6 Jim Tcl v0.78+ - 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.uptime`, `wait`, `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: +$(...)+
49 14. Modular build allows many features to be omitted or built as dynamic, loadable modules
50 15. Highly suitable for use in an embedded environment
51 16. Support for UDP, IPv6, Unix-Domain sockets in addition to TCP sockets
57 1. Add `file mtimeus` for high resolution file timestamps
58 2. `aio` now supports datagram Unix-Domain sockets
59 3. Add support for `aio lock -wait`
60 4. Add `signal block` to prevent delivery of signals
61 5. Add support for `file split`
63 Changes between 0.77 and 0.78
64 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
65 1. Add serial/tty support with `aio tty`
66 2. Add support for 'jimsh -'
67 3. Add hidden '-commands' option to many commands
68 4. Add scriptable autocompletion support in interactive mode with `tcl::autocomplete`
70 6. Add scriptable autocompletion support with `history completion`
71 7. Add support for `tree delete`
72 8. Add support for `defer` and '$jim::defer'
73 9. Renamed `os.wait` to `wait`, now more Tcl-compatible and compatible with `exec ... &`
74 10. `pipe` is now a synonym for `socket pipe`
75 11. Closing a pipe open with `open |...` now returns Tcl-like status
76 12. It is now possible to used `exec` redirection with a pipe opened with `open |...`
77 13. Interactive line editing now supports multiline mode if $::history::multiline is set
79 Changes between 0.76 and 0.77
80 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
81 1. Add support for `aio sync`
82 2. Add SSL and TLS support in aio
84 4. Added support for boolean constants in `expr`
85 5. `string is` now supports 'boolean' class
86 6. Add support for `aio lock` and `aio unlock`
87 7. Add new `interp` command
89 Changes between 0.75 and 0.76
90 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
91 1. `glob` now supports the +-tails+ option
92 2. Add support for `string cat`
93 3. Allow `info source` to add source info
95 Changes between 0.74 and 0.75
96 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
97 1. `binary`, `pack` and `unpack` now support floating point
98 2. `file copy` +-force+ handles source and target as the same file
99 3. `format` now supports +%b+ for binary conversion
100 4. `lsort` now supports +-unique+ and +-real+
101 5. Add support for half-close with `aio close` +?r|w?+
102 6. Add `socket pair` for a bidirectional pipe
103 7. Add '--random-hash' to randomise hash tables for greater security
104 8. `dict` now supports 'for', 'values', 'incr', 'append', 'lappend', 'update', 'info' and 'replace'
105 9. `file stat` no longer requires the variable name
106 10. Add support for `file link`
108 Changes between 0.73 and 0.74
109 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
110 1. Numbers with leading zeros are treated as decimal, not octal
112 3. Add LFS (64 bit) support for `aio seek`, `aio tell`, `aio copyto`, `file copy`
113 4. `string compare` and `string equal` now support '-length'
114 5. `glob` now supports '-directory'
116 Changes between 0.72 and 0.73
117 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
118 1. Built-in regexp now support non-capturing parentheses: (?:...)
119 2. Add `string replace`
120 3. Add `string totitle`
121 4. Add `info statics`
122 5. Add +build-jim-ext+ for easy separate building of loadable modules (extensions)
123 6. `local` now works with any command, not just procs
124 7. Add `info alias` to access the target of an alias
125 8. UTF-8 encoding past the basic multilingual plane (BMP) is supported
128 11. Most extensions are now enabled by default
129 12. Add support for namespaces and the `namespace` command
132 Changes between 0.71 and 0.72
133 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
134 1. procs now allow 'args' and optional parameters in any position
135 2. Add Tcl-compatible expr functions, `rand()`, `srand()` and `pow()`
136 3. Add support for the '-force' option to `file delete`
137 4. Better diagnostics when `source` fails to load a script with a missing quote or bracket
138 5. New +tcl_platform(pathSeparator)+
139 6. Add support settings the modification time with `file mtime`
140 7. `exec` is now fully supported on win32 (mingw32)
141 8. `file join`, `pwd`, `glob` etc. now work for mingw32
142 9. Line editing is now supported for the win32 console (mingw32)
143 10. Add `aio listen` command
145 Changes between 0.70 and 0.71
146 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
147 1. Allow 'args' to be renamed in procs
148 2. Add +$(...)+ shorthand syntax for expressions
149 3. Add automatic reference variables in procs with +&var+ syntax
150 4. Support +jimsh --version+
151 5. Additional variables in +tcl_platform()+
152 6. `local` procs now push existing commands and `upcall` can call them
153 7. Add `loop` command (TclX compatible)
154 8. Add `aio buffering` command
155 9. `info complete` can now return the missing character
156 10. `binary format` and `binary scan` are now (optionally) supported
157 11. Add `string byterange`
158 12. Built-in regexp now support non-greedy repetition (*?, +?, ??)
162 Tcl stands for 'tool command language' and is pronounced
163 'http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/tickle[tickle]'.
164 It is actually two things: a language and a library.
166 First, Tcl is a simple textual language, intended primarily for
167 issuing commands to interactive programs such as text editors,
168 debuggers, illustrators, and shells. It has a simple syntax and is also
169 programmable, so Tcl users can write command procedures to provide more
170 powerful commands than those in the built-in set.
172 Second, Tcl is a library package that can be embedded in application
173 programs. The Tcl library consists of a parser for the Tcl language,
174 routines to implement the Tcl built-in commands, and procedures that
175 allow each application to extend Tcl with additional commands specific
176 to that application. The application program generates Tcl commands and
177 passes them to the Tcl parser for execution. Commands may be generated
178 by reading characters from an input source, or by associating command
179 strings with elements of the application's user interface, such as menu
180 entries, buttons, or keystrokes.
182 When the Tcl library receives commands it parses them into component
183 fields and executes built-in commands directly. For commands implemented
184 by the application, Tcl calls back to the application to execute the
185 commands. In many cases commands will invoke recursive invocations of the
186 Tcl interpreter by passing in additional strings to execute (procedures,
187 looping commands, and conditional commands all work in this way).
189 An application program gains three advantages by using Tcl for its command
190 language. First, Tcl provides a standard syntax: once users know Tcl,
191 they will be able to issue commands easily to any Tcl-based application.
192 Second, Tcl provides programmability. All a Tcl application needs
193 to do is to implement a few application-specific low-level commands.
194 Tcl provides many utility commands plus a general programming interface
195 for building up complex command procedures. By using Tcl, applications
196 need not re-implement these features.
198 Third, Tcl can be used as a common language for communicating between
199 applications. Inter-application communication is not built into the
200 Tcl core described here, but various add-on libraries, such as the Tk
201 toolkit, allow applications to issue commands to each other. This makes
202 it possible for applications to work together in much more powerful ways
203 than was previously possible.
205 Fourth, Jim Tcl includes a command processor, +jimsh+, which can be
206 used to run standalone Tcl scripts, or to run Tcl commands interactively.
208 This manual page focuses primarily on the Tcl language. It describes
209 the language syntax and the built-in commands that will be available
210 in any application based on Tcl. The individual library procedures are
211 described in more detail in separate manual pages, one per procedure.
213 JIMSH COMMAND INTERPRETER
214 -------------------------
215 A simple, but powerful command processor, +jimsh+, is part of Jim Tcl.
216 It may be invoked in interactive mode as:
220 or to process the Tcl script in a file with:
224 or to process the Tcl script from standard input:
228 It may also be invoked to execute an immediate script with:
234 Interactive mode reads Tcl commands from standard input, evaluates
235 those commands and prints the results.
238 Welcome to Jim version 0.73, Copyright (c) 2005-8 Salvatore Sanfilippo
241 . lsort [info commands p*]
242 package parray pid popen proc puts pwd
243 . foreach i {a b c} {
250 invalid command name "bad"
254 If +jimsh+ is configured with line editing (it is by default) and a VT-100-compatible
255 terminal is detected, Emacs-style line editing commands are available, including:
256 arrow keys, +\^W+ to erase a word, +\^U+ to erase the line, +^R+ for reverse incremental search
257 in history. Additionally, the +h+ command may be used to display the command history.
259 Command line history is automatically saved and loaded from +~/.jim_history+
261 In interactive mode, +jimsh+ automatically runs the script +~/.jimrc+ at startup
266 The central data structure in Tcl is an interpreter (C type 'Jim_Interp').
267 An interpreter consists of a set of command bindings, a set of variable
268 values, and a few other miscellaneous pieces of state. Each Tcl command
269 is interpreted in the context of a particular interpreter.
271 Some Tcl-based applications will maintain multiple interpreters
272 simultaneously, each associated with a different widget or portion of
273 the application. Interpreters are relatively lightweight structures.
274 They can be created and deleted quickly, so application programmers should
275 feel free to use multiple interpreters if that simplifies the application.
279 Tcl supports only one type of data: strings. All commands, all arguments
280 to commands, all command results, and all variable values are strings.
282 Where commands require numeric arguments or return numeric results,
283 the arguments and results are passed as strings. Many commands expect
284 their string arguments to have certain formats, but this interpretation
285 is up to the individual commands. For example, arguments often contain
286 Tcl command strings, which may get executed as part of the commands.
287 The easiest way to understand the Tcl interpreter is to remember that
288 everything is just an operation on a string. In many cases Tcl constructs
289 will look similar to more structured constructs from other languages.
290 However, the Tcl constructs are not structured at all; they are just
291 strings of characters, and this gives them a different behaviour than
292 the structures they may look like.
294 Although the exact interpretation of a Tcl string depends on who is doing
295 the interpretation, there are three common forms that strings take:
296 commands, expressions, and lists. The major sections below discuss
297 these three forms in more detail.
301 The Tcl language has syntactic similarities to both the Unix shells
302 and Lisp. However, the interpretation of commands is different
303 in Tcl than in either of those other two systems.
304 A Tcl command string consists of one or more commands separated
305 by newline characters or semi-colons.
306 Each command consists of a collection of fields separated by
307 white space (spaces or tabs).
308 The first field must be the name of a command, and the
309 additional fields, if any, are arguments that will be passed to
310 that command. For example, the command:
314 has three fields: the first, `set`, is the name of a Tcl command, and
315 the last two, 'a' and '22', will be passed as arguments to
316 the `set` command. The command name may refer either to a built-in
317 Tcl command, an application-specific command bound in with the library
318 procedure 'Jim_CreateCommand', or a command procedure defined with the
319 `proc` built-in command.
321 Arguments are passed literally as text strings. Individual commands may
322 interpret those strings in any fashion they wish. The `set` command,
323 for example, will treat its first argument as the name of a variable
324 and its second argument as a string value to assign to that variable.
325 For other commands arguments may be interpreted as integers, lists,
326 file names, or Tcl commands.
328 Command names should normally be typed completely (e.g. no abbreviations).
329 However, if the Tcl interpreter cannot locate a command it invokes a
330 special command named `unknown` which attempts to find or create the
333 For example, at many sites `unknown` will search through library
334 directories for the desired command and create it as a Tcl procedure if
335 it is found. The `unknown` command often provides automatic completion
336 of abbreviated commands, but usually only for commands that were typed
339 It's probably a bad idea to use abbreviations in command scripts and
340 other forms that will be re-used over time: changes to the command set
341 may cause abbreviations to become ambiguous, resulting in scripts that
346 If the first non-blank character in a command is +\#+, then everything
347 from the +#+ up through the next newline character is treated as
348 a comment and ignored. When comments are embedded inside nested
349 commands (e.g. fields enclosed in braces) they must have properly-matched
350 braces (this is necessary because when Tcl parses the top-level command
351 it doesn't yet know that the nested field will be used as a command so
352 it cannot process the nested comment character as a comment).
354 GROUPING ARGUMENTS WITH DOUBLE-QUOTES
355 -------------------------------------
356 Normally each argument field ends at the next white space, but
357 double-quotes may be used to create arguments with embedded space.
359 If an argument field begins with a double-quote, then the argument isn't
360 terminated by white space (including newlines) or a semi-colon (see below
361 for information on semi-colons); instead it ends at the next double-quote
362 character. The double-quotes are not included in the resulting argument.
363 For example, the command
365 set a "This is a single argument"
367 will pass two arguments to `set`: 'a' and 'This is a single argument'.
369 Within double-quotes, command substitutions, variable substitutions,
370 and backslash substitutions still occur, as described below. If the
371 first character of a command field is not a quote, then quotes receive
372 no special interpretation in the parsing of that field.
374 GROUPING ARGUMENTS WITH BRACES
375 ------------------------------
376 Curly braces may also be used for grouping arguments. They are similar
377 to quotes except for two differences. First, they nest; this makes them
378 easier to use for complicated arguments like nested Tcl command strings.
379 Second, the substitutions described below for commands, variables, and
380 backslashes do *not* occur in arguments enclosed in braces, so braces
381 can be used to prevent substitutions where they are undesirable.
