
74 1. `glob` now supports the +-tails+ option
75 2. Add support for `string cat`
76 3. Allow `info source` to add source info
78 Changes between 0.74 and 0.75
79 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
80 1. `binary`, `pack` and `unpack` now support floating point
81 2. `file copy` +-force+ handles source and target as the same file
82 3. `format` now supports +%b+ for binary conversion
83 4. `lsort` now supports +-unique+ and +-real+
84 5. Add support for half-close with `aio close` +?r|w?+
85 6. Add `socket pair` for a bidirectional pipe
86 7. Add '--random-hash' to randomise hash tables for greater security
87 8. `dict` now supports 'for', 'values', 'incr', 'append', 'lappend', 'update', 'info' and 'replace'
88 9. `file stat` no longer requires the variable name
89 10. Add support for `file link`
91 Changes between 0.73 and 0.74
92 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
93 1. Numbers with leading zeros are treated as decimal, not octal
95 3. Add LFS (64 bit) support for `aio seek`, `aio tell`, `aio copyto`, `file copy`
96 4. `string compare` and `string equal` now support '-length'
97 5. `glob` now supports '-directory'
99 Changes between 0.72 and 0.73
100 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
101 1. Built-in regexp now support non-capturing parentheses: (?:...)
102 2. Add `string replace`
103 3. Add `string totitle`
104 4. Add `info statics`
105 5. Add +build-jim-ext+ for easy separate building of loadable modules (extensions)
106 6. `local` now works with any command, not just procs
107 7. Add `info alias` to access the target of an alias
108 8. UTF-8 encoding past the basic multilingual plane (BMP) is supported
111 11. Most extensions are now enabled by default
112 12. Add support for namespaces and the `namespace` command
115 Changes between 0.71 and 0.72
116 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
117 1. procs now allow 'args' and optional parameters in any position
118 2. Add Tcl-compatible expr functions, `rand()`, `srand()` and `pow()`
119 3. Add support for the '-force' option to `file delete`
120 4. Better diagnostics when `source` fails to load a script with a missing quote or bracket
121 5. New +tcl_platform(pathSeparator)+
122 6. Add support settings the modification time with `file mtime`
123 7. `exec` is now fully supported on win32 (mingw32)
124 8. `file join`, `pwd`, `glob` etc. now work for mingw32
125 9. Line editing is now supported for the win32 console (mingw32)
126 10. Add `aio listen` command
128 Changes between 0.70 and 0.71
129 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
130 1. Allow 'args' to be renamed in procs
131 2. Add +$(...)+ shorthand syntax for expressions
132 3. Add automatic reference variables in procs with +&var+ syntax
133 4. Support +jimsh --version+
134 5. Additional variables in +tcl_platform()+
135 6. `local` procs now push existing commands and `upcall` can call them
136 7. Add `loop` command (TclX compatible)
137 8. Add `aio buffering` command
138 9. `info complete` can now return the missing character
139 10. `binary format` and `binary scan` are now (optionally) supported
140 11. Add `string byterange`
141 12. Built-in regexp now support non-greedy repetition (*?, +?, ??)
145 Tcl stands for 'tool command language' and is pronounced
146 'http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/tickle[tickle]'.
147 It is actually two things: a language and a library.
149 First, Tcl is a simple textual language, intended primarily for
150 issuing commands to interactive programs such as text editors,
151 debuggers, illustrators, and shells. It has a simple syntax and is also
152 programmable, so Tcl users can write command procedures to provide more
153 powerful commands than those in the built-in set.
155 Second, Tcl is a library package that can be embedded in application
156 programs. The Tcl library consists of a parser for the Tcl language,
157 routines to implement the Tcl built-in commands, and procedures that
158 allow each application to extend Tcl with additional commands specific
159 to that application. The application program generates Tcl commands and
160 passes them to the Tcl parser for execution. Commands may be generated
161 by reading characters from an input source, or by associating command
162 strings with elements of the application's user interface, such as menu
163 entries, buttons, or keystrokes.
165 When the Tcl library receives commands it parses them into component
166 fields and executes built-in commands directly. For commands implemented
167 by the application, Tcl calls back to the application to execute the
168 commands. In many cases commands will invoke recursive invocations of the
169 Tcl interpreter by passing in additional strings to execute (procedures,
170 looping commands, and conditional commands all work in this way).
172 An application program gains three advantages by using Tcl for its command
173 language. First, Tcl provides a standard syntax: once users know Tcl,
174 they will be able to issue commands easily to any Tcl-based application.
175 Second, Tcl provides programmability. All a Tcl application needs
176 to do is to implement a few application-specific low-level commands.
177 Tcl provides many utility commands plus a general programming interface
178 for building up complex command procedures. By using Tcl, applications
179 need not re-implement these features.
181 Third, Tcl can be used as a common language for communicating between
182 applications. Inter-application communication is not built into the
183 Tcl core described here, but various add-on libraries, such as the Tk
184 toolkit, allow applications to issue commands to each other. This makes
185 it possible for applications to work together in much more powerful ways
186 than was previously possible.
188 Fourth, Jim Tcl includes a command processor, +jimsh+, which can be
189 used to run standalone Tcl scripts, or to run Tcl commands interactively.
191 This manual page focuses primarily on the Tcl language. It describes
192 the language syntax and the built-in commands that will be available
193 in any application based on Tcl. The individual library procedures are
194 described in more detail in separate manual pages, one per procedure.
196 JIMSH COMMAND INTERPRETER
197 -------------------------
198 A simple, but powerful command processor, +jimsh+, is part of Jim Tcl.
199 It may be invoked in interactive mode as:
203 or to process the Tcl script in a file with:
207 or to process the Tcl script from standard input:
211 It may also be invoked to execute an immediate script with:
217 Interactive mode reads Tcl commands from standard input, evaluates
218 those commands and prints the results.
221 Welcome to Jim version 0.73, Copyright (c) 2005-8 Salvatore Sanfilippo
224 . lsort [info commands p*]
225 package parray pid popen proc puts pwd
226 . foreach i {a b c} {
233 invalid command name "bad"
237 If +jimsh+ is configured with line editing (it is by default) and a VT-100-compatible
238 terminal is detected, Emacs-style line editing commands are available, including:
239 arrow keys, +\^W+ to erase a word, +\^U+ to erase the line, +^R+ for reverse incremental search
240 in history. Additionally, the +h+ command may be used to display the command history.
242 Command line history is automatically saved and loaded from +~/.jim_history+
244 In interactive mode, +jimsh+ automatically runs the script +~/.jimrc+ at startup
249 The central data structure in Tcl is an interpreter (C type 'Jim_Interp').
250 An interpreter consists of a set of command bindings, a set of variable
251 values, and a few other miscellaneous pieces of state. Each Tcl command
252 is interpreted in the context of a particular interpreter.
254 Some Tcl-based applications will maintain multiple interpreters
255 simultaneously, each associated with a different widget or portion of
256 the application. Interpreters are relatively lightweight structures.
257 They can be created and deleted quickly, so application programmers should
258 feel free to use multiple interpreters if that simplifies the application.
262 Tcl supports only one type of data: strings. All commands, all arguments
263 to commands, all command results, and all variable values are strings.
265 Where commands require numeric arguments or return numeric results,
266 the arguments and results are passed as strings. Many commands expect
267 their string arguments to have certain formats, but this interpretation
268 is up to the individual commands. For example, arguments often contain
269 Tcl command strings, which may get executed as part of the commands.
270 The easiest way to understand the Tcl interpreter is to remember that
271 everything is just an operation on a string. In many cases Tcl constructs
272 will look similar to more structured constructs from other languages.
273 However, the Tcl constructs are not structured at all; they are just
274 strings of characters, and this gives them a different behaviour than
275 the structures they may look like.
277 Although the exact interpretation of a Tcl string depends on who is doing
278 the interpretation, there are three common forms that strings take:
279 commands, expressions, and lists. The major sections below discuss
280 these three forms in more detail.
284 The Tcl language has syntactic similarities to both the Unix shells
285 and Lisp. However, the interpretation of commands is different
286 in Tcl than in either of those other two systems.
287 A Tcl command string consists of one or more commands separated
288 by newline characters or semi-colons.
289 Each command consists of a collection of fields separated by
290 white space (spaces or tabs).
291 The first field must be the name of a command, and the
292 additional fields, if any, are arguments that will be passed to
293 that command. For example, the command:
297 has three fields: the first, `set`, is the name of a Tcl command, and
298 the last two, 'a' and '22', will be passed as arguments to
299 the `set` command. The command name may refer either to a built-in
300 Tcl command, an application-specific command bound in with the library
301 procedure 'Jim_CreateCommand', or a command procedure defined with the
302 `proc` built-in command.
304 Arguments are passed literally as text strings. Individual commands may
305 interpret those strings in any fashion they wish. The `set` command,
306 for example, will treat its first argument as the name of a variable
307 and its second argument as a string value to assign to that variable.
308 For other commands arguments may be interpreted as integers, lists,
309 file names, or Tcl commands.
311 Command names should normally be typed completely (e.g. no abbreviations).
312 However, if the Tcl interpreter cannot locate a command it invokes a
313 special command named `unknown` which attempts to find or create the
316 For example, at many sites `unknown` will search through library
317 directories for the desired command and create it as a Tcl procedure if
318 it is found. The `unknown` command often provides automatic completion
319 of abbreviated commands, but usually only for commands that were typed
322 It's probably a bad idea to use abbreviations in command scripts and
323 other forms that will be re-used over time: changes to the command set
324 may cause abbreviations to become ambiguous, resulting in scripts that
329 If the first non-blank character in a command is +\#+, then everything
330 from the +#+ up through the next newline character is treated as
331 a comment and ignored. When comments are embedded inside nested
332 commands (e.g. fields enclosed in braces) they must have properly-matched
333 braces (this is necessary because when Tcl parses the top-level command
334 it doesn't yet know that the nested field will be used as a command so
335 it cannot process the nested comment character as a comment).
337 GROUPING ARGUMENTS WITH DOUBLE-QUOTES
338 -------------------------------------
339 Normally each argument field ends at the next white space, but
340 double-quotes may be used to create arguments with embedded space.
342 If an argument field begins with a double-quote, then the argument isn't
343 terminated by white space (including newlines) or a semi-colon (see below
344 for information on semi-colons); instead it ends at the next double-quote
345 character. The double-quotes are not included in the resulting argument.
346 For example, the command
348 set a "This is a single argument"
350 will pass two arguments to `set`: 'a' and 'This is a single argument'.
352 Within double-quotes, command substitutions, variable substitutions,
353 and backslash substitutions still occur, as described below. If the
354 first character of a command field is not a quote, then quotes receive
355 no special interpretation in the parsing of that field.
357 GROUPING ARGUMENTS WITH BRACES
358 ------------------------------
359 Curly braces may also be used for grouping arguments. They are similar
360 to quotes except for two differences. First, they nest; this makes them
361 easier to use for complicated arguments like nested Tcl command strings.
362 Second, the substitutions described below for commands, variables, and
363 backslashes do *not* occur in arguments enclosed in braces, so braces
364 can be used to prevent substitutions where they are undesirable.
366 If an argument field begins with a left brace, then the argument ends
367 at the matching right brace. Tcl will strip off the outermost layer
368 of braces and pass the information between the braces to the command
369 without any further modification. For example, in the command
371 set a {xyz a {b c d}}
373 the `set` command will receive two arguments: 'a'
376 When braces or quotes are in effect, the matching brace or quote need
377 not be on the same line as the starting quote or brace; in this case
378 the newline will be included in the argument field along with any other
379 characters up to the matching brace or quote. For example, the `eval`
380 command takes one argument, which is a command string; `eval` invokes
381 the Tcl interpreter to execute the command string. The command
388 will assign the value '22' to 'a' and '33' to 'b'.
390 If the first character of a command field is not a left
391 brace, then neither left nor right
392 braces in the field will be treated specially (except as part of
393 variable substitution; see below).
395 COMMAND SUBSTITUTION WITH BRACKETS
396 ----------------------------------
397 If an open bracket occurs in a field of a command, then command
398 substitution occurs (except for fields enclosed in braces). All of the
399 text up to the matching close bracket is treated as a Tcl command and
400 executed immediately. Then the result of that command is substituted
401 for the bracketed text. For example, consider the command
405 When the `set` command has only a single argument, it is the name of a
406 variable and `set` returns the contents of that variable. In this case,
407 if variable 'b' has the value 'foo', then the command above is equivalent
412 Brackets can be used in more complex ways. For example, if the variable
413 'b' has the value 'foo' and the variable 'c' has the value 'gorp',
416 set a xyz[set b].[set c]
418 is equivalent to the command
423 A bracketed command may contain multiple commands separated by newlines
424 or semi-colons in the usual fashion. In this case the value of the last
425 command is used for substitution. For example, the command
430 is equivalent to the command
435 If a field is enclosed in braces then the brackets and the characters
436 between them are not interpreted specially; they are passed through to
437 the argument verbatim.
439 VARIABLE SUBSTITUTION WITH $
440 ----------------------------
441 The dollar sign (+$+) may be used as a special shorthand form for
442 substituting variable values. If +$+ appears in an argument that isn't
443 enclosed in braces then variable substitution will occur. The characters
444 after the +$+, up to the first character that isn't a number, letter,
445 or underscore, are taken as a variable name and the string value of that
446 variable is substituted for the name.
448 For example, if variable 'foo' has the value 'test', then the command
452 is equivalent to the command
456 There are two special forms for variable substitution. If the next
457 character after the name of the variable is an open parenthesis, then
458 the variable is assumed to be an array name, and all of the characters
459 between the open parenthesis and the next close parenthesis are taken as
460 an index into the array. Command substitutions and variable substitutions
461 are performed on the information between the parentheses before it is
464 For example, if the variable 'x' is an array with one element named
465 'first' and value '87' and another element named '14' and value 'more',
468 set a xyz$x(first)zyx
470 is equivalent to the command
474 If the variable 'index' has the value '14', then the command
476 set a xyz$x($index)zyx
478 is equivalent to the command
482 For more information on arrays, see VARIABLES AND ARRAYS below.
484 The second special form for variables occurs when the dollar sign is
485 followed by an open curly brace. In this case the variable name consists
486 of all the characters up to the next curly brace.
488 Array references are not possible in this form: the name between braces
489 is assumed to refer to a scalar variable. For example, if variable
490 'foo' has the value 'test', then the command
494 is equivalent to the command
499 Variable substitution does not occur in arguments that are enclosed in
500 braces: the dollar sign and variable name are passed through to the
503 The dollar sign abbreviation is simply a shorthand form. +$a+ is
504 completely equivalent to +[set a]+; it is provided as a convenience
507 SEPARATING COMMANDS WITH SEMI-COLONS
508 ------------------------------------
509 Normally, each command occupies one line (the command is terminated by a
510 newline character). However, semi-colon (+;+) is treated as a command
511 separator character; multiple commands may be placed on one line by
512 separating them with a semi-colon. Semi-colons are not treated as
513 command separators if they appear within curly braces or double-quotes.
515 BACKSLASH SUBSTITUTION
516 ----------------------
517 Backslashes may be used to insert non-printing characters into command
518 fields and also to insert special characters like braces and brackets
519 into fields without them being interpreted specially as described above.
521 The backslash sequences understood by the Tcl interpreter are
522 listed below. In each case, the backslash
523 sequence is replaced by the given character:
524 [[BackslashSequences]]
535 Carriage-return (0xd).
558 +{backslash}<space>+::
559 Space ( ): doesn't terminate argument.
562 Semi-colon: doesn't terminate command.
567 +{backslash}<newline>+::
568 Nothing: this joins two lines together
569 into a single line. This backslash feature is unique in that
570 it will be applied even when the sequence occurs within braces.
572 +{backslash}{backslash}+::
573 Backslash ('{backslash}').
576 The digits +'ddd'+ (one, two, or three of them) give the octal value of
577 the character. Note that Jim supports null characters in strings.
580 +{backslash}u\{nnn\}+::
581 +{backslash}Unnnnnnnn+::
582 The UTF-8 encoding of the unicode codepoint represented by the hex digits, +'nnnn'+, is inserted.
583 The 'u' form allows for one to four hex digits.
584 The 'U' form allows for one to eight hex digits.
585 The 'u\{nnn\}' form allows for one to eight hex digits, but makes it easier to insert
586 characters UTF-8 characters which are followed by a hex digit.
588 For example, in the command
592 the second argument to `set` will be +{x[ yza+.
594 If a backslash is followed by something other than one of the options
595 described above, then the backslash is transmitted to the argument
596 field without any special processing, and the Tcl scanner continues
597 normal processing with the next character. For example, in the
602 The first argument to `set` will be +{backslash}*a+ and the second
603 argument will be +{backslash}{foo+.
605 If an argument is enclosed in braces, then backslash sequences inside
606 the argument are parsed but no substitution occurs (except for
607 backslash-newline): the backslash
608 sequence is passed through to the argument as is, without making
609 any special interpretation of the characters in the backslash sequence.
610 In particular, backslashed braces are not counted in locating the
611 matching right brace that terminates the argument.
617 the second argument to `set` will be +{backslash}{abc+.
619 This backslash mechanism is not sufficient to generate absolutely
620 any argument structure; it only covers the
621 most common cases. To produce particularly complicated arguments
622 it is probably easiest to use the `format` command along with
623 command substitution.
625 STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS
626 ------------------------------------
628 Many string and list commands take one or more 'index' parameters which
629 specify a position in the string relative to the start or end of the string/list.
631 The index may be one of the following forms:
634 A simple integer, where '0' refers to the first element of the string
637 +integer+integer+ or::
639 The sum or difference of the two integers. e.g. +2+3+ refers to the 5th element.
640 This is useful when used with (e.g.) +$i+1+ rather than the more verbose
644 The last element of the string or list.
647 The 'nth-from-last' element of the string or list.
651 1. A command is just a string.
652 2. Within a string commands are separated by newlines or semi-colons
653 (unless the newline or semi-colon is within braces or brackets
655 3. A command consists of fields. The first field is the name of the command.
656 The other fields are strings that are passed to that command as arguments.
657 4. Fields are normally separated by white space.
658 5. Double-quotes allow white space and semi-colons to appear within
660 Command substitution, variable substitution, and backslash substitution
661 still occur inside quotes.
662 6. Braces defer interpretation of special characters.
663 If a field begins with a left brace, then it consists of everything
664 between the left brace and the matching right brace. The
665 braces themselves are not included in the argument.
666 No further processing is done on the information between the braces
667 except that backslash-newline sequences are eliminated.
668 7. If a field doesn't begin with a brace then backslash,
669 variable, and command substitution are done on the field. Only a
670 single level of processing is done: the results of one substitution
671 are not scanned again for further substitutions or any other
672 special treatment. Substitution can
673 occur on any field of a command, including the command name
674 as well as the arguments.
675 8. If the first non-blank character of a command is a +\#+, everything
676 from the +#+ up through the next newline is treated as a comment
681 The second major interpretation applied to strings in Tcl is
682 as expressions. Several commands, such as `expr`, `for`,
683 and `if`, treat one or more of their arguments as expressions
684 and call the Tcl expression processors ('Jim_ExprLong',
685 'Jim_ExprBoolean', etc.) to evaluate them.
687 The operators permitted in Tcl expressions are a subset of
688 the operators permitted in C expressions, and they have the
689 same meaning and precedence as the corresponding C operators.
690 Expressions almost always yield numeric results
691 (integer or floating-point values).
692 For example, the expression
698 Tcl expressions differ from C expressions in the way that
699 operands are specified, and in that Tcl expressions support
700 non-numeric operands and string comparisons.
702 A Tcl expression consists of a combination of operands, operators,
705 White space may be used between the operands and operators and
706 parentheses; it is ignored by the expression processor.
707 Where possible, operands are interpreted as integer values.
709 Integer values may be specified in decimal (the normal case) or in
710 hexadecimal (if the first two characters of the operand are '0x').
711 Note that Jim Tcl does *not* treat numbers with leading zeros as octal.
713 If an operand does not have one of the integer formats given
714 above, then it is treated as a floating-point number if that is
715 possible. Floating-point numbers may be specified in any of the
716 ways accepted by an ANSI-compliant C compiler (except that the
717 'f', 'F', 'l', and 'L' suffixes will not be permitted in
718 most installations). For example, all of the
719 following are valid floating-point numbers: 2.1, 3., 6e4, 7.91e+16.
721 If no numeric interpretation is possible, then an operand is left
722 as a string (and only a limited set of operators may be applied to
725 String constants representing boolean constants
726 (+'0'+, +'1'+, +'false'+, +'off'+, +'no'+, +'true'+, +'on'+, +'yes'+)
727 are also recognized and can be used in logical operations.
729 1. Operands may be specified in any of the following ways:
731 2. As a numeric value, either integer or floating-point.
733 3. As one of valid boolean constants
735 4. As a Tcl variable, using standard '$' notation.
736 The variable's value will be used as the operand.
738 5. As a string enclosed in double-quotes.