383 If an argument field begins with a left brace, then the argument ends
384 at the matching right brace. Tcl will strip off the outermost layer
385 of braces and pass the information between the braces to the command
386 without any further modification. For example, in the command
388 set a {xyz a {b c d}}
390 the `set` command will receive two arguments: 'a'
393 When braces or quotes are in effect, the matching brace or quote need
394 not be on the same line as the starting quote or brace; in this case
395 the newline will be included in the argument field along with any other
396 characters up to the matching brace or quote. For example, the `eval`
397 command takes one argument, which is a command string; `eval` invokes
398 the Tcl interpreter to execute the command string. The command
405 will assign the value '22' to 'a' and '33' to 'b'.
407 If the first character of a command field is not a left
408 brace, then neither left nor right
409 braces in the field will be treated specially (except as part of
410 variable substitution; see below).
412 COMMAND SUBSTITUTION WITH BRACKETS
413 ----------------------------------
414 If an open bracket occurs in a field of a command, then command
415 substitution occurs (except for fields enclosed in braces). All of the
416 text up to the matching close bracket is treated as a Tcl command and
417 executed immediately. Then the result of that command is substituted
418 for the bracketed text. For example, consider the command
422 When the `set` command has only a single argument, it is the name of a
423 variable and `set` returns the contents of that variable. In this case,
424 if variable 'b' has the value 'foo', then the command above is equivalent
429 Brackets can be used in more complex ways. For example, if the variable
430 'b' has the value 'foo' and the variable 'c' has the value 'gorp',
433 set a xyz[set b].[set c]
435 is equivalent to the command
440 A bracketed command may contain multiple commands separated by newlines
441 or semi-colons in the usual fashion. In this case the value of the last
442 command is used for substitution. For example, the command
447 is equivalent to the command
452 If a field is enclosed in braces then the brackets and the characters
453 between them are not interpreted specially; they are passed through to
454 the argument verbatim.
456 VARIABLE SUBSTITUTION WITH $
457 ----------------------------
458 The dollar sign (+$+) may be used as a special shorthand form for
459 substituting variable values. If +$+ appears in an argument that isn't
460 enclosed in braces then variable substitution will occur. The characters
461 after the +$+, up to the first character that isn't a number, letter,
462 or underscore, are taken as a variable name and the string value of that
463 variable is substituted for the name.
465 For example, if variable 'foo' has the value 'test', then the command
469 is equivalent to the command
473 There are two special forms for variable substitution. If the next
474 character after the name of the variable is an open parenthesis, then
475 the variable is assumed to be an array name, and all of the characters
476 between the open parenthesis and the next close parenthesis are taken as
477 an index into the array. Command substitutions and variable substitutions
478 are performed on the information between the parentheses before it is
481 For example, if the variable 'x' is an array with one element named
482 'first' and value '87' and another element named '14' and value 'more',
485 set a xyz$x(first)zyx
487 is equivalent to the command
491 If the variable 'index' has the value '14', then the command
493 set a xyz$x($index)zyx
495 is equivalent to the command
499 For more information on arrays, see VARIABLES AND ARRAYS below.
501 The second special form for variables occurs when the dollar sign is
502 followed by an open curly brace. In this case the variable name consists
503 of all the characters up to the next curly brace.
505 Array references are not possible in this form: the name between braces
506 is assumed to refer to a scalar variable. For example, if variable
507 'foo' has the value 'test', then the command
511 is equivalent to the command
516 Variable substitution does not occur in arguments that are enclosed in
517 braces: the dollar sign and variable name are passed through to the
520 The dollar sign abbreviation is simply a shorthand form. +$a+ is
521 completely equivalent to +[set a]+; it is provided as a convenience
524 SEPARATING COMMANDS WITH SEMI-COLONS
525 ------------------------------------
526 Normally, each command occupies one line (the command is terminated by a
527 newline character). However, semi-colon (+;+) is treated as a command
528 separator character; multiple commands may be placed on one line by
529 separating them with a semi-colon. Semi-colons are not treated as
530 command separators if they appear within curly braces or double-quotes.
532 BACKSLASH SUBSTITUTION
533 ----------------------
534 Backslashes may be used to insert non-printing characters into command
535 fields and also to insert special characters like braces and brackets
536 into fields without them being interpreted specially as described above.
538 The backslash sequences understood by the Tcl interpreter are
539 listed below. In each case, the backslash
540 sequence is replaced by the given character:
541 [[BackslashSequences]]
552 Carriage-return (0xd).
575 +{backslash}<space>+::
576 Space ( ): doesn't terminate argument.
579 Semi-colon: doesn't terminate command.
584 +{backslash}<newline>+::
585 Nothing: this joins two lines together
586 into a single line. This backslash feature is unique in that
587 it will be applied even when the sequence occurs within braces.
589 +{backslash}{backslash}+::
590 Backslash ('{backslash}').
593 The digits +'ddd'+ (one, two, or three of them) give the octal value of
594 the character. Note that Jim supports null characters in strings.
597 +{backslash}u\{nnn\}+::
598 +{backslash}Unnnnnnnn+::
599 The UTF-8 encoding of the unicode codepoint represented by the hex digits, +'nnnn'+, is inserted.
600 The 'u' form allows for one to four hex digits.
601 The 'U' form allows for one to eight hex digits.
602 The 'u\{nnn\}' form allows for one to eight hex digits, but makes it easier to insert
603 characters UTF-8 characters which are followed by a hex digit.
605 For example, in the command
609 the second argument to `set` will be +{x[ yza+.
611 If a backslash is followed by something other than one of the options
612 described above, then the backslash is transmitted to the argument
613 field without any special processing, and the Tcl scanner continues
614 normal processing with the next character. For example, in the
619 The first argument to `set` will be +{backslash}*a+ and the second
620 argument will be +{backslash}{foo+.
622 If an argument is enclosed in braces, then backslash sequences inside
623 the argument are parsed but no substitution occurs (except for
624 backslash-newline): the backslash
625 sequence is passed through to the argument as is, without making
626 any special interpretation of the characters in the backslash sequence.
627 In particular, backslashed braces are not counted in locating the
628 matching right brace that terminates the argument.
634 the second argument to `set` will be +{backslash}{abc+.
636 This backslash mechanism is not sufficient to generate absolutely
637 any argument structure; it only covers the
638 most common cases. To produce particularly complicated arguments
639 it is probably easiest to use the `format` command along with
640 command substitution.
642 STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS
643 ------------------------------------
645 Many string and list commands take one or more 'index' parameters which
646 specify a position in the string relative to the start or end of the string/list.
648 The index may be one of the following forms:
651 A simple integer, where '0' refers to the first element of the string
654 +integer+integer+ or::
656 The sum or difference of the two integers. e.g. +2+3+ refers to the 5th element.
657 This is useful when used with (e.g.) +$i+1+ rather than the more verbose
661 The last element of the string or list.
664 The 'nth-from-last' element of the string or list.
668 1. A command is just a string.
669 2. Within a string commands are separated by newlines or semi-colons
670 (unless the newline or semi-colon is within braces or brackets
672 3. A command consists of fields. The first field is the name of the command.
673 The other fields are strings that are passed to that command as arguments.
674 4. Fields are normally separated by white space.
675 5. Double-quotes allow white space and semi-colons to appear within
677 Command substitution, variable substitution, and backslash substitution
678 still occur inside quotes.
679 6. Braces defer interpretation of special characters.
680 If a field begins with a left brace, then it consists of everything
681 between the left brace and the matching right brace. The
682 braces themselves are not included in the argument.
683 No further processing is done on the information between the braces
684 except that backslash-newline sequences are eliminated.
685 7. If a field doesn't begin with a brace then backslash,
686 variable, and command substitution are done on the field. Only a
687 single level of processing is done: the results of one substitution
688 are not scanned again for further substitutions or any other
689 special treatment. Substitution can
690 occur on any field of a command, including the command name
691 as well as the arguments.
692 8. If the first non-blank character of a command is a +\#+, everything
693 from the +#+ up through the next newline is treated as a comment
698 The second major interpretation applied to strings in Tcl is
699 as expressions. Several commands, such as `expr`, `for`,
700 and `if`, treat one or more of their arguments as expressions
701 and call the Tcl expression processors ('Jim_ExprLong',
702 'Jim_ExprBoolean', etc.) to evaluate them.
704 The operators permitted in Tcl expressions are a subset of
705 the operators permitted in C expressions, and they have the
706 same meaning and precedence as the corresponding C operators.
707 Expressions almost always yield numeric results
708 (integer or floating-point values).
709 For example, the expression
715 Tcl expressions differ from C expressions in the way that
716 operands are specified, and in that Tcl expressions support
717 non-numeric operands and string comparisons.
719 A Tcl expression consists of a combination of operands, operators,
722 White space may be used between the operands and operators and
723 parentheses; it is ignored by the expression processor.
724 Where possible, operands are interpreted as integer values.
726 Integer values may be specified in decimal (the normal case) or in
727 hexadecimal (if the first two characters of the operand are '0x').
728 Note that Jim Tcl does *not* treat numbers with leading zeros as octal.
730 If an operand does not have one of the integer formats given
731 above, then it is treated as a floating-point number if that is
732 possible. Floating-point numbers may be specified in any of the
733 ways accepted by an ANSI-compliant C compiler (except that the
734 'f', 'F', 'l', and 'L' suffixes will not be permitted in
735 most installations). For example, all of the
736 following are valid floating-point numbers: 2.1, 3., 6e4, 7.91e+16.
738 If no numeric interpretation is possible, then an operand is left
739 as a string (and only a limited set of operators may be applied to
742 String constants representing boolean constants
743 (+'0'+, +'1'+, +'false'+, +'off'+, +'no'+, +'true'+, +'on'+, +'yes'+)
744 are also recognized and can be used in logical operations.
746 1. Operands may be specified in any of the following ways:
748 2. As a numeric value, either integer or floating-point.
750 3. As one of valid boolean constants
752 4. As a Tcl variable, using standard '$' notation.
753 The variable's value will be used as the operand.
755 5. As a string enclosed in double-quotes.
756 The expression parser will perform backslash, variable, and
757 command substitutions on the information between the quotes,
758 and use the resulting value as the operand
760 6. As a string enclosed in braces.
761 The characters between the open brace and matching close brace
762 will be used as the operand without any substitutions.
764 7. As a Tcl command enclosed in brackets.
765 The command will be executed and its result will be used as
768 Where substitutions occur above (e.g. inside quoted strings), they
769 are performed by the expression processor.
770 However, an additional layer of substitution may already have
771 been performed by the command parser before the expression
772 processor was called.
774 As discussed below, it is usually best to enclose expressions
775 in braces to prevent the command parser from performing substitutions
778 For some examples of simple expressions, suppose the variable 'a' has
779 the value 3 and the variable 'b' has the value 6. Then the expression
780 on the left side of each of the lines below will evaluate to the value
781 on the right side of the line:
786 {word one} < "word $a" 0
788 The valid operators are listed below, grouped in decreasing order
790 [[OperatorPrecedence]]
791 +int() double() round() abs(), rand(), srand()+::
792 Unary functions (except rand() which takes no arguments)
793 * +'int()'+ converts the numeric argument to an integer by truncating down.
794 * +'double()'+ converts the numeric argument to floating point.
795 * +'round()'+ converts the numeric argument to the closest integer value.
796 * +'abs()'+ takes the absolute value of the numeric argument.
797 * +'rand()'+ returns a pseudo-random floating-point value in the range (0,1).
798 * +'srand()'+ takes an integer argument to (re)seed the random number generator. Returns the first random number from that seed.
800 +sin() cos() tan() asin() acos() atan() sinh() cosh() tanh() ceil() floor() exp() log() log10() sqrt()+::
801 Unary math functions.
802 If Jim is compiled with math support, these functions are available.
805 Unary minus, unary plus, bit-wise NOT, logical NOT. None of these operands
806 may be applied to string operands, and bit-wise NOT may be
807 applied only to integers.
810 Power. e.g. 'x^y^'. If Jim is compiled with math support, supports doubles and
811 integers. Otherwise supports integers only. (Note that the math-function form
812 has the same highest precedence)
815 Multiply, divide, remainder. None of these operands may be
816 applied to string operands, and remainder may be applied only
820 Add and subtract. Valid for any numeric operands.
823 Left and right shift, left and right rotate. Valid for integer operands only.
826 Boolean less, greater, less than or equal, and greater than or equal.
827 Each operator produces 1 if the condition is true, 0 otherwise.
828 These operators may be applied to strings as well as numeric operands,
829 in which case string comparison is used.
832 Boolean equal and not equal. Each operator produces a zero/one result.
833 Valid for all operand types. *Note* that values will be converted to integers
834 if possible, then floating point types, and finally strings will be compared.
835 It is recommended that 'eq' and 'ne' should be used for string comparison.
838 String equal and not equal. Uses the string value directly without
839 attempting to convert to a number first.