739 The expression parser will perform backslash, variable, and
740 command substitutions on the information between the quotes,
741 and use the resulting value as the operand
743 6. As a string enclosed in braces.
744 The characters between the open brace and matching close brace
745 will be used as the operand without any substitutions.
747 7. As a Tcl command enclosed in brackets.
748 The command will be executed and its result will be used as
751 Where substitutions occur above (e.g. inside quoted strings), they
752 are performed by the expression processor.
753 However, an additional layer of substitution may already have
754 been performed by the command parser before the expression
755 processor was called.
757 As discussed below, it is usually best to enclose expressions
758 in braces to prevent the command parser from performing substitutions
761 For some examples of simple expressions, suppose the variable 'a' has
762 the value 3 and the variable 'b' has the value 6. Then the expression
763 on the left side of each of the lines below will evaluate to the value
764 on the right side of the line:
769 {word one} < "word $a" 0
771 The valid operators are listed below, grouped in decreasing order
773 [[OperatorPrecedence]]
774 +int() double() round() abs(), rand(), srand()+::
775 Unary functions (except rand() which takes no arguments)
776 * +'int()'+ converts the numeric argument to an integer by truncating down.
777 * +'double()'+ converts the numeric argument to floating point.
778 * +'round()'+ converts the numeric argument to the closest integer value.
779 * +'abs()'+ takes the absolute value of the numeric argument.
780 * +'rand()'+ returns a pseudo-random floating-point value in the range (0,1).
781 * +'srand()'+ takes an integer argument to (re)seed the random number generator. Returns the first random number from that seed.
783 +sin() cos() tan() asin() acos() atan() sinh() cosh() tanh() ceil() floor() exp() log() log10() sqrt()+::
784 Unary math functions.
785 If Jim is compiled with math support, these functions are available.
788 Unary minus, unary plus, bit-wise NOT, logical NOT. None of these operands
789 may be applied to string operands, and bit-wise NOT may be
790 applied only to integers.
793 Power. e.g. 'x^y^'. If Jim is compiled with math support, supports doubles and
794 integers. Otherwise supports integers only. (Note that the math-function form
795 has the same highest precedence)
798 Multiply, divide, remainder. None of these operands may be
799 applied to string operands, and remainder may be applied only
803 Add and subtract. Valid for any numeric operands.
806 Left and right shift, left and right rotate. Valid for integer operands only.
809 Boolean less, greater, less than or equal, and greater than or equal.
810 Each operator produces 1 if the condition is true, 0 otherwise.
811 These operators may be applied to strings as well as numeric operands,
812 in which case string comparison is used.
815 Boolean equal and not equal. Each operator produces a zero/one result.
816 Valid for all operand types. *Note* that values will be converted to integers
817 if possible, then floating point types, and finally strings will be compared.
818 It is recommended that 'eq' and 'ne' should be used for string comparison.
821 String equal and not equal. Uses the string value directly without
822 attempting to convert to a number first.
825 String in list and not in list. For 'in', result is 1 if the left operand (as a string)
826 is contained in the right operand (as a list), or 0 otherwise. The result for
827 +{$a ni $list}+ is equivalent to +{!($a in $list)}+.
830 Bit-wise AND. Valid for integer operands only.
833 Bit-wise OR. Valid for integer operands only.
836 Bit-wise exclusive OR. Valid for integer operands only.
839 Logical AND. Produces a 1 result if both operands are non-zero, 0 otherwise.
840 Valid for numeric operands only (integers or floating-point).
843 Logical OR. Produces a 0 result if both operands are zero, 1 otherwise.
844 Valid for numeric operands only (integers or floating-point).
847 If-then-else, as in C. If +'x'+
848 evaluates to non-zero, then the result is the value of +'y'+.
849 Otherwise the result is the value of +'z'+.
850 The +'x'+ operand must have a numeric value, while +'y'+ and +'z'+ can
853 See the C manual for more details on the results
854 produced by each operator.
855 All of the binary operators group left-to-right within the same
856 precedence level. For example, the expression
862 The +&&+, +||+, and +?:+ operators have 'lazy evaluation', just as
863 in C, which means that operands are not evaluated if they are not
864 needed to determine the outcome. For example, in
868 only one of +[a]+ or +[b]+ will actually be evaluated,
869 depending on the value of +$v+.
871 All internal computations involving integers are done with the C
872 type 'long long' if available, or 'long' otherwise, and all internal
873 computations involving floating-point are done with the C type
876 When converting a string to floating-point, exponent overflow is
877 detected and results in a Tcl error.
878 For conversion to integer from string, detection of overflow depends
879 on the behaviour of some routines in the local C library, so it should
880 be regarded as unreliable.
881 In any case, overflow and underflow are generally not detected
882 reliably for intermediate results.
884 Conversion among internal representations for integer, floating-point,
885 string operands is done automatically as needed.
886 For arithmetic computations, integers are used until some
887 floating-point number is introduced, after which floating-point is used.
892 yields the result 1, while
895 5 / ( [string length "abcd"] + 0.0 )
897 both yield the result 1.25.
899 String values may be used as operands of the comparison operators,
900 although the expression evaluator tries to do comparisons as integer
901 or floating-point when it can.
902 If one of the operands of a comparison is a string and the other
903 has a numeric value, the numeric operand is converted back to
904 a string using the C 'sprintf' format specifier
905 '%d' for integers and '%g' for floating-point values.
906 For example, the expressions
911 both evaluate to 1. The first comparison is done using integer
912 comparison, and the second is done using string comparison after
913 the second operand is converted to the string '18'.
915 In general it is safest to enclose an expression in braces when
916 entering it in a command: otherwise, if the expression contains
917 any white space then the Tcl interpreter will split it
918 among several arguments. For example, the command
922 results in three arguments being passed to `expr`: +$a+,
923 \+, and +$b+. In addition, if the expression isn't in braces
924 then the Tcl interpreter will perform variable and command substitution
925 immediately (it will happen in the command parser rather than in
926 the expression parser). In many cases the expression is being
927 passed to a command that will evaluate the expression later (or
928 even many times if, for example, the expression is to be used to
929 decide when to exit a loop). Usually the desired goal is to re-do
930 the variable or command substitutions each time the expression is
931 evaluated, rather than once and for all at the beginning. For example,
934 for {set i 1} $i<=10 {incr i} {...} ** WRONG **
936 is probably intended to iterate over all values of +i+ from 1 to 10.
937 After each iteration of the body of the loop, `for` will pass
938 its second argument to the expression evaluator to see whether or not
939 to continue processing. Unfortunately, in this case the value of +i+
940 in the second argument will be substituted once and for all when the
941 `for` command is parsed. If +i+ was 0 before the `for`
942 command was invoked then the second argument of `for` will be +0\<=10+
943 which will always evaluate to 1, even though +i+ eventually
944 becomes greater than 10. In the above case the loop will never
945 terminate. Instead, the expression should be placed in braces:
947 for {set i 1} {$i<=10} {incr i} {...} ** RIGHT **
949 This causes the substitution of 'i'
950 to be delayed; it will be re-done each time the expression is
951 evaluated, which is the desired result.
955 The third major way that strings are interpreted in Tcl is as lists.
956 A list is just a string with a list-like structure
957 consisting of fields separated by white space. For example, the
962 is a list with four elements or fields.
963 Lists have the same basic structure as command strings, except
964 that a newline character in a list is treated as a field separator
965 just like space or tab. Conventions for braces and quotes
966 and backslashes are the same for lists as for commands. For example,
971 is a list with three elements: +a+, +b c+, and +d e {f g h}+.
973 Whenever an element is extracted from a list, the same rules about
974 braces and quotes and backslashes are applied as for commands. Thus in
975 the example above when the third element is extracted from the list,
980 (when the field was extracted, all that happened was to strip off
981 the outermost layer of braces). Command substitution and
982 variable substitution are never
983 made on a list (at least, not by the list-processing commands; the
984 list can always be passed to the Tcl interpreter for evaluation).
986 The Tcl commands `concat`, `foreach`, `lappend`, `lindex`, `linsert`,
987 `list`, `llength`, `lrange`, `lreplace`, `lsearch`, and `lsort` allow
988 you to build lists, extract elements from them, search them, and perform
989 other list-related functions.
991 Advanced list commands include `lrepeat`, `lreverse`, `lmap`, `lassign`, `lset`.
996 A new addition to Tcl 8.5 is the ability to expand a list into separate
997 arguments. Support for this feature is also available in Jim.
999 Consider the following attempt to exec a list:
1004 This will attempt to exec a command named "ls -l", which will clearly not
1005 work. Typically eval and concat are required to solve this problem, however
1006 it can be solved much more easily with +\{*\}+.
1010 This will expand the following argument into individual elements and then evaluate
1011 the resulting command.
1013 Note that the official Tcl syntax is +\{*\}+, however +\{expand\}+ is retained
1014 for backward compatibility with experimental versions of this feature.
1018 Tcl provides two commands that support string matching using regular
1019 expressions, `regexp` and `regsub`, as well as `switch -regexp` and
1022 Regular expressions may be implemented one of two ways. Either using the system's C library
1023 POSIX regular expression support, or using the built-in regular expression engine.
1024 The differences between these are described below.
1026 *NOTE* Tcl 7.x and 8.x use perl-style Advanced Regular Expressions (+ARE+).
1028 POSIX Regular Expressions
1029 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1030 If the system supports POSIX regular expressions, and UTF-8 support is not enabled,
1031 this support will be used by default. The type of regular expressions supported are
1032 Extended Regular Expressions (+ERE+) rather than Basic Regular Expressions (+BRE+).
1033 See REG_EXTENDED in the documentation.
1035 Using the system-supported POSIX regular expressions will typically
1036 make for the smallest code size, but some features such as UTF-8
1037 and +{backslash}w+, +{backslash}d+, +{backslash}s+ are not supported, and null characters
1038 in strings are not supported.
1040 See regex(3) and regex(7) for full details.
1042 Jim built-in Regular Expressions
1043 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1044 The Jim built-in regular expression engine may be selected with +./configure --with-jim-regexp+
1045 or it will be selected automatically if UTF-8 support is enabled.
1047 This engine supports UTF-8 as well as some +ARE+ features. The differences with both Tcl 7.x/8.x
1048 and POSIX are highlighted below.
1050 1. UTF-8 strings and patterns are both supported
1051 2. All Tcl character classes are supported (e.g. +[:alnum:]+, +[:digit:]+, +[:space:]+), but...
1052 3. Character classes apply to ASCII characters only
1053 4. Supported shorthand character classes: +{backslash}w+ = +[:alnum:]+, +{backslash}W+ = +^[:alnum:]+, +{backslash}d+ = +[:digit:],+ +{backslash}D+ = +^[:digit:],+ +{backslash}s+ = +[:space:]+, + +{backslash}S+ = +^[:space:]+
1054 5. Supported constraint escapes: +{backslash}m+ = +{backslash}<+ = start of word, +{backslash}M+ = +{backslash}>+ = end of word
1055 6. Backslash escapes may be used within regular expressions, such as +{backslash}n+ = newline, +{backslash}uNNNN+ = unicode
1056 7. Partially supported constraint escapes: +{backslash}A+ = start of string, +{backslash}Z+ = end of string
1057 8. Support for the +?+ non-greedy quantifier. e.g. +*?+
1058 9. Support for non-capturing parentheses +(?:...)+
1059 10. Jim Tcl considers that both patterns and strings end at a null character (+\x00+)
1063 Each command produces two results: a code and a string. The
1064 code indicates whether the command completed successfully or not,
1065 and the string gives additional information. The valid codes are
1066 defined in jim.h, and are:
1069 This is the normal return code, and indicates that the command completed
1070 successfully. The string gives the command's return value.
1073 Indicates that an error occurred; the string gives a message describing
1077 Indicates that the `return` command has been invoked, and that the
1078 current procedure (or top-level command or `source` command)
1079 should return immediately. The
1080 string gives the return value for the procedure or command.
1083 Indicates that the `break` command has been invoked, so the
1084 innermost loop should abort immediately. The string should always
1088 Indicates that the `continue` command has been invoked, so the
1089 innermost loop should go on to the next iteration. The string
1090 should always be empty.
1093 Indicates that a signal was caught while executing a commands.
1094 The string contains the name of the signal caught.
1095 See the `signal` and `catch` commands.
1098 Indicates that the command called the `exit` command.
1099 The string contains the exit code.
1101 Tcl programmers do not normally need to think about return codes,
1102 since +JIM_OK+ is almost always returned. If anything else is returned
1103 by a command, then the Tcl interpreter immediately stops processing
1104 commands and returns to its caller. If there are several nested
1105 invocations of the Tcl interpreter in progress, then each nested
1106 command will usually return the error to its caller, until eventually
1107 the error is reported to the top-level application code. The
1108 application will then display the error message for the user.
1110 In a few cases, some commands will handle certain `error` conditions
1111 themselves and not return them upwards. For example, the `for`
1112 command checks for the +JIM_BREAK+ code; if it occurs, then `for`
1113 stops executing the body of the loop and returns +JIM_OK+ to its
1114 caller. The `for` command also handles +JIM_CONTINUE+ codes and the
1115 procedure interpreter handles +JIM_RETURN+ codes. The `catch`
1116 command allows Tcl programs to catch errors and handle them without
1117 aborting command interpretation any further.
1119 The `info returncodes` command may be used to programmatically map between
1120 return codes and names.
1124 Tcl allows you to extend the command interface by defining
1125 procedures. A Tcl procedure can be invoked just like any other Tcl
1126 command (it has a name and it receives one or more arguments).
1127 The only difference is that its body isn't a piece of C code linked
1128 into the program; it is a string containing one or more other
1131 The `proc` command is used to create a new Tcl command procedure:
1133 +*proc* 'name arglist ?statics? body'+
1135 The new command is named +'name'+, and it replaces any existing command
1136 there may have been by that name. Whenever the new command is
1137 invoked, the contents of +'body'+ will be executed by the Tcl
1140 +'arglist'+ specifies the formal arguments to the procedure.
1141 It consists of a list, possibly empty, of the following
1142 argument specifiers:
1145 Required Argument - A simple argument name.
1148 Optional Argument - A two-element list consisting of the
1149 argument name, followed by the default value, which will
1150 be used if the corresponding argument is not supplied.
1153 Reference Argument - The caller is expected to pass the name of
1154 an existing variable. An implicit +`upvar` 1 origname name+ is done
1155 to make the variable available in the proc scope.
1158 Variable Argument - The special name +'args'+, which is
1159 assigned all remaining arguments (including none) as a list. The
1160 variable argument may only be specified once. Note that
1161 the syntax +{args newname}+ may be used to retain the special
1162 behaviour of +'args'+ with a different local name. In this case,
1163 the variable is named +'newname'+ rather than +'args'+.
1165 When the command is invoked, a local variable will be created for each of
1166 the formal arguments to the procedure; its value will be the value
1167 of corresponding argument in the invoking command or the argument's
1170 Arguments with default values need not be specified in a procedure
1171 invocation. However, there must be enough actual arguments for all
1172 required arguments, and there must not be any extra actual arguments
1173 (unless the Variable Argument is specified).
1175 Actual arguments are assigned to formal arguments as in left-to-right
1176 order with the following precedence.
1178 1. Required Arguments (including Reference Arguments)
1179 2. Optional Arguments
1180 3. Variable Argument
1182 The following example illustrates precedence. Assume a procedure declaration:
1184 proc p {{a A} args b {c C} d} {...}
1186 This procedure requires at least two arguments, but can accept an unlimited number.
1187 The following table shows how various numbers of arguments are assigned.
1188 Values marked as +-+ are assigned the default value.
1190 [width="40%",frame="topbot",options="header"]
1192 |Number of arguments|a|args|b|c|d
1200 When +'body'+ is being executed, variable names normally refer to local
1201 variables, which are created automatically when referenced and deleted
1202 when the procedure returns. One local variable is automatically created
1203 for each of the procedure's arguments. Global variables can be
1204 accessed by invoking the `global` command or via the +::+ prefix.
1208 In addition to procedure arguments, Jim procedures may declare static variables.
1209 These variables scoped to the procedure and initialised at procedure definition.
1210 Either from the static variable definition, or from the enclosing scope.
1212 Consider the following example:
1215 jim> proc a {} {a {b 2}} {
1227 The static variable +'a'+ has no initialiser, so it is initialised from
1228 the enclosing scope with the value 1. (Note that it is an error if there
1229 is no variable with the same name in the enclosing scope). However +'b'+
1230 has an initialiser, so it is initialised to 2.
1232 Unlike a local variable, the value of a static variable is retained across
1233 invocations of the procedure.
1235 See the `proc` command for information on how to define procedures
1236 and what happens when they are invoked. See also NAMESPACES.
1238 VARIABLES - SCALARS AND ARRAYS
1239 ------------------------------
1240 Tcl allows the definition of variables and the use of their values
1241 either through '$'-style variable substitution, the `set`
1242 command, or a few other mechanisms.
1244 Variables need not be declared: a new variable will automatically
1245 be created each time a new variable name is used.
1247 Tcl supports two types of variables: scalars and arrays.
1248 A scalar variable has a single value, whereas an array variable
1249 can have any number of elements, each with a name (called
1250 its 'index') and a value.
1252 Array indexes may be arbitrary strings; they need not be numeric.
1253 Parentheses are used refer to array elements in Tcl commands.
1254 For example, the command
1258 will modify the element of 'x' whose index is 'first'
1259 so that its new value is '44'.
1261 Two-dimensional arrays can be simulated in Tcl by using indexes
1262 that contain multiple concatenated values.
1263 For example, the commands
1268 set the elements of 'a' whose indexes are '2,3' and '3,6'.
1270 In general, array elements may be used anywhere in Tcl that scalar
1271 variables may be used.
1273 If an array is defined with a particular name, then there may
1274 not be a scalar variable with the same name.
1276 Similarly, if there is a scalar variable with a particular
1277 name then it is not possible to make array references to the
1280 To convert a scalar variable to an array or vice versa, remove
1281 the existing variable with the `unset` command.
1283 The `array` command provides several features for dealing
1284 with arrays, such as querying the names of all the elements of
1285 the array and converting between an array and a list.
1287 Variables may be either global or local. If a variable
1288 name is used when a procedure isn't being executed, then it
1289 automatically refers to a global variable. Variable names used
1290 within a procedure normally refer to local variables associated with that
1291 invocation of the procedure. Local variables are deleted whenever
1292 a procedure exits. Either `global` command may be used to request
1293 that a name refer to a global variable for the duration of the current
1294 procedure (this is somewhat analogous to 'extern' in C), or the variable
1295 may be explicitly scoped with the +::+ prefix. For example
1311 ARRAYS AS LISTS IN JIM
1312 ----------------------
1313 Unlike Tcl, Jim can automatically convert between a list (with an even
1314 number of elements) and an array value. This is similar to the way Tcl
1315 can convert between a string and a list.
1326 Thus `array set` is equivalent to `set` when the variable does not
1329 The reverse is also true where an array will be converted into
1332 set a(1) one; set a(2) two
1341 Tcl 8.5 introduced the dict command, and Jim Tcl has added a version
1342 of this command. Dictionaries provide efficient access to key-value
1343 pairs, just like arrays, but dictionaries are pure values. This
1344 means that you can pass them to a procedure just as a list or a
1345 string. Tcl dictionaries are therefore much more like Tcl lists,
1346 except that they represent a mapping from keys to values, rather
1347 than an ordered sequence.
1349 You can nest dictionaries, so that the value for a particular key
1350 consists of another dictionary. That way you can elegantly build
1351 complicated data structures, such as hierarchical databases. You
1352 can also combine dictionaries with other Tcl data structures. For
1353 instance, you can build a list of dictionaries that themselves
1356 Dictionaries are values that contain an efficient, order-preserving
1357 mapping from arbitrary keys to arbitrary values. Each key in the
1358 dictionary maps to a single value. They have a textual format that
1359 is exactly that of any list with an even number of elements, with
1360 each mapping in the dictionary being represented as two items in
1361 the list. When a command takes a dictionary and produces a new
1362 dictionary based on it (either returning it or writing it back into
1363 the variable that the starting dictionary was read from) the new
1364 dictionary will have the same order of keys, modulo any deleted
1365 keys and with new keys added on to the end. When a string is
1366 interpreted as a dictionary and it would otherwise have duplicate
1367 keys, only the last value for a particular key is used; the others
1368 are ignored, meaning that, "apple banana" and "apple carrot apple
1369 banana" are equivalent dictionaries (with different string
1372 Note that in Jim, arrays are implemented as dictionaries.
1373 Thus automatic conversion between lists and dictionaries applies
1374 as it does for arrays.
1376 jim> dict set a 1 one
1378 jim> dict set a 2 two
1384 jim> dict set a 3 T three
1385 1 one 2 two 3 {T three}
1387 See the `dict` command for more details.
1391 Tcl added namespaces as a mechanism avoiding name clashes, especially in applications
1392 including a number of 3rd party components. While there is less need for namespaces
1393 in Jim Tcl (which does not strive to support large applications), it is convenient to
1394 provide a subset of the support for namespaces to easy porting code from Tcl.