842 String in list and not in list. For 'in', result is 1 if the left operand (as a string)
843 is contained in the right operand (as a list), or 0 otherwise. The result for
844 +{$a ni $list}+ is equivalent to +{!($a in $list)}+.
847 Bit-wise AND. Valid for integer operands only.
850 Bit-wise OR. Valid for integer operands only.
853 Bit-wise exclusive OR. Valid for integer operands only.
856 Logical AND. Produces a 1 result if both operands are non-zero, 0 otherwise.
857 Valid for numeric operands only (integers or floating-point).
860 Logical OR. Produces a 0 result if both operands are zero, 1 otherwise.
861 Valid for numeric operands only (integers or floating-point).
864 If-then-else, as in C. If +'x'+
865 evaluates to non-zero, then the result is the value of +'y'+.
866 Otherwise the result is the value of +'z'+.
867 The +'x'+ operand must have a numeric value, while +'y'+ and +'z'+ can
870 See the C manual for more details on the results
871 produced by each operator.
872 All of the binary operators group left-to-right within the same
873 precedence level. For example, the expression
879 The +&&+, +||+, and +?:+ operators have 'lazy evaluation', just as
880 in C, which means that operands are not evaluated if they are not
881 needed to determine the outcome. For example, in
885 only one of +[a]+ or +[b]+ will actually be evaluated,
886 depending on the value of +$v+.
888 All internal computations involving integers are done with the C
889 type 'long long' if available, or 'long' otherwise, and all internal
890 computations involving floating-point are done with the C type
893 When converting a string to floating-point, exponent overflow is
894 detected and results in a Tcl error.
895 For conversion to integer from string, detection of overflow depends
896 on the behaviour of some routines in the local C library, so it should
897 be regarded as unreliable.
898 In any case, overflow and underflow are generally not detected
899 reliably for intermediate results.
901 Conversion among internal representations for integer, floating-point,
902 string operands is done automatically as needed.
903 For arithmetic computations, integers are used until some
904 floating-point number is introduced, after which floating-point is used.
909 yields the result 1, while
912 5 / ( [string length "abcd"] + 0.0 )
914 both yield the result 1.25.
916 String values may be used as operands of the comparison operators,
917 although the expression evaluator tries to do comparisons as integer
918 or floating-point when it can.
919 If one of the operands of a comparison is a string and the other
920 has a numeric value, the numeric operand is converted back to
921 a string using the C 'sprintf' format specifier
922 '%d' for integers and '%g' for floating-point values.
923 For example, the expressions
928 both evaluate to 1. The first comparison is done using integer
929 comparison, and the second is done using string comparison after
930 the second operand is converted to the string '18'.
932 In general it is safest to enclose an expression in braces when
933 entering it in a command: otherwise, if the expression contains
934 any white space then the Tcl interpreter will split it
935 among several arguments. For example, the command
939 results in three arguments being passed to `expr`: +$a+,
940 \+, and +$b+. In addition, if the expression isn't in braces
941 then the Tcl interpreter will perform variable and command substitution
942 immediately (it will happen in the command parser rather than in
943 the expression parser). In many cases the expression is being
944 passed to a command that will evaluate the expression later (or
945 even many times if, for example, the expression is to be used to
946 decide when to exit a loop). Usually the desired goal is to re-do
947 the variable or command substitutions each time the expression is
948 evaluated, rather than once and for all at the beginning. For example,
951 for {set i 1} $i<=10 {incr i} {...} ** WRONG **
953 is probably intended to iterate over all values of +i+ from 1 to 10.
954 After each iteration of the body of the loop, `for` will pass
955 its second argument to the expression evaluator to see whether or not
956 to continue processing. Unfortunately, in this case the value of +i+
957 in the second argument will be substituted once and for all when the
958 `for` command is parsed. If +i+ was 0 before the `for`
959 command was invoked then the second argument of `for` will be +0\<=10+
960 which will always evaluate to 1, even though +i+ eventually
961 becomes greater than 10. In the above case the loop will never
962 terminate. Instead, the expression should be placed in braces:
964 for {set i 1} {$i<=10} {incr i} {...} ** RIGHT **
966 This causes the substitution of 'i'
967 to be delayed; it will be re-done each time the expression is
968 evaluated, which is the desired result.
972 The third major way that strings are interpreted in Tcl is as lists.
973 A list is just a string with a list-like structure
974 consisting of fields separated by white space. For example, the
979 is a list with four elements or fields.
980 Lists have the same basic structure as command strings, except
981 that a newline character in a list is treated as a field separator
982 just like space or tab. Conventions for braces and quotes
983 and backslashes are the same for lists as for commands. For example,
988 is a list with three elements: +a+, +b c+, and +d e {f g h}+.
990 Whenever an element is extracted from a list, the same rules about
991 braces and quotes and backslashes are applied as for commands. Thus in
992 the example above when the third element is extracted from the list,
997 (when the field was extracted, all that happened was to strip off
998 the outermost layer of braces). Command substitution and
999 variable substitution are never
1000 made on a list (at least, not by the list-processing commands; the
1001 list can always be passed to the Tcl interpreter for evaluation).
1003 The Tcl commands `concat`, `foreach`, `lappend`, `lindex`, `linsert`,
1004 `list`, `llength`, `lrange`, `lreplace`, `lsearch`, and `lsort` allow
1005 you to build lists, extract elements from them, search them, and perform
1006 other list-related functions.
1008 Advanced list commands include `lrepeat`, `lreverse`, `lmap`, `lassign`, `lset`.
1013 A new addition to Tcl 8.5 is the ability to expand a list into separate
1014 arguments. Support for this feature is also available in Jim.
1016 Consider the following attempt to exec a list:
1021 This will attempt to exec a command named "ls -l", which will clearly not
1022 work. Typically eval and concat are required to solve this problem, however
1023 it can be solved much more easily with +\{*\}+.
1027 This will expand the following argument into individual elements and then evaluate
1028 the resulting command.
1030 Note that the official Tcl syntax is +\{*\}+, however +\{expand\}+ is retained
1031 for backward compatibility with experimental versions of this feature.
1035 Tcl provides two commands that support string matching using regular
1036 expressions, `regexp` and `regsub`, as well as `switch -regexp` and
1039 Regular expressions may be implemented one of two ways. Either using the system's C library
1040 POSIX regular expression support, or using the built-in regular expression engine.
1041 The differences between these are described below.
1043 *NOTE* Tcl 7.x and 8.x use perl-style Advanced Regular Expressions (+ARE+).
1045 POSIX Regular Expressions
1046 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1047 If the system supports POSIX regular expressions, and UTF-8 support is not enabled,
1048 this support will be used by default. The type of regular expressions supported are
1049 Extended Regular Expressions (+ERE+) rather than Basic Regular Expressions (+BRE+).
1050 See REG_EXTENDED in the documentation.
1052 Using the system-supported POSIX regular expressions will typically
1053 make for the smallest code size, but some features such as UTF-8
1054 and +{backslash}w+, +{backslash}d+, +{backslash}s+ are not supported, and null characters
1055 in strings are not supported.
1057 See regex(3) and regex(7) for full details.
1059 Jim built-in Regular Expressions
1060 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1061 The Jim built-in regular expression engine may be selected with +./configure --with-jim-regexp+
1062 or it will be selected automatically if UTF-8 support is enabled.
1064 This engine supports UTF-8 as well as some +ARE+ features. The differences with both Tcl 7.x/8.x
1065 and POSIX are highlighted below.
1067 1. UTF-8 strings and patterns are both supported
1068 2. All Tcl character classes are supported (e.g. +[:alnum:]+, +[:digit:]+, +[:space:]+), but...
1069 3. Character classes apply to ASCII characters only
1070 4. Supported shorthand character classes: +{backslash}w+ = +[:alnum:]+, +{backslash}W+ = +^[:alnum:]+, +{backslash}d+ = +[:digit:],+ +{backslash}D+ = +^[:digit:],+ +{backslash}s+ = +[:space:]+, + +{backslash}S+ = +^[:space:]+
1071 5. Supported constraint escapes: +{backslash}m+ = +{backslash}<+ = start of word, +{backslash}M+ = +{backslash}>+ = end of word
1072 6. Backslash escapes may be used within regular expressions, such as +{backslash}n+ = newline, +{backslash}uNNNN+ = unicode
1073 7. Partially supported constraint escapes: +{backslash}A+ = start of string, +{backslash}Z+ = end of string
1074 8. Support for the +?+ non-greedy quantifier. e.g. +*?+
1075 9. Support for non-capturing parentheses +(?:...)+
1076 10. Jim Tcl considers that both patterns and strings end at a null character (+\x00+)
1080 Each command produces two results: a code and a string. The
1081 code indicates whether the command completed successfully or not,
1082 and the string gives additional information. The valid codes are
1083 defined in jim.h, and are:
1086 This is the normal return code, and indicates that the command completed
1087 successfully. The string gives the command's return value.
1090 Indicates that an error occurred; the string gives a message describing
1094 Indicates that the `return` command has been invoked, and that the
1095 current procedure (or top-level command or `source` command)
1096 should return immediately. The
1097 string gives the return value for the procedure or command.
1100 Indicates that the `break` command has been invoked, so the
1101 innermost loop should abort immediately. The string should always
1105 Indicates that the `continue` command has been invoked, so the
1106 innermost loop should go on to the next iteration. The string
1107 should always be empty.
1110 Indicates that a signal was caught while executing a commands.
1111 The string contains the name of the signal caught.
1112 See the `signal` and `catch` commands.
1115 Indicates that the command called the `exit` command.
1116 The string contains the exit code.
1118 Tcl programmers do not normally need to think about return codes,
1119 since +JIM_OK+ is almost always returned. If anything else is returned
1120 by a command, then the Tcl interpreter immediately stops processing
1121 commands and returns to its caller. If there are several nested
1122 invocations of the Tcl interpreter in progress, then each nested
1123 command will usually return the error to its caller, until eventually
1124 the error is reported to the top-level application code. The
1125 application will then display the error message for the user.
1127 In a few cases, some commands will handle certain `error` conditions
1128 themselves and not return them upwards. For example, the `for`
1129 command checks for the +JIM_BREAK+ code; if it occurs, then `for`
1130 stops executing the body of the loop and returns +JIM_OK+ to its
1131 caller. The `for` command also handles +JIM_CONTINUE+ codes and the
1132 procedure interpreter handles +JIM_RETURN+ codes. The `catch`
1133 command allows Tcl programs to catch errors and handle them without
1134 aborting command interpretation any further.
1136 The `info returncodes` command may be used to programmatically map between
1137 return codes and names.
1141 Tcl allows you to extend the command interface by defining
1142 procedures. A Tcl procedure can be invoked just like any other Tcl
1143 command (it has a name and it receives one or more arguments).
1144 The only difference is that its body isn't a piece of C code linked
1145 into the program; it is a string containing one or more other
1148 The `proc` command is used to create a new Tcl command procedure:
1150 +*proc* 'name arglist ?statics? body'+
1152 The new command is named +'name'+, and it replaces any existing command
1153 there may have been by that name. Whenever the new command is
1154 invoked, the contents of +'body'+ will be executed by the Tcl
1157 +'arglist'+ specifies the formal arguments to the procedure.
1158 It consists of a list, possibly empty, of the following
1159 argument specifiers:
1162 Required Argument - A simple argument name.
1165 Optional Argument - A two-element list consisting of the
1166 argument name, followed by the default value, which will
1167 be used if the corresponding argument is not supplied.
1170 Reference Argument - The caller is expected to pass the name of
1171 an existing variable. An implicit +`upvar` 1 origname name+ is done
1172 to make the variable available in the proc scope.
1175 Variable Argument - The special name +'args'+, which is
1176 assigned all remaining arguments (including none) as a list. The
1177 variable argument may only be specified once. Note that
1178 the syntax +{args newname}+ may be used to retain the special
1179 behaviour of +'args'+ with a different local name. In this case,
1180 the variable is named +'newname'+ rather than +'args'+.
1182 When the command is invoked, a local variable will be created for each of
1183 the formal arguments to the procedure; its value will be the value
1184 of corresponding argument in the invoking command or the argument's
1187 Arguments with default values need not be specified in a procedure
1188 invocation. However, there must be enough actual arguments for all
1189 required arguments, and there must not be any extra actual arguments
1190 (unless the Variable Argument is specified).
1192 Actual arguments are assigned to formal arguments as in left-to-right
1193 order with the following precedence.
1195 1. Required Arguments (including Reference Arguments)
1196 2. Optional Arguments
1197 3. Variable Argument
1199 The following example illustrates precedence. Assume a procedure declaration:
1201 proc p {{a A} args b {c C} d} {...}
1203 This procedure requires at least two arguments, but can accept an unlimited number.
1204 The following table shows how various numbers of arguments are assigned.
1205 Values marked as +-+ are assigned the default value.
1207 [width="40%",frame="topbot",options="header"]
1209 |Number of arguments|a|args|b|c|d
1217 When +'body'+ is being executed, variable names normally refer to local
1218 variables, which are created automatically when referenced and deleted
1219 when the procedure returns. One local variable is automatically created
1220 for each of the procedure's arguments. Global variables can be
1221 accessed by invoking the `global` command or via the +::+ prefix.
1225 In addition to procedure arguments, Jim procedures may declare static variables.
1226 These variables scoped to the procedure and initialised at procedure definition.
1227 Either from the static variable definition, or from the enclosing scope.
1229 Consider the following example:
1232 jim> proc a {} {a {b 2}} {
1244 The static variable +'a'+ has no initialiser, so it is initialised from
1245 the enclosing scope with the value 1. (Note that it is an error if there
1246 is no variable with the same name in the enclosing scope). However +'b'+
1247 has an initialiser, so it is initialised to 2.
1249 Unlike a local variable, the value of a static variable is retained across
1250 invocations of the procedure.
1252 See the `proc` command for information on how to define procedures
1253 and what happens when they are invoked. See also NAMESPACES.
1255 VARIABLES - SCALARS AND ARRAYS
1256 ------------------------------
1257 Tcl allows the definition of variables and the use of their values
1258 either through '$'-style variable substitution, the `set`
1259 command, or a few other mechanisms.
1261 Variables need not be declared: a new variable will automatically
1262 be created each time a new variable name is used.
1264 Tcl supports two types of variables: scalars and arrays.
1265 A scalar variable has a single value, whereas an array variable
1266 can have any number of elements, each with a name (called
1267 its 'index') and a value.
1269 Array indexes may be arbitrary strings; they need not be numeric.
1270 Parentheses are used refer to array elements in Tcl commands.
1271 For example, the command
1275 will modify the element of 'x' whose index is 'first'
1276 so that its new value is '44'.
1278 Two-dimensional arrays can be simulated in Tcl by using indexes
1279 that contain multiple concatenated values.
1280 For example, the commands
1285 set the elements of 'a' whose indexes are '2,3' and '3,6'.
1287 In general, array elements may be used anywhere in Tcl that scalar
1288 variables may be used.
1290 If an array is defined with a particular name, then there may
1291 not be a scalar variable with the same name.
1293 Similarly, if there is a scalar variable with a particular
1294 name then it is not possible to make array references to the
1297 To convert a scalar variable to an array or vice versa, remove
1298 the existing variable with the `unset` command.
1300 The `array` command provides several features for dealing
1301 with arrays, such as querying the names of all the elements of
1302 the array and converting between an array and a list.
1304 Variables may be either global or local. If a variable
1305 name is used when a procedure isn't being executed, then it
1306 automatically refers to a global variable. Variable names used
1307 within a procedure normally refer to local variables associated with that
1308 invocation of the procedure. Local variables are deleted whenever
1309 a procedure exits. Either `global` command may be used to request
1310 that a name refer to a global variable for the duration of the current
1311 procedure (this is somewhat analogous to 'extern' in C), or the variable
1312 may be explicitly scoped with the +::+ prefix. For example
1328 ARRAYS AS LISTS IN JIM
1329 ----------------------
1330 Unlike Tcl, Jim can automatically convert between a list (with an even
1331 number of elements) and an array value. This is similar to the way Tcl
1332 can convert between a string and a list.
1343 Thus `array set` is equivalent to `set` when the variable does not
1346 The reverse is also true where an array will be converted into
1349 set a(1) one; set a(2) two
1358 Tcl 8.5 introduced the dict command, and Jim Tcl has added a version
1359 of this command. Dictionaries provide efficient access to key-value
1360 pairs, just like arrays, but dictionaries are pure values. This
1361 means that you can pass them to a procedure just as a list or a
1362 string. Tcl dictionaries are therefore much more like Tcl lists,
1363 except that they represent a mapping from keys to values, rather
1364 than an ordered sequence.
1366 You can nest dictionaries, so that the value for a particular key
1367 consists of another dictionary. That way you can elegantly build
1368 complicated data structures, such as hierarchical databases. You
1369 can also combine dictionaries with other Tcl data structures. For
1370 instance, you can build a list of dictionaries that themselves
1373 Dictionaries are values that contain an efficient, order-preserving
1374 mapping from arbitrary keys to arbitrary values. Each key in the
1375 dictionary maps to a single value. They have a textual format that
1376 is exactly that of any list with an even number of elements, with
1377 each mapping in the dictionary being represented as two items in
1378 the list. When a command takes a dictionary and produces a new
1379 dictionary based on it (either returning it or writing it back into
1380 the variable that the starting dictionary was read from) the new
1381 dictionary will have the same order of keys, modulo any deleted
1382 keys and with new keys added on to the end. When a string is
1383 interpreted as a dictionary and it would otherwise have duplicate
1384 keys, only the last value for a particular key is used; the others
1385 are ignored, meaning that, "apple banana" and "apple carrot apple
1386 banana" are equivalent dictionaries (with different string
1389 Note that in Jim, arrays are implemented as dictionaries.
1390 Thus automatic conversion between lists and dictionaries applies
1391 as it does for arrays.
1393 jim> dict set a 1 one
1395 jim> dict set a 2 two
1401 jim> dict set a 3 T three
1402 1 one 2 two 3 {T three}
1404 See the `dict` command for more details.
1408 Tcl added namespaces as a mechanism avoiding name clashes, especially in applications
1409 including a number of 3rd party components. While there is less need for namespaces
1410 in Jim Tcl (which does not strive to support large applications), it is convenient to
1411 provide a subset of the support for namespaces to easy porting code from Tcl.
1413 Jim Tcl currently supports "light-weight" namespaces which should be adequate for most
1414 purposes. This feature is currently experimental. See README.namespaces for more information
1415 and the documentation of the `namespace` command.
1417 GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION
1418 -----------------------------------------------
1419 Unlike Tcl, Jim has some sophisticated support for functional programming.
1420 These are described briefly below.
1422 More information may be found at http://wiki.tcl.tk/13847
1426 A reference can be thought of as holding a value with one level of indirection,
1427 where the value may be garbage collected when unreferenced.
1428 Consider the following example:
1430 jim> set r [ref "One String" test]
1431 <reference.<test___>.00000000000000000000>
1435 The operation `ref` creates a references to the value specified by the
1436 first argument. (The second argument is a "type" used for documentation purposes).
1438 The operation `getref` is the dereferencing operation which retrieves the value
1439 stored in the reference.
1441 jim> setref $r "New String"
1446 The operation `setref` replaces the value stored by the reference. If the old value
1447 is no longer accessible by any reference, it will eventually be automatically be garbage
1452 Normally, all values in Tcl are passed by value. As such values are copied and released
1453 automatically as necessary.
1455 With the introduction of references, it is possible to create values whose lifetime
1456 transcend their scope. To support this, case, the Jim system will periodically identify
1457 and discard objects which are no longer accessible by any reference.
1459 The `collect` command may be used to force garbage collection. Consider a reference created
1462 jim> proc f {ref value} { puts "Finaliser called for $ref,$value" }
1463 jim> set r [ref "One String" test f]
1464 <reference.<test___>.00000000000
1469 Finaliser called for <reference.<test___>.00000000000,One String
1472 Note that once the reference, 'r', was modified so that it no longer
1473 contained a reference to the value, the garbage collector discarded
1474 the value (after calling the finalizer).
1476 The finalizer for a reference may be examined or changed with the `finalize` command
1480 jim> finalize $r newf
1485 Jim provides a garbage collected `lambda` function. This is a procedure
1486 which is able to create an anonymous procedure. Consider:
1488 jim> set f [lambda {a} {{x 0}} { incr x $a }]
1495 This create an anonymous procedure (with the name stored in 'f'), with a static variable
1496 which is incremented by the supplied value and the result returned.
1498 Once the procedure name is no longer accessible, it will automatically be deleted
1499 when the garbage collector runs.
1501 The procedure may also be delete immediately by renaming it "". e.g.
1507 If Jim is built with UTF-8 support enabled (configure --enable-utf),
1508 then most string-related commands become UTF-8 aware. These include,
1509 but are not limited to, `string match`, `split`, `glob`, `scan` and
1512 UTF-8 encoding has many advantages, but one of the complications is that
1513 characters can take a variable number of bytes. Thus the addition of
1514 `string bytelength` which returns the number of bytes in a string,
1515 while `string length` returns the number of characters.
1517 If UTF-8 support is not enabled, all commands treat bytes as characters
1518 and `string bytelength` returns the same value as `string length`.
1520 Note that even if UTF-8 support is not enabled, the +{backslash}uNNNN+ and related syntax
1521 is still available to embed UTF-8 sequences.
1523 Jim Tcl supports all currently defined unicode codepoints. That is 21 bits, up to +'U+1FFFFF'.
1527 Commands such as `string match`, `lsearch -glob`, `array names` and others use string
1528 pattern matching rules. These commands support UTF-8. For example:
1530 string match a\[\ua0-\ubf\]b "a\u00a3b"
1534 +format %c+ allows a unicode codepoint to be be encoded. For example, the following will return
1535 a string with two bytes and one character. The same as +{backslash}ub5+
1539 `format` respects widths as character widths, not byte widths. For example, the following will
1540 return a string with three characters, not three bytes.
1542 format %.3s \ub5\ub6\ub7\ub8
1544 Similarly, +scan ... %c+ allows a UTF-8 to be decoded to a unicode codepoint. The following will set
1545 +'a'+ to 181 (0xb5) and +'b'+ to 65 (0x41).
1547 scan \u00b5A %c%c a b
1549 `scan %s` will also accept a character class, including unicode ranges.
1553 `string is` has *not* been extended to classify UTF-8 characters. Therefore, the following
1554 will return 0, even though the string may be considered to be alphabetic.
1556 string is alpha \ub5Test
1558 This does not affect the string classes 'ascii', 'control', 'digit', 'double', 'integer' or 'xdigit'.
1560 Case Mapping and Conversion
1561 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1562 Jim provides a simplified unicode case mapping. This means that case conversion
1563 and comparison will not increase or decrease the number of characters in a string.
1564 (Although it may change the number of bytes).
1566 `string toupper` will convert any lowercase letters to their uppercase equivalent.
1567 Any character which is not a letter or has no uppercase equivalent is left unchanged.
1568 Similarly for `string tolower` and `string totitle`.
1570 Commands which perform case insensitive matches, such as `string compare -nocase`
1571 and `lsearch -nocase` fold both strings to uppercase before comparison.
1573 Invalid UTF-8 Sequences
1574 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1575 Some UTF-8 character sequences are invalid, such as those beginning with '0xff',
1576 those which represent character sequences longer than 3 bytes (greater than U+FFFF),
1577 and those which end prematurely, such as a lone '0xc2'.
1579 In these situations, the offending bytes are treated as single characters. For example,
1580 the following returns 2.
1582 string bytelength \xff\xff
1586 If UTF-8 support is enabled, the built-in regular expression engine will be
1587 selected which supports UTF-8 strings and patterns.
1589 See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
1593 The Tcl library provides the following built-in commands, which will
1594 be available in any application using Tcl. In addition to these
1595 built-in commands, there may be additional commands defined by each
1596 application, plus commands defined as Tcl procedures.
1598 In the command syntax descriptions below, words in +*boldface*+ are
1599 literals that you type verbatim to Tcl.
1601 Words in +'italics'+ are meta-symbols; they serve as names for any of
1602 a range of values that you can type.
1604 Optional arguments or groups of arguments are indicated by enclosing them
1605 in +?question-marks?+.
1607 Ellipses (+\...+) indicate that any number of additional
1608 arguments or groups of arguments may appear, in the same format
1609 as the preceding argument(s).
1620 Delivers the +SIGALRM+ signal to the process after the given
1621 number of seconds. If the platform supports 'ualarm(3)' then
1622 the argument may be a floating point value. Otherwise it must
1625 Note that unless a signal handler for +SIGALRM+ has been installed
1626 (see `signal`), the process will exit on this signal.
1630 +*alias* 'name args\...'+
1632 Creates a single word alias (command) for one or more words. For example,
1633 the following creates an alias for the command `info exists`.
1640 `alias` returns +'name'+, allowing it to be used with `local`.
1642 See also `proc`, `curry`, `lambda`, `local`, `info alias`, `exists -alias`
1646 +*append* 'varName value ?value value ...?'+
1648 Append all of the +'value'+ arguments to the current value
1649 of variable +'varName'+. If +'varName'+ doesn't exist,
1650 it is given a value equal to the concatenation of all the
1651 +'value'+ arguments.
1653 This command provides an efficient way to build up long
1654 variables incrementally.
1655 For example, "`append a $b`" is much more efficient than
1656 "`set a $a$b`" if +$a+ is long.
1660 +*apply* 'lambdaExpr ?arg1 arg2 \...?'+
1662 The command `apply` provides for anonymous procedure calls,
1663 similar to `lambda`, but without command name being created, even temporarily.