1396 Jim Tcl currently supports "light-weight" namespaces which should be adequate for most
1397 purposes. This feature is currently experimental. See README.namespaces for more information
1398 and the documentation of the `namespace` command.
1400 GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION
1401 -----------------------------------------------
1402 Unlike Tcl, Jim has some sophisticated support for functional programming.
1403 These are described briefly below.
1405 More information may be found at http://wiki.tcl.tk/13847
1409 A reference can be thought of as holding a value with one level of indirection,
1410 where the value may be garbage collected when unreferenced.
1411 Consider the following example:
1413 jim> set r [ref "One String" test]
1414 <reference.<test___>.00000000000000000000>
1418 The operation `ref` creates a references to the value specified by the
1419 first argument. (The second argument is a "type" used for documentation purposes).
1421 The operation `getref` is the dereferencing operation which retrieves the value
1422 stored in the reference.
1424 jim> setref $r "New String"
1429 The operation `setref` replaces the value stored by the reference. If the old value
1430 is no longer accessible by any reference, it will eventually be automatically be garbage
1435 Normally, all values in Tcl are passed by value. As such values are copied and released
1436 automatically as necessary.
1438 With the introduction of references, it is possible to create values whose lifetime
1439 transcend their scope. To support this, case, the Jim system will periodically identify
1440 and discard objects which are no longer accessible by any reference.
1442 The `collect` command may be used to force garbage collection. Consider a reference created
1445 jim> proc f {ref value} { puts "Finaliser called for $ref,$value" }
1446 jim> set r [ref "One String" test f]
1447 <reference.<test___>.00000000000
1452 Finaliser called for <reference.<test___>.00000000000,One String
1455 Note that once the reference, 'r', was modified so that it no longer
1456 contained a reference to the value, the garbage collector discarded
1457 the value (after calling the finalizer).
1459 The finalizer for a reference may be examined or changed with the `finalize` command
1463 jim> finalize $r newf
1468 Jim provides a garbage collected `lambda` function. This is a procedure
1469 which is able to create an anonymous procedure. Consider:
1471 jim> set f [lambda {a} {{x 0}} { incr x $a }]
1478 This create an anonymous procedure (with the name stored in 'f'), with a static variable
1479 which is incremented by the supplied value and the result returned.
1481 Once the procedure name is no longer accessible, it will automatically be deleted
1482 when the garbage collector runs.
1484 The procedure may also be delete immediately by renaming it "". e.g.
1490 If Jim is built with UTF-8 support enabled (configure --enable-utf),
1491 then most string-related commands become UTF-8 aware. These include,
1492 but are not limited to, `string match`, `split`, `glob`, `scan` and
1495 UTF-8 encoding has many advantages, but one of the complications is that
1496 characters can take a variable number of bytes. Thus the addition of
1497 `string bytelength` which returns the number of bytes in a string,
1498 while `string length` returns the number of characters.
1500 If UTF-8 support is not enabled, all commands treat bytes as characters
1501 and `string bytelength` returns the same value as `string length`.
1503 Note that even if UTF-8 support is not enabled, the +{backslash}uNNNN+ and related syntax
1504 is still available to embed UTF-8 sequences.
1506 Jim Tcl supports all currently defined unicode codepoints. That is 21 bits, up to +'U+1FFFFF'.
1510 Commands such as `string match`, `lsearch -glob`, `array names` and others use string
1511 pattern matching rules. These commands support UTF-8. For example:
1513 string match a\[\ua0-\ubf\]b "a\u00a3b"
1517 +format %c+ allows a unicode codepoint to be be encoded. For example, the following will return
1518 a string with two bytes and one character. The same as +{backslash}ub5+
1522 `format` respects widths as character widths, not byte widths. For example, the following will
1523 return a string with three characters, not three bytes.
1525 format %.3s \ub5\ub6\ub7\ub8
1527 Similarly, +scan ... %c+ allows a UTF-8 to be decoded to a unicode codepoint. The following will set
1528 +'a'+ to 181 (0xb5) and +'b'+ to 65 (0x41).
1530 scan \u00b5A %c%c a b
1532 `scan %s` will also accept a character class, including unicode ranges.
1536 `string is` has *not* been extended to classify UTF-8 characters. Therefore, the following
1537 will return 0, even though the string may be considered to be alphabetic.
1539 string is alpha \ub5Test
1541 This does not affect the string classes 'ascii', 'control', 'digit', 'double', 'integer' or 'xdigit'.
1543 Case Mapping and Conversion
1544 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1545 Jim provides a simplified unicode case mapping. This means that case conversion
1546 and comparison will not increase or decrease the number of characters in a string.
1547 (Although it may change the number of bytes).
1549 `string toupper` will convert any lowercase letters to their uppercase equivalent.
1550 Any character which is not a letter or has no uppercase equivalent is left unchanged.
1551 Similarly for `string tolower` and `string totitle`.
1553 Commands which perform case insensitive matches, such as `string compare -nocase`
1554 and `lsearch -nocase` fold both strings to uppercase before comparison.
1556 Invalid UTF-8 Sequences
1557 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1558 Some UTF-8 character sequences are invalid, such as those beginning with '0xff',
1559 those which represent character sequences longer than 3 bytes (greater than U+FFFF),
1560 and those which end prematurely, such as a lone '0xc2'.
1562 In these situations, the offending bytes are treated as single characters. For example,
1563 the following returns 2.
1565 string bytelength \xff\xff
1569 If UTF-8 support is enabled, the built-in regular expression engine will be
1570 selected which supports UTF-8 strings and patterns.
1572 See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
1576 The Tcl library provides the following built-in commands, which will
1577 be available in any application using Tcl. In addition to these
1578 built-in commands, there may be additional commands defined by each
1579 application, plus commands defined as Tcl procedures.
1581 In the command syntax descriptions below, words in +*boldface*+ are
1582 literals that you type verbatim to Tcl.
1584 Words in +'italics'+ are meta-symbols; they serve as names for any of
1585 a range of values that you can type.
1587 Optional arguments or groups of arguments are indicated by enclosing them
1588 in +?question-marks?+.
1590 Ellipses (+\...+) indicate that any number of additional
1591 arguments or groups of arguments may appear, in the same format
1592 as the preceding argument(s).
1603 Delivers the +SIGALRM+ signal to the process after the given
1604 number of seconds. If the platform supports 'ualarm(3)' then
1605 the argument may be a floating point value. Otherwise it must
1608 Note that unless a signal handler for +SIGALRM+ has been installed
1609 (see `signal`), the process will exit on this signal.
1613 +*alias* 'name args\...'+
1615 Creates a single word alias (command) for one or more words. For example,
1616 the following creates an alias for the command `info exists`.
1623 `alias` returns +'name'+, allowing it to be used with `local`.
1625 See also `proc`, `curry`, `lambda`, `local`, `info alias`, `exists -alias`
1629 +*append* 'varName value ?value value ...?'+
1631 Append all of the +'value'+ arguments to the current value
1632 of variable +'varName'+. If +'varName'+ doesn't exist,
1633 it is given a value equal to the concatenation of all the
1634 +'value'+ arguments.
1636 This command provides an efficient way to build up long
1637 variables incrementally.
1638 For example, "`append a $b`" is much more efficient than
1639 "`set a $a$b`" if +$a+ is long.
1643 +*apply* 'lambdaExpr ?arg1 arg2 \...?'+
1645 The command `apply` provides for anonymous procedure calls,
1646 similar to `lambda`, but without command name being created, even temporarily.
1648 The function +'lambdaExpr'+ is a two element list +{args body}+
1649 or a three element list +{args body namespace}+. The first element
1650 args specifies the formal arguments, in the same form as the `proc` and `lambda` commands.
1654 +*array* 'option arrayName ?arg\...?'+
1656 This command performs one of several operations on the
1657 variable given by +'arrayName'+.
1659 Note that in general, if the named array does not exist, the +'array'+ command behaves
1660 as though the array exists but is empty.
1662 The +'option'+ argument determines what action is carried out by the
1663 command. The legal +'options'+ (which may be abbreviated) are:
1665 +*array exists* 'arrayName'+::
1666 Returns 1 if arrayName is an array variable, 0 if there is
1667 no variable by that name. This command is essentially
1668 identical to `info exists`
1670 +*array get* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1671 Returns a list containing pairs of elements. The first
1672 element in each pair is the name of an element in arrayName
1673 and the second element of each pair is the value of the
1674 array element. The order of the pairs is undefined. If
1675 pattern is not specified, then all of the elements of the
1676 array are included in the result. If pattern is specified,
1677 then only those elements whose names match pattern (using
1678 the matching rules of string match) are included. If arrayName
1679 isn't the name of an array variable, or if the array contains
1680 no elements, then an empty list is returned.
1682 +*array names* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1683 Returns a list containing the names of all of the elements
1684 in the array that match pattern. If pattern is omitted then
1685 the command returns all of the element names in the array.
1686 If pattern is specified, then only those elements whose
1687 names match pattern (using the matching rules of string
1688 match) are included. If there are no (matching) elements
1689 in the array, or if arrayName isn't the name of an array
1690 variable, then an empty string is returned.
1692 +*array set* 'arrayName list'+::
1693 Sets the values of one or more elements in arrayName. list
1694 must have a form like that returned by array get, consisting
1695 of an even number of elements. Each odd-numbered element
1696 in list is treated as an element name within arrayName, and
1697 the following element in list is used as a new value for
1698 that array element. If the variable arrayName does not
1699 already exist and list is empty, arrayName is created with
1700 an empty array value.
1702 +*array size* 'arrayName'+::
1703 Returns the number of elements in the array. If arrayName
1704 isn't the name of an array then 0 is returned.
1706 +*array unset* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1707 Unsets all of the elements in the array that match pattern
1708 (using the matching rules of string match). If arrayName
1709 isn't the name of an array variable or there are no matching
1710 elements in the array, no error will be raised. If pattern
1711 is omitted and arrayName is an array variable, then the
1712 command unsets the entire array. The command always returns
1719 This command may be invoked only inside the body of a loop command
1720 such as `for` or `foreach` or `while`. It returns a +JIM_BREAK+ code
1721 to signal the innermost containing loop command to return immediately.
1725 +*case* 'string' ?in? 'patList body ?patList body ...?'+
1727 +*case* 'string' ?in? {'patList body ?patList body ...?'}+
1729 *Note* that the `switch` command should generally be preferred unless compatibility
1730 with Tcl 6.x is desired.
1732 Match +'string'+ against each of the +'patList'+ arguments
1733 in order. If one matches, then evaluate the following +'body'+ argument
1734 by passing it recursively to the Tcl interpreter, and return the result
1735 of that evaluation. Each +'patList'+ argument consists of a single
1736 pattern or list of patterns. Each pattern may contain any of the wild-cards
1737 described under `string match`.
1739 If a +'patList'+ argument is +default+, the corresponding body will be
1740 evaluated if no +'patList'+ matches +'string'+. If no +'patList'+ argument
1741 matches +'string'+ and no default is given, then the `case` command returns
1744 Two syntaxes are provided.
1746 The first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands;
1747 this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the
1748 patterns or commands.
1750 The second form places all of the patterns and commands together into
1751 a single argument; the argument must have proper list structure, with
1752 the elements of the list being the patterns and commands.
1754 The second form makes it easy to construct multi-line case commands,
1755 since the braces around the whole list make it unnecessary to include a
1756 backslash at the end of each line.
1758 Since the +'patList'+ arguments are in braces in the second form,
1759 no command or variable substitutions are performed on them; this makes
1760 the behaviour of the second form different than the first form in some
1763 Below are some examples of `case` commands:
1765 case abc in {a b} {format 1} default {format 2} a* {format 3}
1775 will return '1', and
1790 +*catch* ?-?no?'code \...'? ?--? 'command ?resultVarName? ?optionsVarName?'+
1792 The `catch` command may be used to prevent errors from aborting
1793 command interpretation. `catch` evaluates +'command'+, and returns a
1794 +JIM_OK+ code, regardless of any errors that might occur while
1795 executing +'command'+ (with the possible exception of +JIM_SIGNAL+ -
1798 The return value from `catch` is a decimal string giving the code
1799 returned by the Tcl interpreter after executing +'command'+. This
1800 will be '0' (+JIM_OK+) if there were no errors in +'command'+; otherwise
1801 it will have a non-zero value corresponding to one of the exceptional
1802 return codes (see jim.h for the definitions of code values, or the
1803 `info returncodes` command).
1805 If the +'resultVarName'+ argument is given, then it gives the name
1806 of a variable; `catch` will set the value of the variable to the
1807 string returned from +'command'+ (either a result or an error message).
1809 If the +'optionsVarName'+ argument is given, then it gives the name
1810 of a variable; `catch` will set the value of the variable to a
1811 dictionary. For any return code other than +JIM_RETURN+, the value
1812 for the key +-code+ will be set to the return code. For +JIM_RETURN+
1813 it will be set to the code given in `return -code`. Additionally,
1814 for the return code +JIM_ERR+, the value of the key +-errorinfo+
1815 will contain the current stack trace (the same result as `info stacktrace`),
1816 the value of the key +-errorcode+ will contain the
1817 same value as the global variable $::errorCode, and the value of
1818 the key +-level+ will be the current return level (see `return -level`).
1819 This can be useful to rethrow an error:
1821 if {[catch {...} msg opts]} {
1822 ...maybe do something with the error...
1824 return {*}$opts $msg
1827 Normally `catch` will +'not'+ catch any of the codes +JIM_EXIT+, +JIM_EVAL+ or +JIM_SIGNAL+.
1828 The set of codes which will be caught may be modified by specifying the one more codes before
1831 e.g. To catch +JIM_EXIT+ but not +JIM_BREAK+ or +JIM_CONTINUE+
1833 catch -exit -nobreak -nocontinue -- { ... }
1835 The use of +--+ is optional. It signifies that no more return code options follow.
1837 Note that if a signal marked as `signal handle` is caught with `catch -signal`, the return value
1838 (stored in +'resultVarName'+) is name of the signal caught.
1844 Change the current working directory to +'dirName'+.
1846 Returns an empty string.
1848 This command can potentially be disruptive to an application, so it may
1849 be removed in some applications.
1854 Returns the current time as seconds since the epoch.
1857 Returns the current time in `clicks'.
1859 +*clock microseconds*+::
1860 Returns the current time in microseconds.
1862 +*clock milliseconds*+::
1863 Returns the current time in milliseconds.
1865 +*clock format* 'seconds' ?*-format* 'format?'+::
1866 Format the given time (seconds since the epoch) according to the given
1867 format. See strftime(3) for supported formats.
1868 If no format is supplied, "%c" is used.
1870 +*clock scan* 'str' *-format* 'format'+::
1871 Scan the given time string using the given format string.
1872 See strptime(3) for supported formats.
1880 Closes the file given by +'fileId'+.
1881 +'fileId'+ must be the return value from a previous invocation
1882 of the `open` command; after this command, it should not be
1889 Normally reference garbage collection is automatically performed periodically.
1890 However it may be run immediately with the `collect` command.
1892 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
1896 +*concat* 'arg ?arg \...?'+
1898 This command treats each argument as a list and concatenates them
1899 into a single list. It permits any number of arguments. For example,
1902 concat a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
1914 This command may be invoked only inside the body of a loop command such
1915 as `for` or `foreach` or `while`. It returns a +JIM_CONTINUE+ code to
1916 signal the innermost containing loop command to skip the remainder of
1917 the loop's body but continue with the next iteration of the loop.
1921 +*alias* 'args\...'+
1923 Similar to `alias` except it creates an anonymous procedure (lambda) instead of
1926 the following creates a local, unnamed alias for the command `info exists`.
1928 set e [local curry info exists]
1933 `curry` returns the name of the procedure.
1935 See also `proc`, `alias`, `lambda`, `local`.
1939 +*dict* 'option ?arg\...?'+
1941 Performs one of several operations on dictionary values.
1943 The +'option'+ argument determines what action is carried out by the
1944 command. The legal +'options'+ are:
1946 +*dict create* '?key value \...?'+::
1947 Create and return a new dictionary value that contains each of
1948 the key/value mappings listed as arguments (keys and values
1949 alternating, with each key being followed by its associated
1952 +*dict exists* 'dictionary key ?key \...?'+::
1953 Returns a boolean value indicating whether the given key (or path
1954 of keys through a set of nested dictionaries) exists in the given
1955 dictionary value. This returns a true value exactly when `dict get`
1956 on that path will succeed.
1958 +*dict get* 'dictionary ?key \...?'+::
1959 Given a dictionary value (first argument) and a key (second argument),
1960 this will retrieve the value for that key. Where several keys are
1961 supplied, the behaviour of the command shall be as if the result
1962 of "`dict get $dictVal $key`" was passed as the first argument to
1963 dict get with the remaining arguments as second (and possibly
1964 subsequent) arguments. This facilitates lookups in nested dictionaries.
1965 If no keys are provided, dict would return a list containing pairs
1966 of elements in a manner similar to array get. That is, the first
1967 element of each pair would be the key and the second element would
1968 be the value for that key. It is an error to attempt to retrieve
1969 a value for a key that is not present in the dictionary.
1971 +*dict keys* 'dictionary ?pattern?'+::
1972 Returns a list of the keys in the dictionary.
1973 If pattern is specified, then only those keys whose
1974 names match +'pattern'+ (using the matching rules of string
1975 match) are included.
1977 +*dict merge* ?'dictionary \...'?+::
1978 Return a dictionary that contains the contents of each of the
1979 +'dictionary'+ arguments. Where two (or more) dictionaries
1980 contain a mapping for the same key, the resulting dictionary
1981 maps that key to the value according to the last dictionary on
1982 the command line containing a mapping for that key.
1984 +*dict set* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? value'+::
1985 This operation takes the +'name'+ of a variable containing a dictionary
1986 value and places an updated dictionary value in that variable
1987 containing a mapping from the given key to the given value. When
1988 multiple keys are present, this operation creates or updates a chain
1989 of nested dictionaries.
1991 +*dict size* 'dictionary'+::
1992 Return the number of key/value mappings in the given dictionary value.
1994 +*dict unset* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? value'+::
1995 This operation (the companion to `dict set`) takes the name of a
1996 variable containing a dictionary value and places an updated
1997 dictionary value in that variable that does not contain a mapping
1998 for the given key. Where multiple keys are present, this describes
1999 a path through nested dictionaries to the mapping to remove. At
2000 least one key must be specified, but the last key on the key-path
2001 need not exist. All other components on the path must exist.
2003 +*dict with* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? script'+::
2004 Execute the Tcl script in +'script'+ with the value for each
2005 key in +'dictionaryName'+ mapped to a variable with the same
2006 name. Where one or more keys are given, these indicate a chain
2007 of nested dictionaries, with the innermost dictionary being the
2008 one opened out for the execution of body. Making +'dictionaryName'+
2009 unreadable will make the updates to the dictionary be discarded,
2010 and this also happens if the contents of +'dictionaryName'+ are
2011 adjusted so that the chain of dictionaries no longer exists.
2012 The result of `dict with` is (unless some kind of error occurs)
2013 the result of the evaluation of body.
2015 The variables are mapped in the scope enclosing the `dict with`;
2016 it is recommended that this command only be used in a local
2017 scope (procedure). Because of this, the variables set by
2018 `dict with` will continue to exist after the command finishes (unless
2019 explicitly unset). Note that changes to the contents of +'dictionaryName'+
2020 only happen when +'script'+ terminates.
2022 +*dict for, values, incr, append, lappend, update, info, replace*+ to be documented...
2026 +*env* '?name? ?default?'+
2028 If +'name'+ is supplied, returns the value of +'name'+ from the initial
2029 environment (see getenv(3)). An error is returned if +'name'+ does not
2030 exist in the environment, unless +'default'+ is supplied - in which case
2031 that value is returned instead.
2033 If no arguments are supplied, returns a list of all environment variables
2034 and their values as +{name value \...}+
2036 See also the global variable +::env+
2044 Returns 1 if an end-of-file condition has occurred on +'fileId'+,
2047 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to `open`,
2048 or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one of the
2049 standard I/O channels.
2053 +*error* 'message ?stacktrace?'+
2055 Returns a +JIM_ERR+ code, which causes command interpretation to be
2056 unwound. +'message'+ is a string that is returned to the application
2057 to indicate what went wrong.
2059 If the +'stacktrace'+ argument is provided and is non-empty,
2060 it is used to initialize the stacktrace.