1665 The function +'lambdaExpr'+ is a two element list +{args body}+
1666 or a three element list +{args body namespace}+. The first element
1667 args specifies the formal arguments, in the same form as the `proc` and `lambda` commands.
1671 +*array* 'option arrayName ?arg\...?'+
1673 This command performs one of several operations on the
1674 variable given by +'arrayName'+.
1676 Note that in general, if the named array does not exist, the +'array'+ command behaves
1677 as though the array exists but is empty.
1679 The +'option'+ argument determines what action is carried out by the
1680 command. The legal +'options'+ (which may be abbreviated) are:
1682 +*array exists* 'arrayName'+::
1683 Returns 1 if arrayName is an array variable, 0 if there is
1684 no variable by that name.
1686 +*array get* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1687 Returns a list containing pairs of elements. The first
1688 element in each pair is the name of an element in arrayName
1689 and the second element of each pair is the value of the
1690 array element. The order of the pairs is undefined. If
1691 pattern is not specified, then all of the elements of the
1692 array are included in the result. If pattern is specified,
1693 then only those elements whose names match pattern (using
1694 the matching rules of string match) are included. If arrayName
1695 isn't the name of an array variable, or if the array contains
1696 no elements, then an empty list is returned.
1698 +*array names* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1699 Returns a list containing the names of all of the elements
1700 in the array that match pattern. If pattern is omitted then
1701 the command returns all of the element names in the array.
1702 If pattern is specified, then only those elements whose
1703 names match pattern (using the matching rules of string
1704 match) are included. If there are no (matching) elements
1705 in the array, or if arrayName isn't the name of an array
1706 variable, then an empty string is returned.
1708 +*array set* 'arrayName list'+::
1709 Sets the values of one or more elements in arrayName. list
1710 must have a form like that returned by array get, consisting
1711 of an even number of elements. Each odd-numbered element
1712 in list is treated as an element name within arrayName, and
1713 the following element in list is used as a new value for
1714 that array element. If the variable arrayName does not
1715 already exist and list is empty, arrayName is created with
1716 an empty array value.
1718 +*array size* 'arrayName'+::
1719 Returns the number of elements in the array. If arrayName
1720 isn't the name of an array then 0 is returned.
1722 +*array unset* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1723 Unsets all of the elements in the array that match pattern
1724 (using the matching rules of string match). If arrayName
1725 isn't the name of an array variable or there are no matching
1726 elements in the array, no error will be raised. If pattern
1727 is omitted and arrayName is an array variable, then the
1728 command unsets the entire array. The command always returns
1735 This command may be invoked only inside the body of a loop command
1736 such as `for` or `foreach` or `while`. It returns a +JIM_BREAK+ code
1737 to signal the innermost containing loop command to return immediately.
1741 The obsolete '+*case*+' command has been removed from Jim Tcl since v0.75.
1742 Use `switch` instead.
1746 +*catch* ?-?no?'code \...'? ?--? 'command ?resultVarName? ?optionsVarName?'+
1748 The `catch` command may be used to prevent errors from aborting
1749 command interpretation. `catch` evaluates +'command'+, and returns a
1750 +JIM_OK+ code, regardless of any errors that might occur while
1751 executing +'command'+ (with the possible exception of +JIM_SIGNAL+ -
1754 The return value from `catch` is a decimal string giving the code
1755 returned by the Tcl interpreter after executing +'command'+. This
1756 will be '0' (+JIM_OK+) if there were no errors in +'command'+; otherwise
1757 it will have a non-zero value corresponding to one of the exceptional
1758 return codes (see jim.h for the definitions of code values, or the
1759 `info returncodes` command).
1761 If the +'resultVarName'+ argument is given, then it gives the name
1762 of a variable; `catch` will set the value of the variable to the
1763 string returned from +'command'+ (either a result or an error message).
1765 If the +'optionsVarName'+ argument is given, then it gives the name
1766 of a variable; `catch` will set the value of the variable to a
1767 dictionary. For any return code other than +JIM_RETURN+, the value
1768 for the key +-code+ will be set to the return code. For +JIM_RETURN+
1769 it will be set to the code given in `return -code`. Additionally,
1770 for the return code +JIM_ERR+, the value of the key +-errorinfo+
1771 will contain the current stack trace (the same result as `info stacktrace`),
1772 the value of the key +-errorcode+ will contain the
1773 same value as the global variable $::errorCode, and the value of
1774 the key +-level+ will be the current return level (see `return -level`).
1775 This can be useful to rethrow an error:
1777 if {[catch {...} msg opts]} {
1778 ...maybe do something with the error...
1780 return {*}$opts $msg
1783 Normally `catch` will +'not'+ catch any of the codes +JIM_EXIT+, +JIM_EVAL+ or +JIM_SIGNAL+.
1784 The set of codes which will be caught may be modified by specifying the one more codes before
1787 e.g. To catch +JIM_EXIT+ but not +JIM_BREAK+ or +JIM_CONTINUE+
1789 catch -exit -nobreak -nocontinue -- { ... }
1791 The use of +--+ is optional. It signifies that no more return code options follow.
1793 Note that if a signal marked as `signal handle` is caught with `catch -signal`, the return value
1794 (stored in +'resultVarName'+) is name of the signal caught.
1800 Change the current working directory to +'dirName'+.
1802 Returns an empty string.
1804 This command can potentially be disruptive to an application, so it may
1805 be removed in some applications.
1810 Returns the current time as seconds since the epoch.
1813 Returns the current time in "clicks", a system-dependent, high-resolution time.
1815 +*clock microseconds*+::
1816 Returns the current time in microseconds.
1818 +*clock milliseconds*+::
1819 Returns the current time in milliseconds.
1821 +*clock format* 'seconds' ?*-format* 'format?' ?*-gmt* 'boolean?'+::
1822 Format the given time (seconds since the epoch) according to the given
1823 format. See strftime(3) for supported formats.
1824 If no format is supplied, "%c" is used.
1826 If +'boolean'+ is true, processing is performed in UTC.
1827 If +'boolean'+ is false (the default), processing is performeed in the local time zone.
1829 +*clock scan* 'str' *-format* 'format' ?*-gmt* 'boolean?'+::
1830 Scan the given time string using the given format string.
1831 See strptime(3) for supported formats.
1832 See `clock format` for the handling of '-gmt'.
1840 Closes the file given by +'fileId'+.
1841 +'fileId'+ must be the return value from a previous invocation
1842 of the `open` command; after this command, it should not be
1849 Normally reference garbage collection is automatically performed periodically.
1850 However it may be run immediately with the `collect` command.
1852 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
1856 +*concat* 'arg ?arg \...?'+
1858 This command treats each argument as a list and concatenates them
1859 into a single list. It permits any number of arguments. For example,
1862 concat a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
1874 This command may be invoked only inside the body of a loop command such
1875 as `for` or `foreach` or `while`. It returns a +JIM_CONTINUE+ code to
1876 signal the innermost containing loop command to skip the remainder of
1877 the loop's body but continue with the next iteration of the loop.
1881 +*alias* 'args\...'+
1883 Similar to `alias` except it creates an anonymous procedure (lambda) instead of
1886 the following creates a local, unnamed alias for the command `info exists`.
1888 set e [local curry info exists]
1893 `curry` returns the name of the procedure.
1895 See also `proc`, `alias`, `lambda`, `local`.
1899 +*dict* 'option ?arg\...?'+
1901 Performs one of several operations on dictionary values.
1903 The +'option'+ argument determines what action is carried out by the
1904 command. The legal +'options'+ are:
1906 +*dict create* '?key value \...?'+::
1907 Create and return a new dictionary value that contains each of
1908 the key/value mappings listed as arguments (keys and values
1909 alternating, with each key being followed by its associated
1912 +*dict exists* 'dictionary key ?key \...?'+::
1913 Returns a boolean value indicating whether the given key (or path
1914 of keys through a set of nested dictionaries) exists in the given
1915 dictionary value. This returns a true value exactly when `dict get`
1916 on that path will succeed.
1918 +*dict get* 'dictionary ?key \...?'+::
1919 Given a dictionary value (first argument) and a key (second argument),
1920 this will retrieve the value for that key. Where several keys are
1921 supplied, the behaviour of the command shall be as if the result
1922 of "`dict get $dictVal $key`" was passed as the first argument to
1923 dict get with the remaining arguments as second (and possibly
1924 subsequent) arguments. This facilitates lookups in nested dictionaries.
1925 If no keys are provided, dict would return a list containing pairs
1926 of elements in a manner similar to array get. That is, the first
1927 element of each pair would be the key and the second element would
1928 be the value for that key. It is an error to attempt to retrieve
1929 a value for a key that is not present in the dictionary.
1931 +*dict keys* 'dictionary ?pattern?'+::
1932 Returns a list of the keys in the dictionary.
1933 If pattern is specified, then only those keys whose
1934 names match +'pattern'+ (using the matching rules of string
1935 match) are included.
1937 +*dict merge* ?'dictionary \...'?+::
1938 Return a dictionary that contains the contents of each of the
1939 +'dictionary'+ arguments. Where two (or more) dictionaries
1940 contain a mapping for the same key, the resulting dictionary
1941 maps that key to the value according to the last dictionary on
1942 the command line containing a mapping for that key.
1944 +*dict set* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? value'+::
1945 This operation takes the +'name'+ of a variable containing a dictionary
1946 value and places an updated dictionary value in that variable
1947 containing a mapping from the given key to the given value. When
1948 multiple keys are present, this operation creates or updates a chain
1949 of nested dictionaries.
1951 +*dict size* 'dictionary'+::
1952 Return the number of key/value mappings in the given dictionary value.
1954 +*dict unset* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? value'+::
1955 This operation (the companion to `dict set`) takes the name of a
1956 variable containing a dictionary value and places an updated
1957 dictionary value in that variable that does not contain a mapping
1958 for the given key. Where multiple keys are present, this describes
1959 a path through nested dictionaries to the mapping to remove. At
1960 least one key must be specified, but the last key on the key-path
1961 need not exist. All other components on the path must exist.
1963 +*dict with* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? script'+::
1964 Execute the Tcl script in +'script'+ with the value for each
1965 key in +'dictionaryName'+ mapped to a variable with the same
1966 name. Where one or more keys are given, these indicate a chain
1967 of nested dictionaries, with the innermost dictionary being the
1968 one opened out for the execution of body. Making +'dictionaryName'+
1969 unreadable will make the updates to the dictionary be discarded,
1970 and this also happens if the contents of +'dictionaryName'+ are
1971 adjusted so that the chain of dictionaries no longer exists.
1972 The result of `dict with` is (unless some kind of error occurs)
1973 the result of the evaluation of body.
1975 The variables are mapped in the scope enclosing the `dict with`;
1976 it is recommended that this command only be used in a local
1977 scope (procedure). Because of this, the variables set by
1978 `dict with` will continue to exist after the command finishes (unless
1979 explicitly unset). Note that changes to the contents of +'dictionaryName'+
1980 only happen when +'script'+ terminates.
1982 +*dict for, values, incr, append, lappend, update, info, replace*+ to be documented...
1986 +*env* '?name? ?default?'+
1988 If +'name'+ is supplied, returns the value of +'name'+ from the initial
1989 environment (see getenv(3)). An error is returned if +'name'+ does not
1990 exist in the environment, unless +'default'+ is supplied - in which case
1991 that value is returned instead.
1993 If no arguments are supplied, returns a list of all environment variables
1994 and their values as +{name value \...}+
1996 See also the global variable +::env+
2004 Returns 1 if an end-of-file condition has occurred on +'fileId'+,
2007 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to `open`,
2008 or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one of the
2009 standard I/O channels.
2013 +*error* 'message ?stacktrace?'+
2015 Returns a +JIM_ERR+ code, which causes command interpretation to be
2016 unwound. +'message'+ is a string that is returned to the application
2017 to indicate what went wrong.
2019 If the +'stacktrace'+ argument is provided and is non-empty,
2020 it is used to initialize the stacktrace.
2022 This feature is most useful in conjunction with the `catch` command:
2023 if a caught error cannot be handled successfully, +'stacktrace'+ can be used
2024 to return a stack trace reflecting the original point of occurrence
2029 error $errMsg [info stacktrace]
2031 See also `errorInfo`, `info stacktrace`, `catch` and `return`
2035 +*errorInfo* 'error ?stacktrace?'+
2037 Returns a human-readable representation of the given error message and stack trace.
2040 if {[catch {...} error]} {
2041 puts stderr [errorInfo $error [info stacktrace]]
2049 +*eval* 'arg ?arg\...?'+
2051 `eval` takes one or more arguments, which together comprise a Tcl
2052 command (or collection of Tcl commands separated by newlines in the
2053 usual way). `eval` concatenates all its arguments in the same
2054 fashion as the `concat` command, passes the concatenated string to the
2055 Tcl interpreter recursively, and returns the result of that
2056 evaluation (or any error generated by it).