2062 This feature is most useful in conjunction with the `catch` command:
2063 if a caught error cannot be handled successfully, +'stacktrace'+ can be used
2064 to return a stack trace reflecting the original point of occurrence
2069 error $errMsg [info stacktrace]
2071 See also `errorInfo`, `info stacktrace`, `catch` and `return`
2075 +*errorInfo* 'error ?stacktrace?'+
2077 Returns a human-readable representation of the given error message and stack trace.
2080 if {[catch {...} error]} {
2081 puts stderr [errorInfo $error [info stacktrace]]
2089 +*eval* 'arg ?arg\...?'+
2091 `eval` takes one or more arguments, which together comprise a Tcl
2092 command (or collection of Tcl commands separated by newlines in the
2093 usual way). `eval` concatenates all its arguments in the same
2094 fashion as the `concat` command, passes the concatenated string to the
2095 Tcl interpreter recursively, and returns the result of that
2096 evaluation (or any error generated by it).
2100 +*exec* 'arg ?arg\...?'+
2102 This command treats its arguments as the specification
2103 of one or more UNIX commands to execute as subprocesses.
2104 The commands take the form of a standard shell pipeline;
2105 +|+ arguments separate commands in the
2106 pipeline and cause standard output of the preceding command
2107 to be piped into standard input of the next command (or +|&+ for
2108 both standard output and standard error).
2110 Under normal conditions the result of the `exec` command
2111 consists of the standard output produced by the last command
2112 in the pipeline followed by the standard error output.
2114 If any of the commands writes to its standard error file,
2115 then this will be included in the result after the standard output
2116 of the last command.
2118 Note that unlike Tcl, data written to standard error does not cause
2119 `exec` to return an error.
2121 If any of the commands in the pipeline exit abnormally or
2122 are killed or suspended, then `exec` will return an error.
2123 If no standard error output was produced, or is redirected,
2124 the error message will include the normal result, as above,
2125 followed by error messages describing the abnormal terminations.
2127 If any standard error output was produced, these abnormal termination
2128 messages are suppressed.
2130 If the last character of the result or error message
2131 is a newline then that character is deleted from the result
2132 or error message for consistency with normal
2135 An +'arg'+ may have one of the following special forms:
2138 The standard output of the last command in the pipeline
2139 is redirected to the file. In this situation `exec`
2140 will normally return an empty string.
2143 As above, but append to the file.
2146 The standard output of the last command in the pipeline is
2147 redirected to the given (writable) file descriptor (e.g. stdout,
2148 stderr, or the result of `open`). In this situation `exec`
2149 will normally return an empty string.
2152 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline
2153 is redirected to the file.
2156 As above, but append to the file.
2159 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline is
2160 redirected to the given (writable) file descriptor.
2163 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline is
2164 redirected to the same file descriptor as the standard output.
2167 Both the standard output and standard error of the last command
2168 in the pipeline is redirected to the file.
2171 As above, but append to the file.
2174 The standard input of the first command in the pipeline
2175 is taken from the file.
2178 The standard input of the first command is taken as the
2179 given immediate value.
2182 The standard input of the first command in the pipeline
2183 is taken from the given (readable) file descriptor.
2185 If there is no redirection of standard input, standard error
2186 or standard output, these are connected to the corresponding
2187 input or output of the application.
2189 If the last +'arg'+ is +&+ then the command will be
2190 executed in background.
2191 In this case the standard output from the last command
2192 in the pipeline will
2193 go to the application's standard output unless
2194 redirected in the command, and error output from all
2195 the commands in the pipeline will go to the application's
2196 standard error file. The return value of exec in this case
2197 is a list of process ids (pids) in the pipeline.
2199 Each +'arg'+ becomes one word for a command, except for
2200 +|+, +<+, +<<+, +>+, and +&+ arguments, and the
2201 arguments that follow +<+, +<<+, and +>+.
2203 The first word in each command is taken as the command name;
2204 the directories in the PATH environment variable are searched for
2205 an executable by the given name.
2207 No `glob` expansion or other shell-like substitutions
2208 are performed on the arguments to commands.
2210 If the command fails, the global $::errorCode (and the -errorcode
2211 option in `catch`) will be set to a list, as follows:
2213 +*CHILDKILLED* 'pid sigName msg'+::
2214 This format is used when a child process has been killed
2215 because of a signal. The pid element will be the process's
2216 identifier (in decimal). The sigName element will be the
2217 symbolic name of the signal that caused the process to
2218 terminate; it will be one of the names from the include
2219 file signal.h, such as SIGPIPE. The msg element will be a
2220 short human-readable message describing the signal, such
2221 as "write on pipe with no readers" for SIGPIPE.
2223 +*CHILDSUSP* 'pid sigName msg'+::
2224 This format is used when a child process has been suspended
2225 because of a signal. The pid element will be the process's
2226 identifier, in decimal. The sigName element will be the
2227 symbolic name of the signal that caused the process to
2228 suspend; this will be one of the names from the include
2229 file signal.h, such as SIGTTIN. The msg element will be a
2230 short human-readable message describing the signal, such
2231 as "background tty read" for SIGTTIN.
2233 +*CHILDSTATUS* 'pid code'+::
2234 This format is used when a child process has exited with a
2235 non-zero exit status. The pid element will be the process's
2236 identifier (in decimal) and the code element will be the
2237 exit code returned by the process (also in decimal).
2239 The environment for the executed command is set from $::env (unless
2240 this variable is unset, in which case the original environment is used).
2244 +*exists ?-var|-proc|-command|-alias?* 'name'+
2246 Checks the existence of the given variable, procedure, command
2247 or alias respectively and returns 1 if it exists or 0 if not. This command
2248 provides a more simplified/convenient version of `info exists`,
2249 `info procs` and `info commands`.
2251 If the type is omitted, a type of '-var' is used. The type may be abbreviated.
2255 +*exit* '?returnCode?'+
2257 Terminate the process, returning +'returnCode'+ to the
2258 parent as the exit status.
2260 If +'returnCode'+ isn't specified then it defaults
2263 Note that exit can be caught with `catch`.
2269 Calls the expression processor to evaluate +'arg'+, and returns
2270 the result as a string. See the section EXPRESSIONS above.
2272 Note that Jim supports a shorthand syntax for `expr` as +$(\...)+
2273 The following two are identical.
2275 set x [expr {3 * 2 + 1}]
2280 +*file* 'option name ?arg\...?'+
2282 Operate on a file or a file name. +'name'+ is the name of a file.
2284 +'option'+ indicates what to do with the file name. Any unique
2285 abbreviation for +'option'+ is acceptable. The valid options are:
2287 +*file atime* 'name'+::
2288 Return a decimal string giving the time at which file +'name'+
2289 was last accessed. The time is measured in the standard UNIX
2290 fashion as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1, 1970).
2291 If the file doesn't exist or its access time cannot be queried then an
2294 +*file copy ?-force?* 'source target'+::
2295 Copies file +'source'+ to file +'target'+. The source file must exist.
2296 The target file must not exist, unless +-force+ is specified.
2298 +*file delete ?-force? ?--?* 'name\...'+::
2299 Deletes file or directory +'name'+. If the file or directory doesn't exist, nothing happens.
2300 If it can't be deleted, an error is generated. Non-empty directories will not be deleted
2301 unless the +-force+ options is given. In this case no errors will be generated, even
2302 if the file/directory can't be deleted. Use +'--'+ if there is any possibility of
2303 the first name being +'-force'+.
2305 +*file dirname* 'name'+::
2306 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ up to but not including
2307 the last slash character. If there are no slashes in +'name'+
2308 then return +.+ (a single dot). If the last slash in +'name'+ is its first
2309 character, then return +/+.
2311 +*file executable* 'name'+::
2312 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is executable by
2313 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2315 +*file exists* 'name'+::
2316 Return '1' if file +'name'+ exists and the current user has
2317 search privileges for the directories leading to it, '0' otherwise.
2319 +*file extension* 'name'+::
2320 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ after and including the
2321 last dot in +'name'+. If there is no dot in +'name'+ then return
2324 +*file isdirectory* 'name'+::
2325 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is a directory,
2328 +*file isfile* 'name'+::
2329 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is a regular file,
2332 +*file join* 'arg\...'+::
2333 Joins multiple path components. Note that if any components is
2334 an absolute path, the preceding components are ignored.
2335 Thus +"`file` join /tmp /root"+ returns +"/root"+.
2337 +*file link* ?*-hard|-symbolic*? 'newname target'+::
2338 Creates a hard link (default) or symbolic link from +'newname'+ to +'target'+.
2339 Note that the sense of this command is the opposite of `file rename` and `file copy`
2340 and also of `ln`, but this is compatible with Tcl.
2341 An error is returned if +'target'+ doesn't exist or +'newname'+ already exists.
2343 +*file lstat* 'name varName'+::
2344 Same as 'stat' option (see below) except uses the +'lstat'+
2345 kernel call instead of +'stat'+. This means that if +'name'+
2346 refers to a symbolic link the information returned in +'varName'+
2347 is for the link rather than the file it refers to. On systems that
2348 don't support symbolic links this option behaves exactly the same
2349 as the 'stat' option.
2351 +*file mkdir* 'dir1 ?dir2\...?'+::
2352 Creates each directory specified. For each pathname +'dir'+ specified,
2353 this command will create all non-existing parent directories
2354 as well as +'dir'+ itself. If an existing directory is specified,
2355 then no action is taken and no error is returned. Trying to
2356 overwrite an existing file with a directory will result in an
2357 error. Arguments are processed in the order specified, halting
2358 at the first error, if any.
2360 +*file mtime* 'name ?time?'+::
2361 Return a decimal string giving the time at which file +'name'+
2362 was last modified. The time is measured in the standard UNIX
2363 fashion as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1, 1970).
2364 If the file doesn't exist or its modified time cannot be queried then an
2365 error is generated. If +'time'+ is given, sets the modification time
2366 of the file to the given value.
2368 +*file normalize* 'name'+::
2369 Return the normalized path of +'name'+. See 'realpath(3)'.
2371 +*file owned* 'name'+::
2372 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is owned by the current user,
2375 +*file readable* 'name'+::
2376 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is readable by
2377 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2379 +*file readlink* 'name'+::
2380 Returns the value of the symbolic link given by +'name'+ (i.e. the
2381 name of the file it points to). If
2382 +'name'+ isn't a symbolic link or its value cannot be read, then
2383 an error is returned. On systems that don't support symbolic links
2384 this option is undefined.
2386 +*file rename* ?*-force*? 'oldname' 'newname'+::
2387 Renames the file from the old name to the new name.
2388 If +'newname'+ already exists, an error is returned unless +'-force'+ is
2391 +*file rootname* 'name'+::
2392 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ up to but not including
2393 the last '.' character in the name. If +'name'+ doesn't contain
2394 a dot, then return +'name'+.
2396 +*file size* 'name'+::
2397 Return a decimal string giving the size of file +'name'+ in bytes.
2398 If the file doesn't exist or its size cannot be queried then an
2401 +*file stat* 'name ?varName?'+::
2402 Invoke the 'stat' kernel call on +'name'+, and return the result
2403 as a dictionary with the following keys: 'atime',
2404 'ctime', 'dev', 'gid', 'ino', 'mode', 'mtime',
2405 'nlink', 'size', 'type', 'uid'.
2406 Each element except 'type' is a decimal string with the value of
2407 the corresponding field from the 'stat' return structure; see the
2408 manual entry for 'stat' for details on the meanings of the values.
2409 The 'type' element gives the type of the file in the same form
2410 returned by the command `file type`.
2411 If +'varName'+ is specified, it is taken to be the name of an array
2412 variable and the values are also stored into the array.
2414 +*file tail* 'name'+::
2415 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ after the last slash.
2416 If +'name'+ contains no slashes then return +'name'+.
2418 +*file tempfile* '?template?'+::
2419 Creates and returns the name of a unique temporary file. If +'template'+ is omitted, a
2420 default template will be used to place the file in /tmp. See 'mkstemp(3)' for
2421 the format of the template and security concerns.
2423 +*file type* 'name'+::
2424 Returns a string giving the type of file +'name'+, which will be
2425 one of +file+, +directory+, +characterSpecial+,
2426 +blockSpecial+, +fifo+, +link+, or +socket+.
2428 +*file writable* 'name'+::
2429 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is writable by
2430 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2432 The `file` commands that return 0/1 results are often used in
2433 conditional or looping commands, for example:
2435 if {![file exists foo]} {
2436 error {bad file name}
2443 +*finalize* 'reference ?command?'+
2445 If +'command'+ is omitted, returns the finalizer command for the given reference.
2447 Otherwise, sets a new finalizer command for the given reference. +'command'+ may be
2448 the empty string to remove the current finalizer.
2450 The reference must be a valid reference create with the `ref`
2453 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2461 Flushes any output that has been buffered for +'fileId'+. +'fileId'+ must
2462 have been the return value from a previous call to `open`, or it may be
2463 +stdout+ or +stderr+ to access one of the standard I/O streams; it must
2464 refer to a file that was opened for writing. This command returns an
2469 +*for* 'start test next body'+
2471 `for` is a looping command, similar in structure to the C `for` statement.
2472 The +'start'+, +'next'+, and +'body'+ arguments must be Tcl command strings,
2473 and +'test'+ is an expression string.
2475 The `for` command first invokes the Tcl interpreter to execute +'start'+.
2476 Then it repeatedly evaluates +'test'+ as an expression; if the result is
2477 non-zero it invokes the Tcl interpreter on +'body'+, then invokes the Tcl
2478 interpreter on +'next'+, then repeats the loop. The command terminates
2479 when +'test'+ evaluates to 0.
2481 If a `continue` command is invoked within +'body'+ then any remaining
2482 commands in the current execution of +'body'+ are skipped; processing
2483 continues by invoking the Tcl interpreter on +'next'+, then evaluating
2484 +'test'+, and so on.
2486 If a `break` command is invoked within +'body'+ or +'next'+, then the `for`
2487 command will return immediately.
2489 The operation of `break` and `continue` are similar to the corresponding
2492 `for` returns an empty string.
2496 +*foreach* 'varName list body'+
2498 +*foreach* 'varList list ?varList2 list2 \...? body'+
2500 In this command, +'varName'+ is the name of a variable, +'list'+
2501 is a list of values to assign to +'varName'+, and +'body'+ is a
2502 collection of Tcl commands.
2504 For each field in +'list'+ (in order from left to right), `foreach` assigns
2505 the contents of the field to +'varName'+ (as if the `lindex` command
2506 had been used to extract the field), then calls the Tcl interpreter to
2509 If instead of being a simple name, +'varList'+ is used, multiple assignments
2510 are made each time through the loop, one for each element of +'varList'+.
2512 For example, if there are two elements in +'varList'+ and six elements in
2513 the list, the loop will be executed three times.
2515 If the length of the list doesn't evenly divide by the number of elements
2516 in +'varList'+, the value of the remaining variables in the last iteration
2517 of the loop are undefined.
2519 The `break` and `continue` statements may be invoked inside +'body'+,
2520 with the same effect as in the `for` command.
2522 `foreach` returns an empty string.
2526 +*format* 'formatString ?arg \...?'+
2528 This command generates a formatted string in the same way as the
2529 C 'sprintf' procedure (it uses 'sprintf' in its
2530 implementation). +'formatString'+ indicates how to format
2531 the result, using +%+ fields as in 'sprintf', and the additional
2532 arguments, if any, provide values to be substituted into the result.
2534 All of the 'sprintf' options are valid; see the 'sprintf'
2535 man page for details. Each +'arg'+ must match the expected type
2536 from the +%+ field in +'formatString'+; the `format` command
2537 converts each argument to the correct type (floating, integer, etc.)
2538 before passing it to 'sprintf' for formatting.
2540 The only unusual conversion is for +%c+; in this case the argument
2541 must be a decimal string, which will then be converted to the corresponding
2542 ASCII (or UTF-8) character value.
2544 In addition, Jim Tcl provides basic support for conversion to binary with +%b+.
2546 `format` does backslash substitution on its +'formatString'+
2547 argument, so backslash sequences in +'formatString'+ will be handled
2548 correctly even if the argument is in braces.
2550 The return value from `format` is the formatted string.
2554 +*getref* 'reference'+
2556 Returns the string associated with +'reference'+. The reference must
2557 be a valid reference create with the `ref` command.
2559 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2563 +*gets* 'fileId ?varName?'+
2565 +'fileId' *gets* '?varName?'+
2567 Reads the next line from the file given by +'fileId'+ and discards
2568 the terminating newline character.
2570 If +'varName'+ is specified, then the line is placed in the variable
2571 by that name and the return value is a count of the number of characters
2572 read (not including the newline).
2574 If the end of the file is reached before reading
2575 any characters then -1 is returned and +'varName'+ is set to an
2578 If +'varName'+ is not specified then the return value will be
2579 the line (minus the newline character) or an empty string if
2580 the end of the file is reached before reading any characters.
2582 An empty string will also be returned if a line contains no characters
2583 except the newline, so `eof` may have to be used to determine
2584 what really happened.
2586 If the last character in the file is not a newline character, then
2587 `gets` behaves as if there were an additional newline character
2588 at the end of the file.
2590 +'fileId'+ must be +stdin+ or the return value from a previous
2591 call to `open`; it must refer to a file that was opened
2596 +*glob* ?*-nocomplain*? ?*-directory* 'dir'? ?*-tails*? ?*--*? 'pattern ?pattern \...?'+
2598 This command performs filename globbing, using csh rules. The returned
2599 value from `glob` is the list of expanded filenames.
2601 If +-nocomplain+ is specified as the first argument then an empty
2602 list may be returned; otherwise an error is returned if the expanded
2603 list is empty. The +-nocomplain+ argument must be provided
2604 exactly: an abbreviation will not be accepted.
2606 If +-directory+ is given, the +'dir'+ is understood to contain a
2607 directory name to search in. This allows globbing inside directories
2608 whose names may contain glob-sensitive characters. The returned names
2609 include the directory name unless +'-tails'+ is specified.
2611 If +'-tails'+ is specified, along with +-directory+, the returned names
2612 are relative to the given directory.
2617 +*global* 'varName ?varName \...?'+
2619 This command is ignored unless a Tcl procedure is being interpreted.
2620 If so, then it declares each given +'varName'+ to be a global variable
2621 rather than a local one. For the duration of the current procedure
2622 (and only while executing in the current procedure), any reference to
2623 +'varName'+ will be bound to a global variable instead
2626 An alternative to using `global` is to use the +::+ prefix
2627 to explicitly name a variable in the global scope.
2631 +*if* 'expr1' ?*then*? 'body1' *elseif* 'expr2' ?*then*? 'body2' *elseif* \... ?*else*? ?'bodyN'?+
2633 The `if` command evaluates +'expr1'+ as an expression (in the same way
2634 that `expr` evaluates its argument). The value of the expression must
2635 be numeric; if it is non-zero then +'body1'+ is executed by passing it to
2636 the Tcl interpreter.
2638 Otherwise +'expr2'+ is evaluated as an expression and if it is non-zero
2639 then +'body2'+ is executed, and so on.
2641 If none of the expressions evaluates to non-zero then +'bodyN'+ is executed.
2643 The +then+ and +else+ arguments are optional "noise words" to make the
2644 command easier to read.
2646 There may be any number of +elseif+ clauses, including zero. +'bodyN'+
2647 may also be omitted as long as +else+ is omitted too.
2649 The return value from the command is the result of the body script that
2650 was executed, or an empty string if none of the expressions was non-zero
2651 and there was no +'bodyN'+.
2655 +*incr* 'varName ?increment?'+
2657 Increment the value stored in the variable whose name is +'varName'+.
2658 The value of the variable must be integral.
2660 If +'increment'+ is supplied then its value (which must be an
2661 integer) is added to the value of variable +'varName'+; otherwise
2662 1 is added to +'varName'+.
2664 The new value is stored as a decimal string in variable +'varName'+
2665 and also returned as result.
2667 If the variable does not exist, the variable is implicitly created
2668 and set to +0+ first.
2673 +*info* 'option ?arg\...?'+::
2675 Provide information about various internals to the Tcl interpreter.
2676 The legal +'option'+'s (which may be abbreviated) are:
2678 +*info args* 'procname'+::
2679 Returns a list containing the names of the arguments to procedure
2680 +'procname'+, in order. +'procname'+ must be the name of a
2681 Tcl command procedure.
2683 +*info alias* 'command'+::
2684 +'command'+ must be an alias created with `alias`. In which case the target
2685 command and arguments, as passed to `alias` are returned. See `exists -alias`
2687 +*info body* 'procname'+::
2688 Returns the body of procedure +'procname'+. +'procname'+ must be
2689 the name of a Tcl command procedure.
2692 Returns a list of all open file handles from `open` or `socket`
2694 +*info commands* ?'pattern'?+::
2695 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of names of all the
2696 Tcl commands, including both the built-in commands written in C and
2697 the command procedures defined using the `proc` command.
2698 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2699 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2702 +*info complete* 'command' ?'missing'?+::
2703 Returns 1 if +'command'+ is a complete Tcl command in the sense of
2704 having no unclosed quotes, braces, brackets or array element names,
2705 If the command doesn't appear to be complete then 0 is returned.
2706 This command is typically used in line-oriented input environments
2707 to allow users to type in commands that span multiple lines; if the
2708 command isn't complete, the script can delay evaluating it until additional
2709 lines have been typed to complete the command. If +'varName'+ is specified, the
2710 missing character is stored in the variable with that name.
2712 +*info exists* 'varName'+::
2713 Returns '1' if the variable named +'varName'+ exists in the
2714 current context (either as a global or local variable), returns '0'
2717 +*info frame* ?'number'?+::
2718 If +'number'+ is not specified, this command returns a number
2719 which is the same result as `info level` - the current stack frame level.
2720 If +'number'+ is specified, then the result is a list consisting of the procedure,
2721 filename and line number for the procedure call at level +'number'+ on the stack.
2722 If +'number'+ is positive then it selects a particular stack level (1 refers
2723 to the top-most active procedure, 2 to the procedure it called, and
2724 so on); otherwise it gives a level relative to the current level
2725 (0 refers to the current procedure, -1 to its caller, and so on).
2726 The level has an identical meaning to `info level`.
2728 +*info globals* ?'pattern'?+::
2729 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the names
2730 of currently-defined global variables.
2731 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2732 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2736 An alias for `os.gethostname` for compatibility with Tcl 6.x
2738 +*info level* ?'number'?+::
2739 If +'number'+ is not specified, this command returns a number
2740 giving the stack level of the invoking procedure, or 0 if the
2741 command is invoked at top-level. If +'number'+ is specified,
2742 then the result is a list consisting of the name and arguments for the
2743 procedure call at level +'number'+ on the stack. If +'number'+
2744 is positive then it selects a particular stack level (1 refers
2745 to the top-most active procedure, 2 to the procedure it called, and
2746 so on); otherwise it gives a level relative to the current level
2747 (0 refers to the current procedure, -1 to its caller, and so on).
2748 See the `uplevel` command for more information on what stack
2751 +*info locals* ?'pattern'?+::
2752 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the names
2753 of currently-defined local variables, including arguments to the
2754 current procedure, if any. Variables defined with the `global`
2755 and `upvar` commands will not be returned. If +'pattern'+ is
2756 specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+ are returned.
2757 Matching is determined using the same rules as for `string match`.
2759 +*info nameofexecutable*+::
2760 Returns the name of the binary file from which the application
2761 was invoked. A full path will be returned, unless the path
2762 can't be determined, in which case the empty string will be returned.
2764 +*info procs* ?'pattern'?+::
2765 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the
2766 names of Tcl command procedures.
2767 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2768 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2771 +*info references*+::
2772 Returns a list of all references which have not yet been garbage
2775 +*info returncodes* ?'code'?+::
2776 Returns a list representing the mapping of standard return codes
2777 to names. e.g. +{0 ok 1 error 2 return \...}+. If a code is given,
2778 instead returns the name for the given code.
2781 If a Tcl script file is currently being evaluated (i.e. there is a
2782 call to 'Jim_EvalFile' active or there is an active invocation
2783 of the `source` command), then this command returns the name
2784 of the innermost file being processed. Otherwise the command returns an
2787 +*info source* 'script ?filename line?'+::
2788 With a single argument, returns the original source location of the given script as a list of
2789 +{filename linenumber}+. If the source location can't be determined, the
2790 list +{{} 0}+ is returned. If +'filename'+ and +'line'+ are given, returns a copy
2791 of +'script'+ with the associate source information. This can be useful to produce
2792 useful messages from `eval`, etc. if the original source information may be lost.
2794 +*info stacktrace*+::
2795 After an error is caught with `catch`, returns the stack trace as a list
2796 of +{procedure filename line \...}+.
2798 +*info statics* 'procname'+::
2799 Returns a dictionary of the static variables of procedure
2800 +'procname'+. +'procname'+ must be the name of a Tcl command
2801 procedure. An empty dictionary is returned if the procedure has
2802 no static variables.
2805 Returns the version number for this version of Jim in the form +*x.yy*+.
2807 +*info vars* ?'pattern'?+::
2808 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified,
2809 returns a list of all the names of currently-visible variables, including
2810 both locals and currently-visible globals.
2811 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2812 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2817 +*join* 'list ?joinString?'+
2819 The +'list'+ argument must be a valid Tcl list. This command returns the
2820 string formed by joining all of the elements of +'list'+ together with
2821 +'joinString'+ separating each adjacent pair of elements.
2823 The +'joinString'+ argument defaults to a space character.
2827 +*kill* ?'SIG'|*-0*? 'pid'+
2829 Sends the given signal to the process identified by +'pid'+.
2831 The signal may be specified by name or number in one of the following forms:
2839 The signal name may be in either upper or lower case.
2841 The special signal name +-0+ simply checks that a signal +'could'+ be sent.
2843 If no signal is specified, SIGTERM is used.
2845 An error is raised if the signal could not be delivered.
2849 +*lambda* 'args ?statics? body'+
2851 The `lambda` command is identical to `proc`, except rather than
2852 creating a named procedure, it creates an anonymous procedure and returns
2853 the name of the procedure.
2855 See `proc` and GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2859 +*lappend* 'varName value ?value value \...?'+
2861 Treat the variable given by +'varName'+ as a list and append each of
2862 the +'value'+ arguments to that list as a separate element, with spaces
2865 If +'varName'+ doesn't exist, it is created as a list with elements given
2866 by the +'value'+ arguments. `lappend` is similar to `append` except that
2867 each +'value'+ is appended as a list element rather than raw text.
2869 This command provides a relatively efficient way to build up large lists.
2874 is much more efficient than
2876 set a [concat $a [list $b]]
2882 +*lassign* 'list varName ?varName \...?'+
2884 This command treats the value +'list'+ as a list and assigns successive elements from that list to
2885 the variables given by the +'varName'+ arguments in order. If there are more variable names than
2886 list elements, the remaining variables are set to the empty string. If there are more list elements
2887 than variables, a list of unassigned elements is returned.
2889 jim> lassign {1 2 3} a b; puts a=$a,b=$b
2895 +*local* 'cmd ?arg\...?'+
2897 First, `local` evaluates +'cmd'+ with the given arguments. The return value must
2898 be the name of an existing command, which is marked as having local scope.
2899 This means that when the current procedure exits, the specified
2900 command is deleted. This can be useful with `lambda`, local procedures or
2901 to automatically close a filehandle.
2903 In addition, if a command already exists with the same name,
2904 the existing command will be kept rather than deleted, and may be called
2905 via `upcall`. The previous command will be restored when the current
2906 procedure exits. See `upcall` for more details.
2908 In this example, a local procedure is created. Note that the procedure
2909 continues to have global scope while it is active.
2912 # proc ... returns "inner" which is marked local
2913 local proc inner {} {
2914 # will be deleted when 'outer' exits
2921 In this example, the lambda is deleted at the end of the procedure rather
2922 than waiting until garbage collection.
2925 set x [lambda inner {args} {
2926 # will be deleted when 'outer' exits
2928 # Use 'function' here which simply returns $x
2937 +*loop* 'var first limit ?incr? body'+
2939 Similar to `for` except simpler and possibly more efficient.
2940 With a positive increment, equivalent to:
2942 for {set var $first} {$var < $limit} {incr var $incr} $body
2944 If +'incr'+ is not specified, 1 is used.
2945 Note that setting the loop variable inside the loop does not
2946 affect the loop count.
2950 +*lindex* 'list ?index ...?'+
2952 Treats +'list'+ as a Tcl list and returns element +'index'+ from it
2953 (0 refers to the first element of the list).
2954 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
2956 In extracting the element, +'lindex'+ observes the same rules concerning
2957 braces and quotes and backslashes as the Tcl command interpreter; however,
2958 variable substitution and command substitution do not occur.
2960 If no index values are given, simply returns +'list'+
2962 If +'index'+ is negative or greater than or equal to the number of elements
2963 in +'list'+, then an empty string is returned.
2965 If additional index arguments are supplied, then each argument is
2966 used in turn to select an element from the previous indexing
2967 operation, allowing the script to select elements from sublists.
2971 +*linsert* 'list index element ?element element \...?'+
2973 This command produces a new list from +'list'+ by inserting all
2974 of the +'element'+ arguments just before the element +'index'+
2975 of +'list'+. Each +'element'+ argument will become
2976 a separate element of the new list. If +'index'+ is less than
2977 or equal to zero, then the new elements are inserted at the
2978 beginning of the list. If +'index'+ is greater than or equal
2979 to the number of elements in the list, then the new elements are
2980 appended to the list.
2982 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
2987 +*list* 'arg ?arg \...?'+
2989 This command returns a list comprised of all the arguments, +'arg'+. Braces
2990 and backslashes get added as necessary, so that the `lindex` command
2991 may be used on the result to re-extract the original arguments, and also
2992 so that `eval` may be used to execute the resulting list, with
2993 +'arg1'+ comprising the command's name and the other args comprising
2994 its arguments. `list` produces slightly different results than
2995 `concat`: `concat` removes one level of grouping before forming
2996 the list, while `list` works directly from the original arguments.
2997 For example, the command
2999 list a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
3003 a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
3005 while `concat` with the same arguments will return
3013 Treats +'list'+ as a list and returns a decimal string giving
3014 the number of elements in it.
3018 +*lset* 'varName ?index ..? newValue'+
3020 Sets an element in a list.
3022 The `lset` command accepts a parameter, +'varName'+, which it interprets
3023 as the name of a variable containing a Tcl list. It also accepts
3024 zero or more indices into the list. Finally, it accepts a new value
3025 for an element of varName. If no indices are presented, the command
3028 lset varName newValue
3030 In this case, newValue replaces the old value of the variable
3033 When presented with a single index, the `lset` command
3034 treats the content of the varName variable as a Tcl list. It addresses
3035 the index'th element in it (0 refers to the first element of the
3036 list). When interpreting the list, `lset` observes the same rules
3037 concerning braces and quotes and backslashes as the Tcl command
3038 interpreter; however, variable substitution and command substitution
3039 do not occur. The command constructs a new list in which the
3040 designated element is replaced with newValue. This new list is
3041 stored in the variable varName, and is also the return value from
3044 If index is negative or greater than or equal to the number of
3045 elements in $varName, then an error occurs.
3047 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
3049 If additional index arguments are supplied, then each argument is
3050 used in turn to address an element within a sublist designated by
3051 the previous indexing operation, allowing the script to alter
3052 elements in sublists. The command,
3056 replaces element 2 of sublist 1 with +'newValue'+.
3058 The integer appearing in each index argument must be greater than
3059 or equal to zero. The integer appearing in each index argument must
3060 be strictly less than the length of the corresponding list. In other
3061 words, the `lset` command cannot change the size of a list. If an
3062 index is outside the permitted range, an error is reported.
3067 +*lmap* 'varName list body'+
3069 +*lmap* 'varList list ?varList2 list2 \...? body'+
3071 `lmap` is a "collecting" `foreach` which returns a list of its results.
3075 jim> lmap i {1 2 3 4 5} {expr $i*$i}
3077 jim> lmap a {1 2 3} b {A B C} {list $a $b}
3080 If the body invokes `continue`, no value is added for this iteration.
3081 If the body invokes `break`, the loop ends and no more values are added.
3087 Loads the dynamic extension, +'filename'+. Generally the filename should have
3088 the extension +.so+. The initialisation function for the module must be based
3089 on the name of the file. For example loading +hwaccess.so+ will invoke
3090 the initialisation function, +Jim_hwaccessInit+. Normally the `load` command
3091 should not be used directly. Instead it is invoked automatically by `package require`.
3095 +*lrange* 'list first last'+
3097 +'list'+ must be a valid Tcl list. This command will return a new
3098 list consisting of elements +'first'+ through +'last'+, inclusive.
3100 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
3102 If +'last'+ is greater than or equal to the number of elements
3103 in the list, then it is treated as if it were +end+.
3105 If +'first'+ is greater than +'last'+ then an empty string
3108 Note: +"`lrange` 'list first first'"+ does not always produce the
3109 same result as +"`lindex` 'list first'"+ (although it often does
3110 for simple fields that aren't enclosed in braces); it does, however,
3111 produce exactly the same results as +"`list` [`lindex` 'list first']"+
3116 +*lreplace* 'list first last ?element element \...?'+
3118 Returns a new list formed by replacing one or more elements of
3119 +'list'+ with the +'element'+ arguments.
3121 +'first'+ gives the index in +'list'+ of the first element
3124 If +'first'+ is less than zero then it refers to the first
3125 element of +'list'+; the element indicated by +'first'+
3126 must exist in the list.
3128 +'last'+ gives the index in +'list'+ of the last element
3129 to be replaced; it must be greater than or equal to +'first'+.
3131 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
3133 The +'element'+ arguments specify zero or more new arguments to
3134 be added to the list in place of those that were deleted.
3136 Each +'element'+ argument will become a separate element of
3139 If no +'element'+ arguments are specified, then the elements
3140 between +'first'+ and +'last'+ are simply deleted.
3144 +*lrepeat* 'number element1 ?element2 \...?'+
3146 Build a list by repeating elements +'number'+ times (which must be
3147 a positive integer).
3156 Returns the list in reverse order.
3158 jim> lreverse {1 2 3}
3163 +*lsearch* '?options? list pattern'+
3165 This command searches the elements +'list'+ to see if one of them matches +'pattern'+. If so, the
3166 command returns the index of the first matching element (unless the options +-all+, +-inline+ or +-bool+ are
3167 specified.) If not, the command returns -1. The option arguments indicates how the elements of
3168 the list are to be matched against pattern and must have one of the values below:
3170 *Note* that this command is different from Tcl in that default match type is +-exact+ rather than +-glob+.
3173 +'pattern'+ is a literal string that is compared for exact equality against each list element.
3174 This is the default.
3177 +'pattern'+ is a glob-style pattern which is matched against each list element using the same
3178 rules as the string match command.
3181 +'pattern'+ is treated as a regular expression and matched against each list element using
3182 the rules described by `regexp`.
3184 +*-command* 'cmdname'+::
3185 +'cmdname'+ is a command which is used to match the pattern against each element of the
3186 list. It is invoked as +'cmdname' ?*-nocase*? 'pattern listvalue'+ and should return 1
3187 for a match, or 0 for no match.
3190 Changes the result to be the list of all matching indices (or all matching values if
3191 +-inline+ is specified as well). If indices are returned, the indices will be in numeric
3192 order. If values are returned, the order of the values will be the order of those values
3193 within the input list.
3196 The matching value is returned instead of its index (or an empty string if no value
3197 matches). If +-all+ is also specified, then the result of the command is the list of all
3198 values that matched. The +-inline+ and +-bool+ options are mutually exclusive.
3201 Changes the result to '1' if a match was found, or '0' otherwise. If +-all+ is also specified,
3202 the result will be a list of '0' and '1' for each element of the list depending upon whether
3203 the corresponding element matches. The +-inline+ and +-bool+ options are mutually exclusive.
3206 This negates the sense of the match, returning the index (or value
3207 if +-inline+ is specified) of the first non-matching value in the
3208 list. If +-bool+ is also specified, the '0' will be returned if a
3209 match is found, or '1' otherwise. If +-all+ is also specified,
3210 non-matches will be returned rather than matches.
3213 Causes comparisons to be handled in a case-insensitive manner.
3217 +*lsort* ?*-index* 'listindex'? ?*-nocase|-integer|-real|-command* 'cmdname'? ?*-unique*? ?*-decreasing*|*-increasing*? 'list'+
3219 Sort the elements of +'list'+, returning a new list in sorted order.
3220 By default, ASCII (or UTF-8) sorting is used, with the result in increasing order.
3222 If +-nocase+ is specified, comparisons are case-insensitive.
3224 If +-integer+ is specified, numeric sorting is used.
3226 If +-real+ is specified, floating point number sorting is used.
3228 If +-command 'cmdname'+ is specified, +'cmdname'+ is treated as a command
3229 name. For each comparison, +'cmdname $value1 $value2+' is called which
3230 should compare the values and return an integer less than, equal
3231 to, or greater than zero if the +'$value1'+ is to be considered less
3232 than, equal to, or greater than +'$value2'+, respectively.
3234 If +-decreasing+ is specified, the resulting list is in the opposite
3235 order to what it would be otherwise. +-increasing+ is the default.
3237 If +-unique+ is specified, then only the last set of duplicate elements found in the list will be retained.
3238 Note that duplicates are determined relative to the comparison used in the sort. Thus if +-index 0+ is used,
3239 +{1 a}+ and +{1 b}+ would be considered duplicates and only the second element, +{1 b}+, would be retained.
3241 If +-index 'listindex'+ is specified, each element of the list is treated as a list and
3242 the given index is extracted from the list for comparison. The list index may
3243 be any valid list index, such as +1+, +end+ or +end-2+.
3247 +*open* 'fileName ?access?'+
3249 +*open* '|command-pipeline ?access?'+
3251 Opens a file and returns an identifier
3252 that may be used in future invocations
3253 of commands like `read`, `puts`, and `close`.
3254 +'fileName'+ gives the name of the file to open.
3256 The +'access'+ argument indicates the way in which the file is to be accessed.
3257 It may have any of the following values:
3260 Open the file for reading only; the file must already exist.
3263 Open the file for both reading and writing; the file must
3267 Open the file for writing only. Truncate it if it exists. If it doesn't
3268 exist, create a new file.
3271 Open the file for reading and writing. Truncate it if it exists.
3272 If it doesn't exist, create a new file.
3275 Open the file for writing only. The file must already exist, and the file
3276 is positioned so that new data is appended to the file.
3279 Open the file for reading and writing. If the file doesn't
3280 exist, create a new empty file. Set the initial access position
3281 to the end of the file.
3283 +'access'+ defaults to 'r'.
3285 If a file is opened for both reading and writing, then `seek`
3286 must be invoked between a read and a write, or vice versa.
3288 If the first character of +'fileName'+ is "|" then the remaining
3289 characters of +'fileName'+ are treated as a list of arguments that
3290 describe a command pipeline to invoke, in the same style as the
3291 arguments for exec. In this case, the channel identifier returned
3292 by open may be used to write to the command's input pipe or read
3293 from its output pipe, depending on the value of +'access'+. If write-only
3294 access is used (e.g. +'access'+ is 'w'), then standard output for the
3295 pipeline is directed to the current standard output unless overridden
3296 by the command. If read-only access is used (e.g. +'access'+ is r),
3297 standard input for the pipeline is taken from the current standard
3298 input unless overridden by the command.
3300 The `pid` command may be used to return the process ids of the commands
3301 forming the command pipeline.
3303 See also `socket`, `pid`, `exec`
3307 +*package provide* 'name ?version?'+
3309 Indicates that the current script provides the package named +'name'+.
3310 If no version is specified, '1.0' is used.
3312 Any script which provides a package may include this statement
3313 as the first statement, although it is not required.
3315 +*package require* 'name ?version?'*+
3317 Searches for the package with the given +'name'+ by examining each path
3318 in '$::auto_path' and trying to load '$path/$name.so' as a dynamic extension,
3319 or '$path/$name.tcl' as a script package.
3321 The first such file which is found is considered to provide the package.
3322 (The version number is ignored).
3324 If '$name.so' exists, it is loaded with the `load` command,
3325 otherwise if '$name.tcl' exists it is loaded with the `source` command.
3327 If `load` or `source` fails, `package require` will fail immediately.
3328 No further attempt will be made to locate the file.
3336 The first form returns the process identifier of the current process.
3338 The second form accepts a handle returned by `open` and returns a list
3339 of the process ids forming the pipeline in the same form as `exec ... &`.
3340 If 'fileId' represents a regular file handle rather than a command pipeline,
3341 the empty string is returned instead.
3343 See also `open`, `exec`
3347 +*proc* 'name args ?statics? body'+
3349 The `proc` command creates a new Tcl command procedure, +'name'+.
3350 When the new command is invoked, the contents of +'body'+ will be executed.
3351 Tcl interpreter. +'args'+ specifies the formal arguments to the procedure.
3352 If specified, +'statics'+, declares static variables which are bound to the
3355 See PROCEDURES for detailed information about Tcl procedures.
3357 The `proc` command returns +'name'+ (which is useful with `local`).
3359 When a procedure is invoked, the procedure's return value is the
3360 value specified in a `return` command. If the procedure doesn't
3361 execute an explicit `return`, then its return value is the value
3362 of the last command executed in the procedure's body.
3364 If an error occurs while executing the procedure body, then the
3365 procedure-as-a-whole will return that same error.
3369 +*puts* ?*-nonewline*? '?fileId? string'+
3371 +'fileId' *puts* ?*-nonewline*? 'string'+
3373 Writes the characters given by +'string'+ to the file given
3374 by +'fileId'+. +'fileId'+ must have been the return
3375 value from a previous call to `open`, or it may be
3376 +stdout+ or +stderr+ to refer to one of the standard I/O
3377 channels; it must refer to a file that was opened for
3380 In the first form, if no +'fileId'+ is specified then it defaults to +stdout+.
3381 `puts` normally outputs a newline character after +'string'+,
3382 but this feature may be suppressed by specifying the +-nonewline+
3385 Output to files is buffered internally by Tcl; the `flush`
3386 command may be used to force buffered characters to be output.