2060 +*exec* 'arg ?arg\...?'+
2062 This command treats its arguments as the specification
2063 of one or more UNIX commands to execute as subprocesses.
2064 The commands take the form of a standard shell pipeline;
2065 +|+ arguments separate commands in the
2066 pipeline and cause standard output of the preceding command
2067 to be piped into standard input of the next command (or +|&+ for
2068 both standard output and standard error).
2070 Under normal conditions the result of the `exec` command
2071 consists of the standard output produced by the last command
2072 in the pipeline followed by the standard error output.
2074 If any of the commands writes to its standard error file,
2075 then this will be included in the result after the standard output
2076 of the last command.
2078 Note that unlike Tcl, data written to standard error does not cause
2079 `exec` to return an error.
2081 If any of the commands in the pipeline exit abnormally or
2082 are killed or suspended, then `exec` will return an error.
2083 If no standard error output was produced, or is redirected,
2084 the error message will include the normal result, as above,
2085 followed by error messages describing the abnormal terminations.
2087 If any standard error output was produced, these abnormal termination
2088 messages are suppressed.
2090 If the last character of the result or error message
2091 is a newline then that character is deleted from the result
2092 or error message for consistency with normal
2095 An +'arg'+ may have one of the following special forms:
2098 The standard output of the last command in the pipeline
2099 is redirected to the file. In this situation `exec`
2100 will normally return an empty string.
2103 As above, but append to the file.
2106 The standard output of the last command in the pipeline is
2107 redirected to the given (writable) file descriptor (e.g. stdout,
2108 stderr, or the result of `open`). In this situation `exec`
2109 will normally return an empty string.
2112 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline
2113 is redirected to the file.
2116 As above, but append to the file.
2119 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline is
2120 redirected to the given (writable) file descriptor.
2123 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline is
2124 redirected to the same file descriptor as the standard output.
2127 Both the standard output and standard error of the last command
2128 in the pipeline is redirected to the file.
2131 As above, but append to the file.
2134 The standard input of the first command in the pipeline
2135 is taken from the file.
2138 The standard input of the first command is taken as the
2139 given immediate value.
2142 The standard input of the first command in the pipeline
2143 is taken from the given (readable) file descriptor.
2145 If there is no redirection of standard input, standard error
2146 or standard output, these are connected to the corresponding
2147 input or output of the application.
2149 If the last +'arg'+ is +&+ then the command will be
2150 executed in background.
2151 In this case the standard output from the last command
2152 in the pipeline will
2153 go to the application's standard output unless
2154 redirected in the command, and error output from all
2155 the commands in the pipeline will go to the application's
2156 standard error file. The return value of exec in this case
2157 is a list of process ids (pids) in the pipeline.
2159 Each +'arg'+ becomes one word for a command, except for
2160 +|+, +<+, +<<+, +>+, and +&+ arguments, and the
2161 arguments that follow +<+, +<<+, and +>+.
2163 The first word in each command is taken as the command name;
2164 the directories in the PATH environment variable are searched for
2165 an executable by the given name.
2167 No `glob` expansion or other shell-like substitutions
2168 are performed on the arguments to commands.
2170 If the command fails, the global $::errorCode (and the -errorcode
2171 option in `catch`) will be set to a list, as follows:
2173 +*CHILDKILLED* 'pid sigName msg'+::
2174 This format is used when a child process has been killed
2175 because of a signal. The pid element will be the process's
2176 identifier (in decimal). The sigName element will be the
2177 symbolic name of the signal that caused the process to
2178 terminate; it will be one of the names from the include
2179 file signal.h, such as SIGPIPE. The msg element will be a
2180 short human-readable message describing the signal, such
2181 as "write on pipe with no readers" for SIGPIPE.
2183 +*CHILDSUSP* 'pid sigName msg'+::
2184 This format is used when a child process has been suspended
2185 because of a signal. The pid element will be the process's
2186 identifier, in decimal. The sigName element will be the
2187 symbolic name of the signal that caused the process to
2188 suspend; this will be one of the names from the include
2189 file signal.h, such as SIGTTIN. The msg element will be a
2190 short human-readable message describing the signal, such
2191 as "background tty read" for SIGTTIN.
2193 +*CHILDSTATUS* 'pid code'+::
2194 This format is used when a child process has exited with a
2195 non-zero exit status. The pid element will be the process's
2196 identifier (in decimal) and the code element will be the
2197 exit code returned by the process (also in decimal).
2199 The environment for the executed command is set from $::env (unless
2200 this variable is unset, in which case the original environment is used).
2204 +*exists ?-var|-proc|-command|-alias?* 'name'+
2206 Checks the existence of the given variable, procedure, command
2207 or alias respectively and returns 1 if it exists or 0 if not. This command
2208 provides a more simplified/convenient version of `info exists`,
2209 `info procs` and `info commands`.
2211 If the type is omitted, a type of '-var' is used. The type may be abbreviated.
2215 +*exit* '?returnCode?'+
2217 Terminate the process, returning +'returnCode'+ to the
2218 parent as the exit status.
2220 If +'returnCode'+ isn't specified then it defaults
2223 Note that exit can be caught with `catch`.
2229 Calls the expression processor to evaluate +'arg'+, and returns
2230 the result as a string. See the section EXPRESSIONS above.
2232 Note that Jim supports a shorthand syntax for `expr` as +$(\...)+
2233 The following two are identical.
2235 set x [expr {3 * 2 + 1}]
2240 +*file* 'option name ?arg\...?'+
2242 Operate on a file or a file name. +'name'+ is the name of a file.
2244 +'option'+ indicates what to do with the file name. Any unique
2245 abbreviation for +'option'+ is acceptable. The valid options are:
2247 +*file atime* 'name'+::
2248 Return a decimal string giving the time at which file +'name'+
2249 was last accessed. The time is measured in the standard UNIX
2250 fashion as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1, 1970).
2251 If the file doesn't exist or its access time cannot be queried then an
2254 +*file copy ?-force?* 'source target'+::
2255 Copies file +'source'+ to file +'target'+. The source file must exist.
2256 The target file must not exist, unless +-force+ is specified.
2258 +*file delete ?-force? ?--?* 'name\...'+::
2259 Deletes file or directory +'name'+. If the file or directory doesn't exist, nothing happens.
2260 If it can't be deleted, an error is generated. Non-empty directories will not be deleted
2261 unless the +-force+ options is given. In this case no errors will be generated, even
2262 if the file/directory can't be deleted. Use +'--'+ if there is any possibility of
2263 the first name being +'-force'+.
2265 +*file dirname* 'name'+::
2266 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ up to but not including
2267 the last slash character. If there are no slashes in +'name'+
2268 then return +.+ (a single dot). If the last slash in +'name'+ is its first
2269 character, then return +/+.
2271 +*file executable* 'name'+::
2272 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is executable by
2273 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2275 +*file exists* 'name'+::
2276 Return '1' if file +'name'+ exists and the current user has
2277 search privileges for the directories leading to it, '0' otherwise.
2279 +*file extension* 'name'+::
2280 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ after and including the
2281 last dot in +'name'+. If there is no dot in +'name'+ then return
2284 +*file isdirectory* 'name'+::
2285 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is a directory,
2288 +*file isfile* 'name'+::
2289 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is a regular file,
2292 +*file join* 'arg\...'+::
2293 Joins multiple path components. Note that if any components is
2294 an absolute path, the preceding components are ignored.
2295 Thus +"`file` join /tmp /root"+ returns +"/root"+.
2297 +*file link* ?*-hard|-symbolic*? 'newname target'+::
2298 Creates a hard link (default) or symbolic link from +'newname'+ to +'target'+.
2299 Note that the sense of this command is the opposite of `file rename` and `file copy`
2300 and also of `ln`, but this is compatible with Tcl.
2301 An error is returned if +'target'+ doesn't exist or +'newname'+ already exists.
2303 +*file lstat* 'name varName'+::
2304 Same as 'stat' option (see below) except uses the +'lstat'+
2305 kernel call instead of +'stat'+. This means that if +'name'+
2306 refers to a symbolic link the information returned in +'varName'+
2307 is for the link rather than the file it refers to. On systems that
2308 don't support symbolic links this option behaves exactly the same
2309 as the 'stat' option.
2311 +*file mkdir* 'dir1 ?dir2\...?'+::
2312 Creates each directory specified. For each pathname +'dir'+ specified,
2313 this command will create all non-existing parent directories
2314 as well as +'dir'+ itself. If an existing directory is specified,
2315 then no action is taken and no error is returned. Trying to
2316 overwrite an existing file with a directory will result in an
2317 error. Arguments are processed in the order specified, halting
2318 at the first error, if any.
2320 +*file mtime* 'name ?time?'+::
2321 Return a decimal string giving the time at which file +'name'+
2322 was last modified. The time is measured in the standard UNIX
2323 fashion as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1, 1970).
2324 If the file doesn't exist or its modified time cannot be queried then an
2325 error is generated. If +'time'+ is given, sets the modification time
2326 of the file to the given value.
2328 +*file mtimeus* 'name ?time_us?'+::
2329 As for `file mtime` except the time value is in microseconds
2330 since the epoch (see also `clock microseconds`).
2331 Note that some platforms and some filesystems don't support high
2332 resolution timestamps for files.
2334 +*file normalize* 'name'+::
2335 Return the normalized path of +'name'+. See 'realpath(3)'.
2337 +*file owned* 'name'+::
2338 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is owned by the current user,
2341 +*file readable* 'name'+::
2342 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is readable by
2343 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2345 +*file readlink* 'name'+::
2346 Returns the value of the symbolic link given by +'name'+ (i.e. the
2347 name of the file it points to). If
2348 +'name'+ isn't a symbolic link or its value cannot be read, then
2349 an error is returned. On systems that don't support symbolic links
2350 this option is undefined.
2352 +*file rename* ?*-force*? 'oldname' 'newname'+::
2353 Renames the file from the old name to the new name.
2354 If +'newname'+ already exists, an error is returned unless +'-force'+ is
2357 +*file rootname* 'name'+::
2358 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ up to but not including
2359 the last '.' character in the name. If +'name'+ doesn't contain
2360 a dot, then return +'name'+.
2362 +*file split* 'name'+::
2363 Returns a list whose elements are the path components in +'name'+.
2364 The first element of the list will have the same path type as
2365 +'name'+. All other elements will be relative. Path separators
2368 +*file stat* 'name ?varName?'+::
2369 Invoke the 'stat' kernel call on +'name'+, and return the result
2370 as a dictionary with the following keys: 'atime',
2371 'ctime', 'dev', 'gid', 'ino', 'mode', 'mtime',
2372 'nlink', 'size', 'type', 'uid', 'mtimeus' (if supported - see `file mtimeus`)
2373 Each element except 'type' is a decimal string with the value of
2374 the corresponding field from the 'stat' return structure; see the
2375 manual entry for 'stat' for details on the meanings of the values.
2376 The 'type' element gives the type of the file in the same form
2377 returned by the command `file type`.
2378 If +'varName'+ is specified, it is taken to be the name of an array
2379 variable and the values are also stored into the array.
2381 +*file tail* 'name'+::
2382 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ after the last slash.
2383 If +'name'+ contains no slashes then return +'name'+.
2385 +*file tempfile* '?template?'+::
2386 Creates and returns the name of a unique temporary file. If +'template'+ is omitted, a
2387 default template will be used to place the file in /tmp. See 'mkstemp(3)' for
2388 the format of the template and security concerns.
2390 +*file type* 'name'+::
2391 Returns a string giving the type of file +'name'+, which will be
2392 one of +file+, +directory+, +characterSpecial+,
2393 +blockSpecial+, +fifo+, +link+, or +socket+.
2395 +*file writable* 'name'+::
2396 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is writable by
2397 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2399 The `file` commands that return 0/1 results are often used in
2400 conditional or looping commands, for example:
2402 if {![file exists foo]} {
2403 error {bad file name}
2410 +*finalize* 'reference ?command?'+
2412 If +'command'+ is omitted, returns the finalizer command for the given reference.
2414 Otherwise, sets a new finalizer command for the given reference. +'command'+ may be
2415 the empty string to remove the current finalizer.
2417 The reference must be a valid reference create with the `ref`
2420 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2428 Flushes any output that has been buffered for +'fileId'+. +'fileId'+ must
2429 have been the return value from a previous call to `open`, or it may be
2430 +stdout+ or +stderr+ to access one of the standard I/O streams; it must
2431 refer to a file that was opened for writing. This command returns an
2436 +*for* 'start test next body'+
2438 `for` is a looping command, similar in structure to the C `for` statement.
2439 The +'start'+, +'next'+, and +'body'+ arguments must be Tcl command strings,
2440 and +'test'+ is an expression string.
2442 The `for` command first invokes the Tcl interpreter to execute +'start'+.
2443 Then it repeatedly evaluates +'test'+ as an expression; if the result is
2444 non-zero it invokes the Tcl interpreter on +'body'+, then invokes the Tcl
2445 interpreter on +'next'+, then repeats the loop. The command terminates
2446 when +'test'+ evaluates to 0.
2448 If a `continue` command is invoked within +'body'+ then any remaining
2449 commands in the current execution of +'body'+ are skipped; processing
2450 continues by invoking the Tcl interpreter on +'next'+, then evaluating
2451 +'test'+, and so on.
2453 If a `break` command is invoked within +'body'+ or +'next'+, then the `for`
2454 command will return immediately.
2456 The operation of `break` and `continue` are similar to the corresponding
2459 `for` returns an empty string.
2463 +*foreach* 'varName list body'+
2465 +*foreach* 'varList list ?varList2 list2 \...? body'+
2467 In this command, +'varName'+ is the name of a variable, +'list'+
2468 is a list of values to assign to +'varName'+, and +'body'+ is a
2469 collection of Tcl commands.
2471 For each field in +'list'+ (in order from left to right), `foreach` assigns
2472 the contents of the field to +'varName'+ (as if the `lindex` command
2473 had been used to extract the field), then calls the Tcl interpreter to
2476 If instead of being a simple name, +'varList'+ is used, multiple assignments
2477 are made each time through the loop, one for each element of +'varList'+.
2479 For example, if there are two elements in +'varList'+ and six elements in
2480 the list, the loop will be executed three times.
2482 If the length of the list doesn't evenly divide by the number of elements
2483 in +'varList'+, the value of the remaining variables in the last iteration
2484 of the loop are undefined.
2486 The `break` and `continue` statements may be invoked inside +'body'+,
2487 with the same effect as in the `for` command.
2489 `foreach` returns an empty string.
2493 +*format* 'formatString ?arg \...?'+
2495 This command generates a formatted string in the same way as the
2496 C 'sprintf' procedure (it uses 'sprintf' in its
2497 implementation). +'formatString'+ indicates how to format
2498 the result, using +%+ fields as in 'sprintf', and the additional
2499 arguments, if any, provide values to be substituted into the result.
2501 All of the 'sprintf' options are valid; see the 'sprintf'
2502 man page for details. Each +'arg'+ must match the expected type
2503 from the +%+ field in +'formatString'+; the `format` command
2504 converts each argument to the correct type (floating, integer, etc.)
2505 before passing it to 'sprintf' for formatting.
2507 The only unusual conversion is for +%c+; in this case the argument
2508 must be a decimal string, which will then be converted to the corresponding
2509 ASCII (or UTF-8) character value.
2511 In addition, Jim Tcl provides basic support for conversion to binary with +%b+.
2513 `format` does backslash substitution on its +'formatString'+
2514 argument, so backslash sequences in +'formatString'+ will be handled
2515 correctly even if the argument is in braces.
2517 The return value from `format` is the formatted string.
2521 +*getref* 'reference'+
2523 Returns the string associated with +'reference'+. The reference must
2524 be a valid reference create with the `ref` command.
2526 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2530 +*gets* 'fileId ?varName?'+
2532 +'fileId' *gets* '?varName?'+
2534 Reads the next line from the file given by +'fileId'+ and discards
2535 the terminating newline character.
2537 If +'varName'+ is specified, then the line is placed in the variable
2538 by that name and the return value is a count of the number of characters
2539 read (not including the newline).
2541 If the end of the file is reached before reading
2542 any characters then -1 is returned and +'varName'+ is set to an
2545 If +'varName'+ is not specified then the return value will be
2546 the line (minus the newline character) or an empty string if
2547 the end of the file is reached before reading any characters.
2549 An empty string will also be returned if a line contains no characters
2550 except the newline, so `eof` may have to be used to determine
2551 what really happened.
2553 If the last character in the file is not a newline character, then
2554 `gets` behaves as if there were an additional newline character
2555 at the end of the file.
2557 +'fileId'+ must be +stdin+ or the return value from a previous
2558 call to `open`; it must refer to a file that was opened
2563 +*glob* ?*-nocomplain*? ?*-directory* 'dir'? ?*-tails*? ?*--*? 'pattern ?pattern \...?'+
2565 This command performs filename globbing, using csh rules. The returned
2566 value from `glob` is the list of expanded filenames.
2568 If +-nocomplain+ is specified as the first argument then an empty
2569 list may be returned; otherwise an error is returned if the expanded
2570 list is empty. The +-nocomplain+ argument must be provided
2571 exactly: an abbreviation will not be accepted.
2573 If +-directory+ is given, the +'dir'+ is understood to contain a
2574 directory name to search in. This allows globbing inside directories
2575 whose names may contain glob-sensitive characters. The returned names
2576 include the directory name unless +'-tails'+ is specified.
2578 If +'-tails'+ is specified, along with +-directory+, the returned names
2579 are relative to the given directory.
2584 +*global* 'varName ?varName \...?'+
2586 This command is ignored unless a Tcl procedure is being interpreted.
2587 If so, then it declares each given +'varName'+ to be a global variable
2588 rather than a local one. For the duration of the current procedure
2589 (and only while executing in the current procedure), any reference to
2590 +'varName'+ will be bound to a global variable instead
2593 An alternative to using `global` is to use the +::+ prefix
2594 to explicitly name a variable in the global scope.
2598 +*if* 'expr1' ?*then*? 'body1' *elseif* 'expr2' ?*then*? 'body2' *elseif* \... ?*else*? ?'bodyN'?+
2600 The `if` command evaluates +'expr1'+ as an expression (in the same way
2601 that `expr` evaluates its argument). The value of the expression must
2602 be numeric; if it is non-zero then +'body1'+ is executed by passing it to
2603 the Tcl interpreter.
2605 Otherwise +'expr2'+ is evaluated as an expression and if it is non-zero
2606 then +'body2'+ is executed, and so on.
2608 If none of the expressions evaluates to non-zero then +'bodyN'+ is executed.
2610 The +then+ and +else+ arguments are optional "noise words" to make the
2611 command easier to read.
2613 There may be any number of +elseif+ clauses, including zero. +'bodyN'+
2614 may also be omitted as long as +else+ is omitted too.
2616 The return value from the command is the result of the body script that
2617 was executed, or an empty string if none of the expressions was non-zero
2618 and there was no +'bodyN'+.
2622 +*incr* 'varName ?increment?'+
2624 Increment the value stored in the variable whose name is +'varName'+.
2625 The value of the variable must be integral.
2627 If +'increment'+ is supplied then its value (which must be an
2628 integer) is added to the value of variable +'varName'+; otherwise
2629 1 is added to +'varName'+.
2631 The new value is stored as a decimal string in variable +'varName'+
2632 and also returned as result.
2634 If the variable does not exist, the variable is implicitly created
2635 and set to +0+ first.
2640 +*info* 'option ?arg\...?'+::
2642 Provide information about various internals to the Tcl interpreter.
2643 The legal +'option'+'s (which may be abbreviated) are:
2645 +*info args* 'procname'+::
2646 Returns a list containing the names of the arguments to procedure
2647 +'procname'+, in order. +'procname'+ must be the name of a
2648 Tcl command procedure.
2650 +*info alias* 'command'+::
2651 +'command'+ must be an alias created with `alias`. In which case the target
2652 command and arguments, as passed to `alias` are returned. See `exists -alias`
2654 +*info body* 'procname'+::
2655 Returns the body of procedure +'procname'+. +'procname'+ must be
2656 the name of a Tcl command procedure.
2659 Returns a list of all open file handles from `open` or `socket`
2661 +*info commands* ?'pattern'?+::
2662 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of names of all the
2663 Tcl commands, including both the built-in commands written in C and
2664 the command procedures defined using the `proc` command.
2665 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2666 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2669 +*info complete* 'command' ?'missing'?+::
2670 Returns 1 if +'command'+ is a complete Tcl command in the sense of
2671 having no unclosed quotes, braces, brackets or array element names,
2672 If the command doesn't appear to be complete then 0 is returned.
2673 This command is typically used in line-oriented input environments
2674 to allow users to type in commands that span multiple lines; if the
2675 command isn't complete, the script can delay evaluating it until additional
2676 lines have been typed to complete the command. If +'varName'+ is specified, the
2677 missing character is stored in the variable with that name.
2679 +*info exists* 'varName'+::
2680 Returns '1' if the variable named +'varName'+ exists in the
2681 current context (either as a global or local variable), returns '0'
2684 +*info frame* ?'number'?+::
2685 If +'number'+ is not specified, this command returns a number
2686 which is the same result as `info level` - the current stack frame level.
2687 If +'number'+ is specified, then the result is a list consisting of the procedure,
2688 filename and line number for the procedure call at level +'number'+ on the stack.
2689 If +'number'+ is positive then it selects a particular stack level (1 refers
2690 to the top-most active procedure, 2 to the procedure it called, and
2691 so on); otherwise it gives a level relative to the current level
2692 (0 refers to the current procedure, -1 to its caller, and so on).
2693 The level has an identical meaning to `info level`.
2695 +*info globals* ?'pattern'?+::
2696 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the names
2697 of currently-defined global variables.
2698 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2699 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2703 An alias for `os.gethostname` for compatibility with Tcl 6.x
2705 +*info level* ?'number'?+::
2706 If +'number'+ is not specified, this command returns a number
2707 giving the stack level of the invoking procedure, or 0 if the
2708 command is invoked at top-level. If +'number'+ is specified,
2709 then the result is a list consisting of the name and arguments for the
2710 procedure call at level +'number'+ on the stack. If +'number'+
2711 is positive then it selects a particular stack level (1 refers
2712 to the top-most active procedure, 2 to the procedure it called, and
2713 so on); otherwise it gives a level relative to the current level
2714 (0 refers to the current procedure, -1 to its caller, and so on).
2715 See the `uplevel` command for more information on what stack
2718 +*info locals* ?'pattern'?+::
2719 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the names
2720 of currently-defined local variables, including arguments to the
2721 current procedure, if any. Variables defined with the `global`
2722 and `upvar` commands will not be returned. If +'pattern'+ is
2723 specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+ are returned.
2724 Matching is determined using the same rules as for `string match`.
2726 +*info nameofexecutable*+::
2727 Returns the name of the binary file from which the application
2728 was invoked. A full path will be returned, unless the path
2729 can't be determined, in which case the empty string will be returned.
2731 +*info procs* ?'pattern'?+::
2732 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the
2733 names of Tcl command procedures.
2734 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2735 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2738 +*info references*+::
2739 Returns a list of all references which have not yet been garbage
2742 +*info returncodes* ?'code'?+::
2743 Returns a list representing the mapping of standard return codes
2744 to names. e.g. +{0 ok 1 error 2 return \...}+. If a code is given,
2745 instead returns the name for the given code.
2748 If a Tcl script file is currently being evaluated (i.e. there is a
2749 call to 'Jim_EvalFile' active or there is an active invocation
2750 of the `source` command), then this command returns the name
2751 of the innermost file being processed. Otherwise the command returns an
2754 +*info source* 'script ?filename line?'+::
2755 With a single argument, returns the original source location of the given script as a list of
2756 +{filename linenumber}+. If the source location can't be determined, the
2757 list +{{} 0}+ is returned. If +'filename'+ and +'line'+ are given, returns a copy
2758 of +'script'+ with the associate source information. This can be useful to produce
2759 useful messages from `eval`, etc. if the original source information may be lost.
2761 +*info stacktrace*+::
2762 After an error is caught with `catch`, returns the stack trace as a list
2763 of +{procedure filename line \...}+.
2765 +*info statics* 'procname'+::
2766 Returns a dictionary of the static variables of procedure
2767 +'procname'+. +'procname'+ must be the name of a Tcl command
2768 procedure. An empty dictionary is returned if the procedure has
2769 no static variables.
2772 Returns the version number for this version of Jim in the form +*x.yy*+.
2774 +*info vars* ?'pattern'?+::
2775 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified,
2776 returns a list of all the names of currently-visible variables, including
2777 both locals and currently-visible globals.
2778 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2779 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2784 +*join* 'list ?joinString?'+
2786 The +'list'+ argument must be a valid Tcl list. This command returns the
2787 string formed by joining all of the elements of +'list'+ together with
2788 +'joinString'+ separating each adjacent pair of elements.
2790 The +'joinString'+ argument defaults to a space character.
2794 +*kill* ?'SIG'|*-0*? 'pid'+
2796 Sends the given signal to the process identified by +'pid'+.
2798 The signal may be specified by name or number in one of the following forms:
2806 The signal name may be in either upper or lower case.
2808 The special signal name +-0+ simply checks that a signal +'could'+ be sent.
2810 If no signal is specified, SIGTERM is used.
2812 An error is raised if the signal could not be delivered.
2816 +*lambda* 'args ?statics? body'+
2818 The `lambda` command is identical to `proc`, except rather than
2819 creating a named procedure, it creates an anonymous procedure and returns
2820 the name of the procedure.