3392 Returns the path name of the current working directory.
3396 +*rand* '?min? ?max?'+
3398 Returns a random integer between +'min'+ (defaults to 0) and +'max'+
3399 (defaults to the maximum integer).
3401 If only one argument is given, it is interpreted as +'max'+.
3405 +*range* '?start? end ?step?'+
3407 Returns a list of integers starting at +'start'+ (defaults to 0)
3408 and ranging up to but not including +'end'+ in steps of +'step'+ defaults to 1).
3421 +*read* ?*-nonewline*? 'fileId'+
3423 +'fileId' *read* ?*-nonewline*?+
3425 +*read* 'fileId numBytes'+
3427 +'fileId' *read* 'numBytes'+
3430 In the first form, all of the remaining bytes are read from the file
3431 given by +'fileId'+; they are returned as the result of the command.
3432 If the +-nonewline+ switch is specified then the last
3433 character of the file is discarded if it is a newline.
3435 In the second form, the extra argument specifies how many bytes to read;
3436 exactly this many bytes will be read and returned, unless there are fewer than
3437 +'numBytes'+ bytes left in the file; in this case, all the remaining
3440 +'fileId'+ must be +stdin+ or the return value from a previous call
3441 to `open`; it must refer to a file that was opened for reading.
3445 +*regexp ?-nocase? ?-line? ?-indices? ?-start* 'offset'? *?-all? ?-inline? ?--?* 'exp string ?matchVar? ?subMatchVar subMatchVar \...?'+
3447 Determines whether the regular expression +'exp'+ matches part or
3448 all of +'string'+ and returns 1 if it does, 0 if it doesn't.
3450 See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS above for complete information on the
3451 syntax of +'exp'+ and how it is matched against +'string'+.
3453 If additional arguments are specified after +'string'+ then they
3454 are treated as the names of variables to use to return
3455 information about which part(s) of +'string'+ matched +'exp'+.
3456 +'matchVar'+ will be set to the range of +'string'+ that
3457 matched all of +'exp'+. The first +'subMatchVar'+ will contain
3458 the characters in +'string'+ that matched the leftmost parenthesized
3459 subexpression within +'exp'+, the next +'subMatchVar'+ will
3460 contain the characters that matched the next parenthesized
3461 subexpression to the right in +'exp'+, and so on.
3463 Normally, +'matchVar'+ and the each +'subMatchVar'+ are set to hold the
3464 matching characters from `string`, however see +-indices+ and
3467 If there are more values for +'subMatchVar'+ than parenthesized subexpressions
3468 within +'exp'+, or if a particular subexpression in +'exp'+ doesn't
3469 match the string (e.g. because it was in a portion of the expression
3470 that wasn't matched), then the corresponding +'subMatchVar'+ will be
3471 set to +"-1 -1"+ if +-indices+ has been specified or to an empty
3474 The following switches modify the behaviour of +'regexp'+
3477 Causes upper-case and lower-case characters to be treated as
3478 identical during the matching process.
3481 Use newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline
3482 is a completely ordinary character with no special meaning in
3483 either REs or strings. With this flag, +[^+ bracket expressions
3484 and +.+ never match newline, an +^+ anchor matches the null
3485 string after any newline in the string in addition to its normal
3486 function, and the +$+ anchor matches the null string before any
3487 newline in the string in addition to its normal function.
3490 Changes what is stored in the subMatchVars. Instead of
3491 storing the matching characters from string, each variable
3492 will contain a list of two decimal strings giving the indices
3493 in string of the first and last characters in the matching
3494 range of characters.
3496 +*-start* 'offset'+::
3497 Specifies a character index offset into the string at which to start
3498 matching the regular expression. If +-indices+ is
3499 specified, the indices will be indexed starting from the
3500 absolute beginning of the input string. +'offset'+ will be
3501 constrained to the bounds of the input string.
3504 Causes the regular expression to be matched as many times as possible
3505 in the string, returning the total number of matches found. If this
3506 is specified with match variables, they will contain information
3507 for the last match only.
3510 Causes the command to return, as a list, the data that would otherwise
3511 be placed in match variables. When using +-inline+, match variables
3512 may not be specified. If used with +-all+, the list will be concatenated
3513 at each iteration, such that a flat list is always returned. For
3514 each match iteration, the command will append the overall match
3515 data, plus one element for each subexpression in the regular
3519 Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be
3520 treated as +'exp'+ even if it starts with a +-+.
3524 +*regsub ?-nocase? ?-all? ?-line? ?-start* 'offset'? ?*--*? 'exp string subSpec ?varName?'+
3526 This command matches the regular expression +'exp'+ against
3527 +'string'+ using the rules described in REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
3530 If +'varName'+ is specified, the commands stores +'string'+ to +'varName'+
3531 with the substitutions detailed below, and returns the number of
3532 substitutions made (normally 1 unless +-all+ is specified).
3533 This is 0 if there were no matches.
3535 If +'varName'+ is not specified, the substituted string will be returned
3538 When copying +'string'+, the portion of +'string'+ that
3539 matched +'exp'+ is replaced with +'subSpec'+.
3540 If +'subSpec'+ contains a +&+ or +{backslash}0+, then it is replaced
3541 in the substitution with the portion of +'string'+ that
3544 If +'subSpec'+ contains a +{backslash}n+, where +'n'+ is a digit
3545 between 1 and 9, then it is replaced in the substitution with
3546 the portion of +'string'+ that matched the +'n'+\'-th
3547 parenthesized subexpression of +'exp'+.
3548 Additional backslashes may be used in +'subSpec'+ to prevent special
3549 interpretation of +&+ or +{backslash}0+ or +{backslash}n+ or
3552 The use of backslashes in +'subSpec'+ tends to interact badly
3553 with the Tcl parser's use of backslashes, so it's generally
3554 safest to enclose +'subSpec'+ in braces if it includes
3557 The following switches modify the behaviour of +'regsub'+
3560 Upper-case characters in +'string'+ are converted to lower-case
3561 before matching against +'exp'+; however, substitutions
3562 specified by +'subSpec'+ use the original unconverted form
3566 All ranges in +'string'+ that match +'exp'+ are found and substitution
3567 is performed for each of these ranges, rather than only the
3568 first. The +&+ and +{backslash}n+ sequences are handled for
3569 each substitution using the information from the corresponding
3573 Use newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline
3574 is a completely ordinary character with no special meaning in
3575 either REs or strings. With this flag, +[^+ bracket expressions
3576 and +.+ never match newline, an +^+ anchor matches the null
3577 string after any newline in the string in addition to its normal
3578 function, and the +$+ anchor matches the null string before any
3579 newline in the string in addition to its normal function.
3581 +*-start* 'offset'+::
3582 Specifies a character index offset into the string at which to
3583 start matching the regular expression. +'offset'+ will be
3584 constrained to the bounds of the input string.
3587 Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be
3588 treated as +'exp'+ even if it starts with a +-+.
3592 +*ref* 'string tag ?finalizer?'+
3594 Create a new reference containing +'string'+ of type +'tag'+.
3595 If +'finalizer'+ is specified, it is a command which will be invoked
3596 when the a garbage collection cycle runs and this reference is
3597 no longer accessible.
3599 The finalizer is invoked as:
3601 finalizer reference string
3603 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
3607 +*rename* 'oldName newName'+
3609 Rename the command that used to be called +'oldName'+ so that it
3610 is now called +'newName'+. If +'newName'+ is an empty string
3611 (e.g. {}) then +'oldName'+ is deleted. The `rename` command
3612 returns an empty string as result.
3616 +*return* ?*-code* 'code'? ?*-errorinfo* 'stacktrace'? ?*-errorcode* 'errorcode'? ?*-level* 'n'? ?'value'?+
3618 Return immediately from the current procedure (or top-level command
3619 or `source` command), with +'value'+ as the return value. If +'value'+
3620 is not specified, an empty string will be returned as result.
3622 If +-code+ is specified (as either a number or ok, error, break,
3623 continue, signal, return or exit), this code will be used instead
3624 of +JIM_OK+. This is generally useful when implementing flow of control
3627 If +-level+ is specified and greater than 1, it has the effect of delaying
3628 the new return code from +-code+. This is useful when rethrowing an error
3629 from `catch`. See the implementation of try/catch in tclcompat.tcl for
3630 an example of how this is done.
3632 Note: The following options are only used when +-code+ is JIM_ERR.
3634 If +-errorinfo+ is specified (as returned from `info stacktrace`)
3635 it is used to initialize the stacktrace.
3637 If +-errorcode+ is specified, it is used to set the global variable $::errorCode.
3641 +*scan* 'string format varName1 ?varName2 \...?'+
3643 This command parses fields from an input string in the same fashion
3644 as the C 'sscanf' procedure. +'string'+ gives the input to be parsed
3645 and +'format'+ indicates how to parse it, using '%' fields as in
3646 'sscanf'. All of the 'sscanf' options are valid; see the 'sscanf'
3647 man page for details. Each +'varName'+ gives the name of a variable;
3648 when a field is scanned from +'string'+, the result is converted back
3649 into a string and assigned to the corresponding +'varName'+. The
3650 only unusual conversion is for '%c'. For '%c' conversions a single
3651 character value is converted to a decimal string, which is then
3652 assigned to the corresponding +'varName'+; no field width may be
3653 specified for this conversion.
3657 +*seek* 'fileId offset ?origin?'+
3659 +'fileId' *seek* 'offset ?origin?'+
3661 Change the current access position for +'fileId'+.
3662 The +'offset'+ and +'origin'+ arguments specify the position at
3663 which the next read or write will occur for +'fileId'+.
3664 +'offset'+ must be a number (which may be negative) and +'origin'+
3665 must be one of the following:
3668 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the start
3672 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the current
3673 access position; a negative +'offset'+ moves the access position
3674 backwards in the file.
3677 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the end of
3678 the file. A negative +'offset'+ places the access position before
3679 the end-of-file, and a positive +'offset'+ places the access position
3680 after the end-of-file.
3682 The +'origin'+ argument defaults to +start+.
3684 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to
3685 `open`, or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one
3686 of the standard I/O channels.
3688 This command returns an empty string.
3692 +*set* 'varName ?value?'+
3694 Returns the value of variable +'varName'+.
3696 If +'value'+ is specified, then set the value of +'varName'+ to +'value'+,
3697 creating a new variable if one doesn't already exist, and return
3700 If +'varName'+ contains an open parenthesis and ends with a
3701 close parenthesis, then it refers to an array element: the characters
3702 before the open parenthesis are the name of the array, and the characters
3703 between the parentheses are the index within the array.
3704 Otherwise +'varName'+ refers to a scalar variable.
3706 If no procedure is active, then +'varName'+ refers to a global
3709 If a procedure is active, then +'varName'+ refers to a parameter
3710 or local variable of the procedure, unless the +'global'+ command
3711 has been invoked to declare +'varName'+ to be global.
3713 The +::+ prefix may also be used to explicitly reference a variable
3714 in the global scope.
3718 +*setref* 'reference string'+
3720 Store a new string in +'reference'+, replacing the existing string.
3721 The reference must be a valid reference create with the `ref`
3724 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
3728 Command for signal handling.
3730 See `kill` for the different forms which may be used to specify signals.
3732 Commands which return a list of signal names do so using the canonical form:
3735 +*signal handle* ?'signals \...'?+::
3736 If no signals are given, returns a list of all signals which are currently
3738 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals currently
3741 +*signal ignore* ?'signals \...'?+::
3742 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which are currently
3744 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals
3745 currently being ignored. These signals are still delivered, but
3746 are not considered by `catch -signal` or `try -signal`. Use
3747 `signal check` to determine which signals have occurred but
3750 +*signal default* ?'signals \...'?+::
3751 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which are currently have
3752 the default behaviour.
3753 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals which have
3754 the default behaviour.
3756 +*signal check ?-clear?* ?'signals \...'?+::
3757 Returns a list of signals which have been delivered to the process
3758 but are 'ignored'. If signals are specified, only that set of signals will
3759 be checked, otherwise all signals will be checked.
3760 If +-clear+ is specified, any signals returned are removed and will not be
3761 returned by subsequent calls to `signal check` unless delivered again.
3763 +*signal throw* ?'signal'?+::
3764 Raises the given signal, which defaults to +SIGINT+ if not specified.
3765 The behaviour is identical to:
3769 Note that `signal handle` and `signal ignore` represent two forms of signal
3770 handling. `signal handle` is used in conjunction with `catch -signal` or `try -signal`
3771 to immediately abort execution when the signal is delivered. Alternatively, `signal ignore`
3772 is used in conjunction with `signal check` to handle signal synchronously. Consider the
3775 Prevent a processing from taking too long
3777 signal handle SIGALRM
3780 .. possibly long running process ..
3783 puts stderr "Process took too long"
3786 Handle SIGHUP to reconfigure:
3788 signal ignore SIGHUP
3790 ... handle configuration/reconfiguration ...
3791 while {[signal check -clear SIGHUP] eq ""} {
3792 ... do processing ..
3794 # Received SIGHUP, so reconfigure
3797 Note: signal handling is currently not supported in child interpreters.
3798 In these interpreters, the signal command does not exist.
3804 Pauses for the given number of seconds, which may be a floating
3805 point value less than one to sleep for less than a second, or an
3806 integer to sleep for one or more seconds.
3810 +*source* 'fileName'+
3812 Read file +'fileName'+ and pass the contents to the Tcl interpreter
3813 as a sequence of commands to execute in the normal fashion. The return
3814 value of `source` is the return value of the last command executed
3815 from the file. If an error occurs in executing the contents of the
3816 file, then the `source` command will return that error.
3818 If a `return` command is invoked from within the file, the remainder of
3819 the file will be skipped and the `source` command will return
3820 normally with the result from the `return` command.
3824 +*split* 'string ?splitChars?'+
3826 Returns a list created by splitting +'string'+ at each character
3827 that is in the +'splitChars'+ argument.
3829 Each element of the result list will consist of the
3830 characters from +'string'+ between instances of the
3831 characters in +'splitChars'+.
3833 Empty list elements will be generated if +'string'+ contains
3834 adjacent characters in +'splitChars'+, or if the first or last
3835 character of +'string'+ is in +'splitChars'+.
3837 If +'splitChars'+ is an empty string then each character of
3838 +'string'+ becomes a separate element of the result list.
3840 +'splitChars'+ defaults to the standard white-space characters.
3843 split "comp.unix.misc" .
3845 returns +'"comp unix misc"'+ and
3847 split "Hello world" {}
3849 returns +'"H e l l o { } w o r l d"'+.
3854 +*stackdump* 'stacktrace'+
3856 Creates a human readable representation of a stack trace.
3863 Returns a live stack trace as a list of +proc file line proc file line \...+.
3864 Iteratively uses `info frame` to create the stack trace. This stack trace is in the
3865 same form as produced by `catch` and `info stacktrace`
3867 See also `stackdump`.
3872 +*string* 'option arg ?arg \...?'+
3874 Perform one of several string operations, depending on +'option'+.
3875 The legal options (which may be abbreviated) are:
3877 +*string bytelength* 'string'+::
3878 Returns the length of the string in bytes. This will return
3879 the same value as `string length` if UTF-8 support is not enabled,
3880 or if the string is composed entirely of ASCII characters.
3881 See UTF-8 AND UNICODE.
3883 +*string byterange* 'string first last'+::
3884 Like `string range` except works on bytes rather than characters.
3885 These commands are identical if UTF-8 support is not enabled.
3887 +*string cat* '?string1 string2 \...?'+::
3888 Concatenates the given strings into a single string.
3890 +*string compare ?-nocase?* ?*-length* 'len? string1 string2'+::
3891 Perform a character-by-character comparison of strings +'string1'+ and
3892 +'string2'+ in the same way as the C 'strcmp' procedure. Return
3893 -1, 0, or 1, depending on whether +'string1'+ is lexicographically
3894 less than, equal to, or greater than +'string2'+. If +-length+
3895 is specified, then only the first +'len'+ characters are used
3896 in the comparison. If +'len'+ is negative, it is ignored.
3897 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
3899 +*string equal ?-nocase?* '?*-length* len?' 'string1 string2'+::
3900 Returns 1 if the strings are equal, or 0 otherwise. If +-length+
3901 is specified, then only the first +'len'+ characters are used
3902 in the comparison. If +'len'+ is negative, it is ignored.
3903 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
3905 +*string first* 'string1 string2 ?firstIndex?'+::
3906 Search +'string2'+ for a sequence of characters that exactly match
3907 the characters in +'string1'+. If found, return the index of the
3908 first character in the first such match within +'string2'+. If not
3909 found, return -1. If +'firstIndex'+ is specified, matching will start
3910 from +'firstIndex'+ of +'string1'+.
3912 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'firstIndex'+.
3914 +*string index* 'string charIndex'+::
3915 Returns the +'charIndex'+'th character of the +'string'+
3916 argument. A +'charIndex'+ of 0 corresponds to the first
3917 character of the string.
3918 If +'charIndex'+ is less than 0 or greater than
3919 or equal to the length of the string then an empty string is
3922 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'charIndex'+.
3924 +*string is* 'class' ?*-strict*? 'string'+::
3925 Returns 1 if +'string'+ is a valid member of the specified character
3926 class, otherwise returns 0. If +-strict+ is specified, then an
3927 empty string returns 0, otherwise an empty string will return 1
3928 on any class. The following character classes are recognized
3929 (the class name can be abbreviated):
3931 +alnum+;; Any alphabet or digit character.
3932 +alpha+;; Any alphabet character.
3933 +ascii+;; Any character with a value less than 128 (those that are in the 7-bit ascii range).
3934 +boolean+;; Any of the valid string formats for a boolean value in Tcl (0, false, no, off, 1, true, yes, on)
3935 +control+;; Any control character.
3936 +digit+;; Any digit character.
3937 +double+;; Any of the valid forms for a double in Tcl, with optional surrounding whitespace.
3938 In case of under/overflow in the value, 0 is returned.
3939 +graph+;; Any printing character, except space.
3940 +integer+;; Any of the valid string formats for an integer value in Tcl, with optional surrounding whitespace.
3941 +lower+;; Any lower case alphabet character.
3942 +print+;; Any printing character, including space.
3943 +punct+;; Any punctuation character.
3944 +space+;; Any space character.
3945 +upper+;; Any upper case alphabet character.
3946 +xdigit+;; Any hexadecimal digit character ([0-9A-Fa-f]).
3948 Note that string classification does +'not'+ respect UTF-8. See UTF-8 AND UNICODE
3950 Note that only +'lowercase'+ boolean values are recognized (Tcl accepts any case).
3952 +*string last* 'string1 string2 ?lastIndex?'+::
3953 Search +'string2'+ for a sequence of characters that exactly match
3954 the characters in +'string1'+. If found, return the index of the
3955 first character in the last such match within +'string2'+. If there
3956 is no match, then return -1. If +'lastIndex'+ is specified, only characters
3957 up to +'lastIndex'+ of +'string2'+ will be considered in the match.
3959 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'lastIndex'+.
3961 +*string length* 'string'+::
3962 Returns a decimal string giving the number of characters in +'string'+.
3963 If UTF-8 support is enabled, this may be different than the number of bytes.
3964 See UTF-8 AND UNICODE
3966 +*string map ?-nocase?* 'mapping string'+::
3967 Replaces substrings in +'string'+ based on the key-value pairs in
3968 +'mapping'+, which is a list of +key value key value \...+ as in the form
3969 returned by `array get`. Each instance of a key in the string will be
3970 replaced with its corresponding value. If +-nocase+ is specified, then
3971 matching is done without regard to case differences. Both key and value may
3972 be multiple characters. Replacement is done in an ordered manner, so the
3973 key appearing first in the list will be checked first, and so on. +'string'+ is
3974 only iterated over once, so earlier key replacements will have no affect for
3975 later key matches. For example,
3977 string map {abc 1 ab 2 a 3 1 0} 1abcaababcabababc
3980 will return the string +01321221+.
3982 Note that if an earlier key is a prefix of a later one, it will completely mask the later
3983 one. So if the previous example is reordered like this,
3985 string map {1 0 ab 2 a 3 abc 1} 1abcaababcabababc
3988 it will return the string +02c322c222c+.
3990 +*string match ?-nocase?* 'pattern string'+::
3991 See if +'pattern'+ matches +'string'+; return 1 if it does, 0
3992 if it doesn't. Matching is done in a fashion similar to that
3993 used by the C-shell. For the two strings to match, their contents
3994 must be identical except that the following special sequences
3995 may appear in +'pattern'+:
3998 Matches any sequence of characters in +'string'+,
3999 including a null string.
4002 Matches any single character in +'string'+.
4005 Matches any character in the set given by +'chars'+.
4006 If a sequence of the form +'x-y'+ appears in +'chars'+,
4007 then any character between +'x'+ and +'y'+, inclusive,
4011 Matches the single character +'x'+. This provides a way of
4012 avoiding the special interpretation of the characters +{backslash}*?[]+
4015 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
4017 +*string range* 'string first last'+::
4018 Returns a range of consecutive characters from +'string'+, starting
4019 with the character whose index is +'first'+ and ending with the
4020 character whose index is +'last'+. An index of 0 refers to the
4021 first character of the string.
4023 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
4025 If +'first'+ is less than zero then it is treated as if it were zero, and
4026 if +'last'+ is greater than or equal to the length of the string then
4027 it is treated as if it were +end+. If +'first'+ is greater than
4028 +'last'+ then an empty string is returned.
4030 +*string repeat* 'string count'+::
4031 Returns a new string consisting of +'string'+ repeated +'count'+ times.
4033 +*string replace* 'string first last ?newstring?'+::
4034 Removes a range of consecutive characters from +'string'+, starting
4035 with the character whose index is +'first'+ and ending with the
4036 character whose index is +'last'+. If +'newstring'+ is specified,
4037 then it is placed in the removed character range. If +'first'+ is
4038 less than zero then it is treated as if it were zero, and if +'last'+
4039 is greater than or equal to the length of the string then it is
4040 treated as if it were +end+. If +'first'+ is greater than +'last'+
4041 or the length of the initial string, or +'last'+ is less than 0,
4042 then the initial string is returned untouched.
4044 +*string reverse* 'string'+::
4045 Returns a string that is the same length as +'string'+ but
4046 with its characters in the reverse order.
4048 +*string tolower* 'string'+::
4049 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that all upper case
4050 letters have been converted to lower case.
4052 +*string totitle* 'string'+::
4053 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that the first character
4054 is converted to title case (or upper case if there is no UTF-8 titlecase variant)
4055 and all remaining characters have been converted to lower case.
4057 +*string toupper* 'string'+::
4058 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that all lower case
4059 letters have been converted to upper case.
4061 +*string trim* 'string ?chars?'+::
4062 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any leading
4063 or trailing characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4065 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4066 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4068 +*string trimleft* 'string ?chars?'+::
4069 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any
4070 leading characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4072 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4073 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4075 +*string trimright* 'string ?chars?'+::
4076 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any
4077 trailing characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4079 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4080 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4081 Null characters are always removed.
4085 +*subst ?-nobackslashes? ?-nocommands? ?-novariables?* 'string'+
4087 This command performs variable substitutions, command substitutions,
4088 and backslash substitutions on its string argument and returns the
4089 fully-substituted result. The substitutions are performed in exactly
4090 the same way as for Tcl commands. As a result, the string argument
4091 is actually substituted twice, once by the Tcl parser in the usual
4092 fashion for Tcl commands, and again by the subst command.
4094 If any of the +-nobackslashes+, +-nocommands+, or +-novariables+ are
4095 specified, then the corresponding substitutions are not performed.
4096 For example, if +-nocommands+ is specified, no command substitution
4097 is performed: open and close brackets are treated as ordinary
4098 characters with no special interpretation.
4100 *Note*: when it performs its substitutions, subst does not give any
4101 special treatment to double quotes or curly braces. For example,
4102 the following script returns +xyz \{44\}+, not +xyz \{$a\}+.
4110 +*switch* '?options? string pattern body ?pattern body \...?'+
4112 +*switch* '?options? string {pattern body ?pattern body \...?}'+
4114 The `switch` command matches its string argument against each of
4115 the pattern arguments in order. As soon as it finds a pattern that
4116 matches string it evaluates the following body and returns the
4117 result of that evaluation. If the last pattern argument is default
4118 then it matches anything. If no pattern argument matches string and
4119 no default is given, then the `switch` command returns an empty string.
4120 If the initial arguments to switch start with - then they are treated
4121 as options. The following options are currently supported:
4124 Use exact matching when comparing string to a
4125 pattern. This is the default.
4128 When matching string to the patterns, use glob-style
4129 matching (i.e. the same as implemented by the string
4133 When matching string to the patterns, use regular
4134 expression matching (i.e. the same as implemented
4135 by the regexp command).
4137 +-command 'commandname'+::
4138 When matching string to the patterns, use the given command, which
4139 must be a single word. The command is invoked as
4140 'commandname pattern string', or 'commandname -nocase pattern string'
4141 and must return 1 if matched, or 0 if not.
4144 Marks the end of options. The argument following
4145 this one will be treated as string even if it starts
4148 Two syntaxes are provided for the pattern and body arguments. The
4149 first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands;
4150 this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the
4151 patterns or commands. The second form places all of the patterns
4152 and commands together into a single argument; the argument must
4153 have proper list structure, with the elements of the list being the
4154 patterns and commands. The second form makes it easy to construct
4155 multi-line `switch` commands, since the braces around the whole list
4156 make it unnecessary to include a backslash at the end of each line.
4157 Since the pattern arguments are in braces in the second form, no
4158 command or variable substitutions are performed on them; this makes
4159 the behaviour of the second form different than the first form in
4162 If a body is specified as +-+ it means that the body for the next
4163 pattern should also be used as the body for this pattern (if the
4164 next pattern also has a body of +-+ then the body after that is
4165 used, and so on). This feature makes it possible to share a single
4166 body among several patterns.
4168 Below are some examples of `switch` commands:
4170 switch abc a - b {format 1} abc {format 2} default {format 3}
4174 switch -regexp aaab {
4194 +*tailcall* 'cmd ?arg\...?'+
4196 The `tailcall` command provides an optimised way of invoking a command whilst replacing
4197 the current call frame. This is similar to 'exec' in Bourne Shell.
4199 The following are identical except the first immediately replaces the current call frame.
4203 return [uplevel 1 [list a b c]]
4205 `tailcall` is useful as a dispatch mechanism:
4208 tailcall sub_$cmd {*}$args
4219 Returns a decimal string giving the current access position in
4222 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to
4223 `open`, or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one
4224 of the standard I/O channels.
4228 +*throw* 'code ?msg?'+
4230 This command throws an exception (return) code along with an optional message.
4231 This command is mostly for convenient usage with `try`.
4233 The command +throw break+ is equivalent to +break+.
4234 The command +throw 20 message+ can be caught with an +on 20 \...+ clause to `try`.
4238 +*time* 'command ?count?'+
4240 This command will call the Tcl interpreter +'count'+
4241 times to execute +'command'+ (or once if +'count'+ isn't
4242 specified). It will then return a string of the form
4244 503 microseconds per iteration
4246 which indicates the average amount of time required per iteration,
4249 Time is measured in elapsed time, not CPU time.
4253 +*try* '?catchopts? tryscript' ?*on* 'returncodes {?resultvar? ?optsvar?} handlerscript \...'? ?*finally* 'finalscript'?+
4255 The `try` command is provided as a convenience for exception handling.
4257 This interpeter first evaluates +'tryscript'+ under the effect of the catch
4258 options +'catchopts'+ (e.g. +-signal -noexit --+, see `catch`).
4260 It then evaluates the script for the first matching 'on' handler
4261 (there many be zero or more) based on the return code from the `try`
4262 section. For example a normal +JIM_ERR+ error will be matched by
4263 an 'on error' handler.
4265 Finally, any +'finalscript'+ is evaluated.
4267 The result of this command is the result of +'tryscript'+, except in the
4268 case where an exception occurs in a matching 'on' handler script or the 'finally' script,
4269 in which case the result is this new exception.
4271 The specified +'returncodes'+ is a list of return codes either as names ('ok', 'error', 'break', etc.)
4274 If +'resultvar'+ and +'optsvar'+ are specified, they are set as for `catch` before evaluating
4275 the matching handler.
4282 } on {continue break} {} {
4283 error "Unexpected break/continue"
4284 } on error {msg opts} {
4285 puts "Dealing with error"
4286 return {*}$opts $msg
4288 puts "Got signal: $sig"
4293 If break, continue or error are raised, they are dealt with by the matching
4296 In any case, the file will be closed via the 'finally' clause.
4298 See also `throw`, `catch`, `return`, `error`.
4302 +*unknown* 'cmdName ?arg arg ...?'+
4304 This command doesn't actually exist as part of Tcl, but Tcl will
4305 invoke it if it does exist.
4307 If the Tcl interpreter encounters a command name for which there
4308 is not a defined command, then Tcl checks for the existence of
4309 a command named `unknown`.
4311 If there is no such command, then the interpreter returns an
4314 If the `unknown` command exists, then it is invoked with
4315 arguments consisting of the fully-substituted name and arguments
4316 for the original non-existent command.
4318 The `unknown` command typically does things like searching
4319 through library directories for a command procedure with the name
4320 +'cmdName'+, or expanding abbreviated command names to full-length,
4321 or automatically executing unknown commands as UNIX sub-processes.
4323 In some cases (such as expanding abbreviations) `unknown` will
4324 change the original command slightly and then (re-)execute it.
4325 The result of the `unknown` command is used as the result for
4326 the original non-existent command.
4330 +*unset ?-nocomplain? ?--?* '?name name ...?'+
4333 Each +'name'+ is a variable name, specified in any of the
4334 ways acceptable to the `set` command.
4336 If a +'name'+ refers to an element of an array, then that
4337 element is removed without affecting the rest of the array.
4339 If a +'name'+ consists of an array name with no parenthesized
4340 index, then the entire array is deleted.
4342 The `unset` command returns an empty string as result.
4344 An error occurs if any of the variables doesn't exist, unless '-nocomplain'
4345 is specified. The '--' argument may be specified to stop option processing
4346 in case the variable name may be '-nocomplain'.
4350 +*upcall* 'command ?args ...?'+
4352 May be used from within a proc defined as `local` `proc` in order to call
4353 the previous, hidden version of the same command.
4355 If there is no previous definition of the command, an error is returned.
4359 +*uplevel* '?level? command ?command ...?'+
4361 All of the +'command'+ arguments are concatenated as if they had
4362 been passed to `concat`; the result is then evaluated in the
4363 variable context indicated by +'level'+. `uplevel` returns
4364 the result of that evaluation. If +'level'+ is an integer, then
4365 it gives a distance (up the procedure calling stack) to move before
4366 executing the command. If +'level'+ consists of +\#+ followed by
4367 a number then the number gives an absolute level number. If +'level'+
4368 is omitted then it defaults to +1+. +'level'+ cannot be
4369 defaulted if the first +'command'+ argument starts with a digit or +#+.
4371 For example, suppose that procedure 'a' was invoked
4372 from top-level, and that it called 'b', and that 'b' called 'c'.
4373 Suppose that 'c' invokes the `uplevel` command. If +'level'+
4374 is +1+ or +#2+ or omitted, then the command will be executed
4375 in the variable context of 'b'. If +'level'+ is +2+ or +#1+
4376 then the command will be executed in the variable context of 'a'.
4378 If +'level'+ is '3' or +#0+ then the command will be executed
4379 at top-level (only global variables will be visible).
4380 The `uplevel` command causes the invoking procedure to disappear
4381 from the procedure calling stack while the command is being executed.
4382 In the above example, suppose 'c' invokes the command
4384 uplevel 1 {set x 43; d}
4386 where 'd' is another Tcl procedure. The `set` command will
4387 modify the variable 'x' in 'b's context, and 'd' will execute
4388 at level 3, as if called from 'b'. If it in turn executes
4393 then the `set` command will modify the same variable 'x' in 'b's
4394 context: the procedure 'c' does not appear to be on the call stack
4395 when 'd' is executing. The command `info level` may
4396 be used to obtain the level of the current procedure.
4398 `uplevel` makes it possible to implement new control
4399 constructs as Tcl procedures (for example, `uplevel` could
4400 be used to implement the `while` construct as a Tcl procedure).
4404 +*upvar* '?level? otherVar myVar ?otherVar myVar ...?'+
4406 This command arranges for one or more local variables in the current
4407 procedure to refer to variables in an enclosing procedure call or
4408 to global variables.
4410 +'level'+ may have any of the forms permitted for the `uplevel`
4411 command, and may be omitted if the first letter of the first +'otherVar'+
4412 isn't +#+ or a digit (it defaults to '1').
4414 For each +'otherVar'+ argument, `upvar` makes the variable
4415 by that name in the procedure frame given by +'level'+ (or at
4416 global level, if +'level'+ is +#0+) accessible
4417 in the current procedure by the name given in the corresponding
4420 The variable named by +'otherVar'+ need not exist at the time of the
4421 call; it will be created the first time +'myVar'+ is referenced, just like
4422 an ordinary variable.
4424 `upvar` may only be invoked from within procedures.
4426 `upvar` returns an empty string.
4428 The `upvar` command simplifies the implementation of call-by-name
4429 procedure calling and also makes it easier to build new control constructs
4431 For example, consider the following procedure:
4438 'add2' is invoked with an argument giving the name of a variable,
4439 and it adds two to the value of that variable.
4440 Although 'add2' could have been implemented using `uplevel`
4441 instead of `upvar`, `upvar` makes it simpler for 'add2'
4442 to access the variable in the caller's procedure frame.
4446 +*while* 'test body'+
4448 The +'while'+ command evaluates +'test'+ as an expression
4449 (in the same way that `expr` evaluates its argument).
4450 The value of the expression must be numeric; if it is non-zero
4451 then +'body'+ is executed by passing it to the Tcl interpreter.
4453 Once +'body'+ has been executed then +'test'+ is evaluated
4454 again, and the process repeats until eventually +'test'+
4455 evaluates to a zero numeric value. `continue`
4456 commands may be executed inside +'body'+ to terminate the current
4457 iteration of the loop, and `break`
4458 commands may be executed inside +'body'+ to cause immediate
4459 termination of the `while` command.
4461 The `while` command always returns an empty string.
4466 The following extensions may or may not be available depending upon
4467 what options were selected when Jim Tcl was built.
4470 posix: os.fork, os.wait, os.gethostname, os.getids, os.uptime
4471 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4473 Invokes 'fork(2)' and returns the result.
4475 +*os.wait -nohang* 'pid'+::
4476 Invokes waitpid(2), with WNOHANG if +-nohang+ is specified.
4477 Returns a list of 3 elements.
4479 {0 none 0} if -nohang is specified, and the process is still alive.
4481 {-1 error <error-description>} if the process does not exist or has already been waited for.
4483 {<pid> exit <exit-status>} if the process exited normally.
4485 {<pid> signal <signal-number>} if the process terminated on a signal.
4487 {<pid> other 0} otherwise (core dump, stopped, continued, etc.)
4489 +*os.gethostname*+::
4490 Invokes 'gethostname(3)' and returns the result.
4493 Returns the various user/group ids for the current process.
4496 uid 1000 euid 1000 gid 100 egid 100
4499 Returns the number of seconds since system boot. See description of 'uptime' in 'sysinfo(2)'.
4501 ANSI I/O (aio) and EVENTLOOP API
4502 --------------------------------
4503 Jim provides an alternative object-based API for I/O.
4505 See `open` and `socket` for commands which return an I/O handle.
4509 +$handle *accept* ?addrvar?+::
4510 Server socket only: Accept a connection and return stream.
4511 If +'addrvar'+ is specified, the address of the connected client is stored
4512 in the named variable in the form 'addr:port'. See `socket` for details.
4514 +$handle *buffering none|line|full*+::
4515 Sets the buffering mode of the stream.
4517 +$handle *close* ?r(ead)|w(rite)?+::
4519 The two-argument form is a "half-close" on a socket. See the +shutdown(2)+ man page.
4521 +$handle *copyto* 'tofd ?size?'+::
4522 Copy bytes to the file descriptor +'tofd'+. If +'size'+ is specified, at most
4523 that many bytes will be copied. Otherwise copying continues until the end
4524 of the input file. Returns the number of bytes actually copied.
4527 Returns 1 if stream is at eof
4529 +$handle *filename*+::
4530 Returns the original filename associated with the handle.
4531 Handles returned by `socket` give the socket type instead of a filename.
4536 +$handle *gets* '?var?'+::
4537 Read one line and return it or store it in the var
4539 +$handle *isatty*+::
4540 Returns 1 if the stream is a tty device.
4543 Apply a POSIX lock to the open file associated with the handle using
4545 The handle must be open for write access.
4546 Returns 1 if the lock was successfully obtained, 0 otherwise.
4547 An error occurs if the handle is not suitable for locking (e.g.
4548 if it is not open for write)
4550 +$handle *ndelay ?0|1?*+::
4551 Set O_NDELAY (if arg). Returns current/new setting.
4552 Note that in general ANSI I/O interacts badly with non-blocking I/O.
4555 +$handle *puts ?-nonewline?* 'str'+::
4556 Write the string, with newline unless -nonewline
4558 +$handle *read ?-nonewline?* '?len?'+::
4559 Read and return bytes from the stream. To eof if no len.
4561 +$handle *recvfrom* 'maxlen ?addrvar?'+::
4562 Receives a message from the handle via recvfrom(2) and returns it.
4563 At most +'maxlen'+ bytes are read.
4564 If +'addrvar'+ is specified, the sending address of the message is stored in
4565 the named variable in the form 'addr:port'. See `socket` for details.
4567 +$handle *seek* 'offset' *?start|current|end?*+::
4568 Seeks in the stream (default 'current')
4570 +$handle *sendto* 'str ?addr:?port'+::
4571 Sends the string, +'str'+, to the given address via the socket using sendto(2).
4572 This is intended for udp/dgram sockets and may give an error or behave in unintended
4573 ways for other handle types.
4574 Returns the number of bytes written.
4577 Flush the stream, then fsync(2) to commit any changes to storage.
4578 Only available on platforms that support fsync(2).
4581 Returns the current seek position
4583 +$handle *tty* ?settings?+::
4584 If no arguments are given, returns a dictionary containing the tty settings for the stream.
4585 If arguments are given, they must either be a dictionary, or +setting value \...+
4586 Abbrevations are supported for both settings and values, so the following is acceptable:
4587 +$f tty parity e input c out raw+.
4588 Only available on platforms that support termios(3). Supported settings are:
4591 Baud rate. e.g. 115200
4599 +*parity even|odd|none*+;;
4602 +*handshake xonxoff|rtscts|none*+;;
4605 +*input raw|cooked*+;;
4606 Input character processing. In raw mode, the usual key sequences such as ^C do
4607 not generate signals.
4609 +*output raw|cooked*+;;
4610 Output character processing. Typically CR -> CRNL is disabled in raw mode.
4612 +*vmin* 'numchars'+;;
4613 Minimum number of characters to read.
4616 Timeout for noncanonical read (units of 0.1 seconds)
4618 +$handle *ssl* *?-server cert priv?*+::
4619 Initiates a SSL/TLS session and returns a new stream
4621 +$handle *unlock*+::
4622 Release a POSIX lock previously acquired by `aio lock`.
4624 +$handle *verify*+::
4625 Verifies the certificate of a SSL/TLS stream peer
4627 +*load_ssl_certs* 'dir'+::
4628 Loads SSL/TLS CA certificates for use during verification
4632 +*fconfigure* 'handle' *?-blocking 0|1? ?-buffering noneline|full? ?-translation* 'mode'?+::
4633 For compatibility with Tcl, a limited form of the `fconfigure`
4634 command is supported.
4635 * `fconfigure ... -blocking` maps to `aio ndelay`
4636 * `fconfigure ... -buffering` maps to `aio buffering`
4637 * `fconfigure ... -translation` is accepted but ignored
4640 eventloop: after, vwait, update
4641 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4643 The following commands allow a script to be invoked when the given condition occurs.
4644 If no script is given, returns the current script. If the given script is the empty, the
4647 +$handle *readable* '?readable-script?'+::
4648 Sets or returns the script for when the socket is readable.
4650 +$handle *writable* '?writable-script?'+::
4651 Sets or returns the script for when the socket is writable.
4653 +$handle *onexception* '?exception-script?'+::
4654 Sets or returns the script for when oob data received.
4656 For compatibility with 'Tcl', these may be prefixed with `fileevent`. e.g.
4659 +fileevent $handle *readable* '\...'+
4661 Time-based execution is also available via the eventloop API.
4664 Sleeps for the given number of milliseconds. No events are
4665 processed during this time.
4667 +*after* 'ms'|*idle* 'script ?script \...?'+::
4668 The scripts are concatenated and executed after the given
4669 number of milliseconds have elapsed. If 'idle' is specified,
4670 the script will run the next time the event loop is processed
4671 with `vwait` or `update`. The script is only run once and
4672 then removed. Returns an event id.
4674 +*after cancel* 'id|command'+::
4675 Cancels an `after` event with the given event id or matching
4676 command (script). Returns the number of milliseconds
4677 remaining until the event would have fired. Returns the
4678 empty string if no matching event is found.
4680 +*after info* '?id?'+::
4681 If +'id'+ is not given, returns a list of current `after`
4682 events. If +'id'+ is given, returns a list containing the
4683 associated script and either 'timer' or 'idle' to indicated
4684 the type of the event. An error occurs if +'id'+ does not
4687 +*vwait* 'variable'+::
4688 A call to `vwait` enters the eventloop. `vwait` processes
4689 events until the named (global) variable changes or all
4690 event handlers are removed. The variable need not exist
4691 beforehand. If there are no event handlers defined, `vwait`
4692 returns immediately.
4694 +*update ?idletasks?*+::
4695 A call to `update` enters the eventloop to process expired events, but
4696 no new events. If 'idletasks' is specified, only expired time events are handled,
4698 Returns once handlers have been run for all expired events.
4700 Scripts are executed at the global scope. If an error occurs during a handler script,
4701 an attempt is made to call (the user-defined command) `bgerror` with the details of the error.
4702 If the `bgerror` command does not exist, the error message details are printed to stderr instead.
4704 If a file event handler script generates an error, the handler is automatically removed
4705 to prevent infinite errors. (A time event handler is always removed after execution).
4708 Called when an event handler script generates an error. Note that the normal command resolution
4709 rules are used for bgerror. First the name is resolved in the current namespace, then in the
4714 Various socket types may be created.
4716 +*socket unix* 'path'+::
4717 A unix domain socket client.
4719 +*socket unix.server* 'path'+::
4720 A unix domain socket server.
4722 +*socket ?-ipv6? stream* 'addr:port'+::
4723 A TCP socket client. (See the forms for +'addr'+ below)
4725 +*socket ?-ipv6? stream.server* '?addr:?port'+::
4726 A TCP socket server (+'addr'+ defaults to +0.0.0.0+ for IPv4 or +[::]+ for IPv6).
4728 +*socket ?-ipv6? dgram* ?'addr:port'?+::
4729 A UDP socket client. If the address is not specified,
4730 the client socket will be unbound and 'sendto' must be used
4731 to indicated the destination.
4733 +*socket ?-ipv6? dgram.server* 'addr:port'+::
4734 A UDP socket server.
4737 A pipe. Note that unlike all other socket types, this command returns
4738 a list of two channels: {read write}
4741 A socketpair (see socketpair(2)). Like `socket pipe`, this command returns
4742 a list of two channels: {s1 s2}. These channels are both readable and writable.
4744 This command creates a socket connected (client) or bound (server) to the given
4747 The returned value is channel and may generally be used with the various file I/O
4748 commands (gets, puts, read, etc.), either as object-based syntax or Tcl-compatible syntax.
4750 . set f [socket stream www.google.com:80]
4752 . $f puts -nonewline "GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n"
4757 Server sockets, however support only 'accept', which is most useful in conjunction with
4760 set f [socket stream.server 80]
4762 set client [$f accept]
4765 $client puts -nonewline "HTTP/1.1 404 Not found\r\n"
4770 The address, +'addr'+, can be given in one of the following forms:
4772 1. For IPv4 socket types, an IPv4 address such as 192.168.1.1
4773 2. For IPv6 socket types, an IPv6 address such as [fe80::1234] or [::]
4776 Note that on many systems, listening on an IPv6 address such as [::] will
4777 also accept requests via IPv4.
4779 Where a hostname is specified, the +'first'+ returned address is used
4780 which matches the socket type is used.
4782 The special type 'pipe' isn't really a socket.
4784 lassign [socket pipe] r w
4786 # Must close $w after exec
4794 +*syslog* '?options? ?priority? message'+
4796 This command sends message to system syslog facility with given
4797 priority. Valid priorities are:
4799 emerg, alert, crit, err, error, warning, notice, info, debug
4801 If a message is specified, but no priority is specified, then a
4802 priority of info is used.
4804 By default, facility user is used and the value of global tcl variable
4805 argv0 is used as ident string. However, any of the following options
4806 may be specified before priority to control these parameters:
4808 +*-facility* 'value'+::
4809 Use specified facility instead of user. The following
4810 values for facility are recognized:
4812 authpriv, cron, daemon, kernel, lpr, mail, news, syslog, user,
4815 +*-ident* 'string'+::
4816 Use given string instead of argv0 variable for ident string.
4818 +*-options* 'integer'+::
4819 Set syslog options such as +LOG_CONS+, +LOG_NDELAY+. You should
4820 use numeric values of those from your system syslog.h file,
4821 because I haven't got time to implement yet another hash
4826 The optional 'pack' extension provides commands to encode and decode binary strings.
4828 +*pack* 'varName value' *-intle|-intbe|-floatle|-floatbe|-str* 'bitwidth ?bitoffset?'+::
4829 Packs the binary representation of +'value'+ into the variable
4830 +'varName'+. The value is packed according to the given type
4831 (integer/floating point/string, big-endian/little-endian), width and bit offset.
4832 The variable is created if necessary (like `append`).
4833 The variable is expanded if necessary.
4835 +*unpack* 'binvalue' *-intbe|-intle|-uintbe|-uintle|-floatbe|-floatle|-str* 'bitpos bitwidth'+::
4836 Unpacks bits from +'binvalue'+ at bit position +'bitpos'+ and with +'bitwidth'+.
4837 Interprets the value according to the type (integer/floating point/string, big-endian/little-endian
4838 and signed/unsigned) and returns it. For integer types, +'bitwidth'+
4839 may be up to the size of a Jim Tcl integer (typically 64 bits). For floating point types,
4840 +'bitwidth'+ may be 32 bits (for single precision numbers) or 64 bits (for double precision).
4841 For the string type, both the width and the offset must be on a byte boundary (multiple of 8). Attempting to
4842 access outside the length of the value will return 0 for integer types, 0.0 for floating point types
4843 or the empty string for the string type.
4847 The optional 'zlib' extension provides a Tcl-compatible subset of the `zlib` command.
4849 +*crc32* 'data' '?startValue?'+::
4850 Returns the CRC32 checksum of a buffer. Optionally, an initial value may be specified; this is most useful
4851 for calculating the checksum of chunked data read from a stream (for instance, a pipe).
4853 +*deflate* 'string' '?level?'+::
4854 Compresses a buffer and outputs a raw, Deflate-compressed stream. Optionally, a compression level (1-9) may
4855 be specified to choose the desired speed vs. compression rate ratio.
4857 +*inflate* 'data' '?bufferSize?'+::
4858 Decompresses a raw, Deflate-compressed stream. When the uncompressed data size is known and specified, memory
4859 allocation is more efficient. Otherwise, decomperssion is chunked and therefore slower.
4861 +*gzip* 'string' '?-level level?'+::
4862 Compresses a buffer and adds a gzip header.
4864 +*gunzip* 'data' '?-buffersize size?'+::
4865 Decompresses a gzip-compressed buffer. Decompression is chunked, with a default, small buffer size of 64K
4866 which guarantees lower memory footprint at the cost of speed. It is recommended to use a bigger size, on
4867 systems without a severe memory constraint.
4871 The optional, pure-Tcl 'binary' extension provides the Tcl-compatible `binary scan` and `binary format`
4872 commands based on the low-level `pack` and `unpack` commands.
4874 See the Tcl documentation at: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TclCmd/binary.htm
4876 Note that 'binary format' with f/r/R specifiers (single-precision float) uses the value of Infinity
4877 in case of overflow.
4881 The optional, pure-Tcl 'oo' extension provides object-oriented (OO) support for Jim Tcl.
4883 See the online documentation (http://jim.tcl.tk/index.html/doc/www/www/documentation/oo/) for more details.
4885 +*class* 'classname ?baseclasses? classvars'+::
4886 Create a new class, +'classname'+, with the given dictionary
4887 (+'classvars'+) as class variables. These are the initial variables
4888 which all newly created objects of this class are initialised with.
4889 If a list of baseclasses is given, methods and instance variables
4892 +*super* 'method ?args \...?'+::
4893 From within a method, invokes the given method on the base class.
4894 Note that this will only call the last baseclass given.
4898 The optional, pure-Tcl 'tree' extension implements an OO, general purpose tree structure
4899 similar to that provided by tcllib ::struct::tree (http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/doc/trunk/embedded/www/tcllib/files/modules/struct/struct_tree.html)
4901 A tree is a collection of nodes, where each node (except the root node) has a single parent
4902 and zero or more child nodes (ordered), as well as zero or more attribute/value pairs.
4905 Creates and returns a new tree object with a single node named "root".
4906 All operations on the tree are invoked through this object.
4909 Destroy the tree and all it's nodes. (Note that the tree will also
4910 be automatically garbage collected once it goes out of scope).
4912 +$tree *set* 'nodename key value'+::
4913 Set the value for the given attribute key.
4915 +$tree *lappend* 'nodename key value \...'+::
4916 Append to the (list) value(s) for the given attribute key, or set if not yet set.
4918 +$tree *keyexists* 'nodename key'+::
4919 Returns 1 if the given attribute key exists.
4921 +$tree *get* 'nodename key'+::
4922 Returns the value associated with the given attribute key.
4924 +$tree *getall* 'nodename'+::
4925 Returns the entire attribute dictionary associated with the given key.
4927 +$tree *depth* 'nodename'+::
4928 Returns the depth of the given node. The depth of "root" is 0.
4930 +$tree *parent* 'nodename'+::
4931 Returns the node name of the parent node, or "" for the root node.
4933 +$tree *numchildren* 'nodename'+::
4934 Returns the number of child nodes.
4936 +$tree *children* 'nodename'+::
4937 Returns a list of the child nodes.
4939 +$tree *next* 'nodename'+::
4940 Returns the next sibling node, or "" if none.
4942 +$tree *insert* 'nodename ?index?'+::
4943 Add a new child node to the given node. The index is a list index
4944 such as +3+ or +end-2+. The default index is +end+.
4945 Returns the name of the newly added node.
4947 +$tree *walk* 'nodename' *dfs|bfs* {'actionvar nodevar'} 'script'+::
4948 Walks the tree starting from the given node, either breadth first (+bfs+)
4949 depth first (+dfs+).
4950 The value +"enter"+ or +"exit"+ is stored in variable +'actionvar'+.
4951 The name of each node is stored in +'nodevar'+.
4952 The script is evaluated twice for each node, on entry and exit.
4955 Dumps the tree contents to stdout
4959 The optional tclprefix extension provides the Tcl8.6-compatible `tcl::prefix` command
4960 (http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/prefix.htm) for matching strings against a table
4961 of possible values (typically commands or options).
4963 +*tcl::prefix all* 'table string'+::
4964 Returns a list of all elements in +'table'+ that begin with the prefix +'string'+.
4966 +*tcl::prefix longest* 'table string'+::
4967 Returns the longest common prefix of all elements in +'table'+ that begin with the prefix +'string'+.
4969 +*tcl::prefix match* '?options? table string'+::
4970 If +'string'+ equals one element in +'table'+ or is a prefix to
4971 exactly one element, the matched element is returned. If not, the
4972 result depends on the +-error+ option.
4974 * +*-exact*+ Accept only exact matches.
4975 * +*-message* 'string'+ Use +'string'+ in the error message at a mismatch. Default is "option".
4976 * +*-error* 'options'+ The options are used when no match is found. If +'options'+ is
4977 empty, no error is generated and an empty string is returned.
4978 Otherwise the options are used as return options when
4979 generating the error message. The default corresponds to
4984 Scriptable command line completion is supported in the interactive shell, 'jimsh', through
4985 the `tcl::autocomplete` callback. A simple implementation is provided, however this may
4986 be replaced with a custom command instead if desired.
4988 In the interactive shell, press <TAB> to activate command line completion.
4990 +*tcl::autocomplete* 'commandline'+::
4991 This command is called with the current command line when the user presses <TAB>.
4992 The command should return a list of all possible command lines that match the current command line.
4993 For example if +*pr*+ is the current command line, the list +*{prefix proc}*+ may be returned.
4997 The optional history extension provides script access to the command line editing
4998 and history support available in 'jimsh'. See 'examples/jtclsh.tcl' for an example.
4999 Note: if line editing support is not available, `history getline` acts like `gets` and
5000 the remaining subcommands do nothing.
5002 +*history load* 'filename'+::
5003 Load history from a (text) file. If the file does not exist or is not readable,
5006 +*history getline* 'prompt ?varname?'+::
5007 Displays the given prompt and allows a line to be entered. Similarly to `gets`,
5008 if +'varname'+ is given, it receives the line and the length of the line is returned,
5009 or -1 on EOF. If +'varname'+ is not given, the line is returned directly.
5011 +*history add* 'line'+::
5012 Adds the given line to the history buffer.
5014 +*history save* 'filename'+::
5015 Saves the current history buffer to the given file.
5018 Displays the current history buffer to standard output.
5022 Provides namespace-related functions. See also: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/namespace.htm
5024 +*namespace code* 'script'+::
5025 Captures the current namespace context for later execution of
5026 the script +'script'+. It returns a new script in which script has
5027 been wrapped in a +*namespace inscope*+ command.
5029 +*namespace current*+::
5030 Returns the fully-qualified name for the current namespace.
5032 +*namespace delete* '?namespace ...?'+::
5033 Deletes all commands and variables with the given namespace prefixes.
5035 +*namespace eval* 'namespace arg ?arg...?'+::
5036 Activates a namespace called +'namespace'+ and evaluates some code in that context.
5038 +*namespace origin* 'command'+::
5039 Returns the fully-qualified name of the original command to which the imported command +'command'+ refers.
5041 +*namespace parent* ?namespace?+::
5042 Returns the fully-qualified name of the parent namespace for namespace +'namespace'+, if given, otherwise
5043 for the current namespace.
5045 +*namespace qualifiers* 'string'+::
5046 Returns any leading namespace qualifiers for +'string'+
5048 +*namespace tail* 'string'+::
5049 Returns the simple name at the end of a qualified string.
5051 +*namespace upvar* 'namespace ?arg...?'+::
5052 This command arranges for zero or more local variables in the current procedure to refer to variables in +'namespace'+
5054 +*namespace which* '?-command|-variable? name'+::
5055 Looks up +'name'+ as either a command (the default) or variable and returns its fully-qualified name.
5059 The optional 'interp' command allows sub-interpreters to be created where commands may be run
5060 independently (but synchronously) of the main interpreter.
5063 Creates and returns a new interpreter object (command).
5064 The created interpeter contains any built-in commands along with static extensions,
5065 but does not include any dynamically loaded commands (package require, load).
5066 These must be reloaded in the child interpreter if required.
5068 +*$interp delete*+::
5069 Deletes the interpeter object.
5071 +*$interp eval* 'script' ...+::
5072 Evaluates a script in the context for the child interpreter, in the same way as 'eval'.
5074 +*$interp alias* 'alias childcmd parentcmd ?arg ...?'+::
5075 Similar to 'alias', but creates a command, +'childcmd'+, in the child interpreter that is an
5076 alias for +'parentcmd'+ in the parent interpreter, with the given, fixed arguments.
5077 The alias may be deleted in the child with 'rename'.
5079 [[BuiltinVariables]]
5083 The following global variables are created automatically
5087 This variable is set by Jim as an array
5088 whose elements are the environment variables for the process.
5089 Reading an element will return the value of the corresponding
5090 environment variable.
5091 This array is initialised at startup from the `env` command.
5092 It may be modified and will affect the environment passed to
5093 commands invoked with `exec`.
5096 This variable is set by Jim as an array containing information
5097 about the platform on which Jim was built. Currently this includes
5098 'os' and 'platform'.
5101 This variable contains a list of paths to search for packages.
5102 It defaults to a location based on where jim is installed
5103 (e.g. +/usr/local/lib/jim+), but may be changed by +jimsh+
5104 or the embedding application. Note that +jimsh+ will consider
5105 the environment variable +$JIMLIB+ to be a list of colon-separated
5106 list of paths to add to +*auto_path*+.
5109 This variable holds the value of the -errorcode return
5110 option set by the most recent error that occurred in this
5111 interpreter. This list value represents additional information
5112 about the error in a form that is easy to process with
5113 programs. The first element of the list identifies a general
5114 class of errors, and determines the format of the rest of
5115 the list. The following formats for -errorcode return options
5116 are used by the Tcl core; individual applications may define
5117 additional formats. Currently only `exec` sets this variable.
5118 Otherwise it will be +NONE+.
5120 The following global variables are set by jimsh.
5122 +*tcl_interactive*+::
5123 This variable is set to 1 if jimsh is started in interactive mode
5127 This variable is set by Jim as an array containing information
5128 about the platform upon which Jim was built. The following is an
5129 example of the contents of this array.
5131 tcl_platform(byteOrder) = littleEndian
5132 tcl_platform(engine) = Jim
5133 tcl_platform(os) = Darwin
5134 tcl_platform(platform) = unix
5135 tcl_platform(pointerSize) = 8
5136 tcl_platform(threaded) = 0
5137 tcl_platform(wordSize) = 8
5138 tcl_platform(pathSeparator) = :
5141 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains the name
5145 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains a list
5146 of any arguments supplied to the script.
5149 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains the number
5150 of arguments supplied to the script.
5153 The value of argv[0] when jimsh was invoked.
5155 CHANGES IN PREVIOUS RELEASES
5156 ----------------------------
5160 1. +platform_tcl()+ settings are now automatically determined
5161 2. Add aio `$handle filename`
5162 3. Add `info channels`
5163 4. The 'bio' extension is gone. Now `aio` supports 'copyto'.
5164 5. Add `exists` command
5165 6. Add the pure-Tcl 'oo' extension
5166 7. The `exec` command now only uses vfork(), not fork()
5167 8. Unit test framework is less verbose and more Tcl-compatible
5168 9. Optional UTF-8 support
5169 10. Optional built-in regexp engine for better Tcl compatibility and UTF-8 support
5170 11. Command line editing in interactive mode, e.g. 'jimsh'
5174 1. `source` now checks that a script is complete (.i.e. not missing a brace)
5175 2. 'info complete' now uses the real parser and so is 100% accurate
5176 3. Better access to live stack frames with 'info frame', `stacktrace` and `stackdump`
5177 4. `tailcall` no longer loses stack trace information
5178 5. Add `alias` and `curry`
5179 6. `lambda`, `alias` and `curry` are implemented via `tailcall` for efficiency
5180 7. `local` allows procedures to be deleted automatically at the end of the current procedure
5181 8. udp sockets are now supported for both clients and servers.
5182 9. vfork-based exec is now working correctly
5183 10. Add 'file tempfile'
5184 11. Add 'socket pipe'
5185 12. Enhance 'try ... on ... finally' to be more Tcl 8.6 compatible
5186 13. It is now possible to `return` from within `try`
5187 14. IPv6 support is now included
5189 16. Event handlers works better if an error occurs. eof handler has been removed.
5190 17. `exec` now sets $::errorCode, and catch sets opts(-errorcode) for exit status
5191 18. Command pipelines via open "|..." are now supported
5192 19. `pid` can now return pids of a command pipeline
5193 20. Add 'info references'
5194 21. Add support for 'after +'ms'+', 'after idle', 'after info', `update`
5195 22. `exec` now sets environment based on $::env
5197 24. Add support for 'lsort -index'
5201 1. Add support to `exec` for '>&', '>>&', '|&', '2>@1'
5202 2. Fix `exec` error messages when special token (e.g. '>') is the last token
5203 3. Fix `subst` handling of backslash escapes.
5204 4. Allow abbreviated options for `subst`
5205 5. Add support for `return`, `break`, `continue` in subst
5206 6. Many `expr` bug fixes
5207 7. Add support for functions in `expr` (e.g. int(), abs()), and also 'in', 'ni' list operations
5208 8. The variable name argument to `regsub` is now optional
5209 9. Add support for 'unset -nocomplain'
5210 10. Add support for list commands: `lassign`, `lrepeat`
5211 11. Fully-functional `lsearch` is now implemented
5212 12. Add 'info nameofexecutable' and 'info returncodes'
5213 13. Allow `catch` to determine what return codes are caught
5214 14. Allow `incr` to increment an unset variable by first setting to 0
5215 15. Allow 'args' and optional arguments to the left or required arguments in `proc`
5217 17. Add 'try ... finally' command
5223 Copyright 2005 Salvatore Sanfilippo <antirez@invece.org>
5224 Copyright 2005 Clemens Hintze <c.hintze@gmx.net>
5225 Copyright 2005 patthoyts - Pat Thoyts <patthoyts@users.sf.net>
5226 Copyright 2008 oharboe - Oyvind Harboe - oyvind.harboe@zylin.com
5227 Copyright 2008 Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
5228 Copyright 2008 Duane Ellis <openocd@duaneellis.com>
5229 Copyright 2008 Uwe Klein <uklein@klein-messgeraete.de>
5230 Copyright 2009 Steve Bennett <steveb@workware.net.au>
5233 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5234 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
5236 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
5237 notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
5238 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
5239 copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
5240 disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
5241 provided with the distribution.
5243 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE JIM TCL PROJECT ``AS IS'' AND ANY
5244 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
5245 THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
5246 PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
5247 JIM TCL PROJECT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
5248 INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
5249 (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
5250 OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
5251 HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
5252 STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
5253 ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
5254 ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
5256 The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation
5257 are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing
5258 official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Jim Tcl Project.