2822 See `proc` and GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2826 +*lappend* 'varName value ?value value \...?'+
2828 Treat the variable given by +'varName'+ as a list and append each of
2829 the +'value'+ arguments to that list as a separate element, with spaces
2832 If +'varName'+ doesn't exist, it is created as a list with elements given
2833 by the +'value'+ arguments. `lappend` is similar to `append` except that
2834 each +'value'+ is appended as a list element rather than raw text.
2836 This command provides a relatively efficient way to build up large lists.
2841 is much more efficient than
2843 set a [concat $a [list $b]]
2849 +*lassign* 'list varName ?varName \...?'+
2851 This command treats the value +'list'+ as a list and assigns successive elements from that list to
2852 the variables given by the +'varName'+ arguments in order. If there are more variable names than
2853 list elements, the remaining variables are set to the empty string. If there are more list elements
2854 than variables, a list of unassigned elements is returned.
2856 jim> lassign {1 2 3} a b; puts a=$a,b=$b
2862 +*local* 'cmd ?arg\...?'+
2864 First, `local` evaluates +'cmd'+ with the given arguments. The return value must
2865 be the name of an existing command, which is marked as having local scope.
2866 This means that when the current procedure exits, the specified
2867 command is deleted. This can be useful with `lambda`, local procedures or
2868 to automatically close a filehandle.
2870 In addition, if a command already exists with the same name,
2871 the existing command will be kept rather than deleted, and may be called
2872 via `upcall`. The previous command will be restored when the current
2873 procedure exits. See `upcall` for more details.
2875 In this example, a local procedure is created. Note that the procedure
2876 continues to have global scope while it is active.
2879 # proc ... returns "inner" which is marked local
2880 local proc inner {} {
2881 # will be deleted when 'outer' exits
2888 In this example, the lambda is deleted at the end of the procedure rather
2889 than waiting until garbage collection.
2892 set x [lambda inner {args} {
2893 # will be deleted when 'outer' exits
2895 # Use 'function' here which simply returns $x
2904 +*loop* 'var first limit ?incr? body'+
2906 Similar to `for` except simpler and possibly more efficient.
2907 With a positive increment, equivalent to:
2909 for {set var $first} {$var < $limit} {incr var $incr} $body
2911 If +'incr'+ is not specified, 1 is used.
2912 Note that setting the loop variable inside the loop does not
2913 affect the loop count.
2917 +*lindex* 'list ?index ...?'+
2919 Treats +'list'+ as a Tcl list and returns element +'index'+ from it
2920 (0 refers to the first element of the list).
2921 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
2923 In extracting the element, +'lindex'+ observes the same rules concerning
2924 braces and quotes and backslashes as the Tcl command interpreter; however,
2925 variable substitution and command substitution do not occur.
2927 If no index values are given, simply returns +'list'+
2929 If +'index'+ is negative or greater than or equal to the number of elements
2930 in +'list'+, then an empty string is returned.
2932 If additional index arguments are supplied, then each argument is
2933 used in turn to select an element from the previous indexing
2934 operation, allowing the script to select elements from sublists.
2938 +*linsert* 'list index element ?element element \...?'+
2940 This command produces a new list from +'list'+ by inserting all
2941 of the +'element'+ arguments just before the element +'index'+
2942 of +'list'+. Each +'element'+ argument will become
2943 a separate element of the new list. If +'index'+ is less than
2944 or equal to zero, then the new elements are inserted at the
2945 beginning of the list. If +'index'+ is greater than or equal
2946 to the number of elements in the list, then the new elements are
2947 appended to the list.
2949 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
2954 +*list* 'arg ?arg \...?'+
2956 This command returns a list comprised of all the arguments, +'arg'+. Braces
2957 and backslashes get added as necessary, so that the `lindex` command
2958 may be used on the result to re-extract the original arguments, and also
2959 so that `eval` may be used to execute the resulting list, with
2960 +'arg1'+ comprising the command's name and the other args comprising
2961 its arguments. `list` produces slightly different results than
2962 `concat`: `concat` removes one level of grouping before forming
2963 the list, while `list` works directly from the original arguments.
2964 For example, the command
2966 list a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
2970 a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
2972 while `concat` with the same arguments will return
2980 Treats +'list'+ as a list and returns a decimal string giving
2981 the number of elements in it.
2985 +*lset* 'varName ?index ..? newValue'+
2987 Sets an element in a list.
2989 The `lset` command accepts a parameter, +'varName'+, which it interprets
2990 as the name of a variable containing a Tcl list. It also accepts
2991 zero or more indices into the list. Finally, it accepts a new value
2992 for an element of varName. If no indices are presented, the command
2995 lset varName newValue
2997 In this case, newValue replaces the old value of the variable
3000 When presented with a single index, the `lset` command
3001 treats the content of the varName variable as a Tcl list. It addresses
3002 the index'th element in it (0 refers to the first element of the
3003 list). When interpreting the list, `lset` observes the same rules
3004 concerning braces and quotes and backslashes as the Tcl command
3005 interpreter; however, variable substitution and command substitution
3006 do not occur. The command constructs a new list in which the
3007 designated element is replaced with newValue. This new list is
3008 stored in the variable varName, and is also the return value from
3011 If index is negative or greater than or equal to the number of
3012 elements in $varName, then an error occurs.
3014 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
3016 If additional index arguments are supplied, then each argument is
3017 used in turn to address an element within a sublist designated by
3018 the previous indexing operation, allowing the script to alter
3019 elements in sublists. The command,
3023 replaces element 2 of sublist 1 with +'newValue'+.
3025 The integer appearing in each index argument must be greater than
3026 or equal to zero. The integer appearing in each index argument must
3027 be strictly less than the length of the corresponding list. In other
3028 words, the `lset` command cannot change the size of a list. If an
3029 index is outside the permitted range, an error is reported.
3034 +*lmap* 'varName list body'+
3036 +*lmap* 'varList list ?varList2 list2 \...? body'+
3038 `lmap` is a "collecting" `foreach` which returns a list of its results.
3042 jim> lmap i {1 2 3 4 5} {expr $i*$i}
3044 jim> lmap a {1 2 3} b {A B C} {list $a $b}
3047 If the body invokes `continue`, no value is added for this iteration.
3048 If the body invokes `break`, the loop ends and no more values are added.
3054 Loads the dynamic extension, +'filename'+. Generally the filename should have
3055 the extension +.so+. The initialisation function for the module must be based
3056 on the name of the file. For example loading +hwaccess.so+ will invoke
3057 the initialisation function, +Jim_hwaccessInit+. Normally the `load` command
3058 should not be used directly. Instead it is invoked automatically by `package require`.
3062 +*lrange* 'list first last'+
3064 +'list'+ must be a valid Tcl list. This command will return a new
3065 list consisting of elements +'first'+ through +'last'+, inclusive.
3067 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
3069 If +'last'+ is greater than or equal to the number of elements
3070 in the list, then it is treated as if it were +end+.
3072 If +'first'+ is greater than +'last'+ then an empty string
3075 Note: +"`lrange` 'list first first'"+ does not always produce the
3076 same result as +"`lindex` 'list first'"+ (although it often does
3077 for simple fields that aren't enclosed in braces); it does, however,
3078 produce exactly the same results as +"`list` [`lindex` 'list first']"+
3083 +*lreplace* 'list first last ?element element \...?'+
3085 Returns a new list formed by replacing one or more elements of
3086 +'list'+ with the +'element'+ arguments.
3088 +'first'+ gives the index in +'list'+ of the first element
3091 If +'first'+ is less than zero then it refers to the first
3092 element of +'list'+; the element indicated by +'first'+
3093 must exist in the list.
3095 +'last'+ gives the index in +'list'+ of the last element
3096 to be replaced; it must be greater than or equal to +'first'+.
3098 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
3100 The +'element'+ arguments specify zero or more new arguments to
3101 be added to the list in place of those that were deleted.
3103 Each +'element'+ argument will become a separate element of
3106 If no +'element'+ arguments are specified, then the elements
3107 between +'first'+ and +'last'+ are simply deleted.
3111 +*lrepeat* 'number element1 ?element2 \...?'+
3113 Build a list by repeating elements +'number'+ times (which must be
3114 a positive integer).
3123 Returns the list in reverse order.
3125 jim> lreverse {1 2 3}
3130 +*lsearch* '?options? list pattern'+
3132 This command searches the elements +'list'+ to see if one of them matches +'pattern'+. If so, the
3133 command returns the index of the first matching element (unless the options +-all+, +-inline+ or +-bool+ are
3134 specified.) If not, the command returns -1. The option arguments indicates how the elements of
3135 the list are to be matched against pattern and must have one of the values below:
3137 *Note* that this command is different from Tcl in that default match type is +-exact+ rather than +-glob+.
3140 +'pattern'+ is a literal string that is compared for exact equality against each list element.
3141 This is the default.
3144 +'pattern'+ is a glob-style pattern which is matched against each list element using the same
3145 rules as the string match command.
3148 +'pattern'+ is treated as a regular expression and matched against each list element using
3149 the rules described by `regexp`.
3151 +*-command* 'cmdname'+::
3152 +'cmdname'+ is a command which is used to match the pattern against each element of the
3153 list. It is invoked as +'cmdname' ?*-nocase*? 'pattern listvalue'+ and should return 1
3154 for a match, or 0 for no match.
3157 Changes the result to be the list of all matching indices (or all matching values if
3158 +-inline+ is specified as well). If indices are returned, the indices will be in numeric
3159 order. If values are returned, the order of the values will be the order of those values
3160 within the input list.
3163 The matching value is returned instead of its index (or an empty string if no value
3164 matches). If +-all+ is also specified, then the result of the command is the list of all
3165 values that matched. The +-inline+ and +-bool+ options are mutually exclusive.
3168 Changes the result to '1' if a match was found, or '0' otherwise. If +-all+ is also specified,
3169 the result will be a list of '0' and '1' for each element of the list depending upon whether
3170 the corresponding element matches. The +-inline+ and +-bool+ options are mutually exclusive.
3173 This negates the sense of the match, returning the index (or value
3174 if +-inline+ is specified) of the first non-matching value in the
3175 list. If +-bool+ is also specified, the '0' will be returned if a
3176 match is found, or '1' otherwise. If +-all+ is also specified,
3177 non-matches will be returned rather than matches.
3180 Causes comparisons to be handled in a case-insensitive manner.
3184 +*lsort* ?*-index* 'listindex'? ?*-nocase|-integer|-real|-command* 'cmdname'? ?*-unique*? ?*-decreasing*|*-increasing*? 'list'+
3186 Sort the elements of +'list'+, returning a new list in sorted order.
3187 By default, ASCII (or UTF-8) sorting is used, with the result in increasing order.
3189 If +-nocase+ is specified, comparisons are case-insensitive.
3191 If +-integer+ is specified, numeric sorting is used.
3193 If +-real+ is specified, floating point number sorting is used.
3195 If +-command 'cmdname'+ is specified, +'cmdname'+ is treated as a command
3196 name. For each comparison, +'cmdname $value1 $value2+' is called which
3197 should compare the values and return an integer less than, equal
3198 to, or greater than zero if the +'$value1'+ is to be considered less
3199 than, equal to, or greater than +'$value2'+, respectively.
3201 If +-decreasing+ is specified, the resulting list is in the opposite
3202 order to what it would be otherwise. +-increasing+ is the default.
3204 If +-unique+ is specified, then only the last set of duplicate elements found in the list will be retained.
3205 Note that duplicates are determined relative to the comparison used in the sort. Thus if +-index 0+ is used,
3206 +{1 a}+ and +{1 b}+ would be considered duplicates and only the second element, +{1 b}+, would be retained.
3208 If +-index 'listindex'+ is specified, each element of the list is treated as a list and
3209 the given index is extracted from the list for comparison. The list index may
3210 be any valid list index, such as +1+, +end+ or +end-2+.
3216 This command is a simple helper command to add a script to the '+$jim::defer+' variable
3217 that will run when the current proc or interpreter exits. For example:
3219 jim> proc a {} { defer {puts "Leaving a"}; puts "Exit" }
3224 If the '+$jim::defer+' variable exists, it is treated as a list of scripts to run
3225 when the proc or interpreter exits.
3229 +*open* 'fileName ?access?'+
3231 +*open* '|command-pipeline ?access?'+
3233 Opens a file and returns an identifier
3234 that may be used in future invocations
3235 of commands like `read`, `puts`, and `close`.
3236 +'fileName'+ gives the name of the file to open.
3238 The +'access'+ argument indicates the way in which the file is to be accessed.
3239 It may have any of the following values:
3242 Open the file for reading only; the file must already exist.
3245 Open the file for both reading and writing; the file must
3249 Open the file for writing only. Truncate it if it exists. If it doesn't
3250 exist, create a new file.
3253 Open the file for reading and writing. Truncate it if it exists.
3254 If it doesn't exist, create a new file.
3257 Open the file for writing only. The file must already exist, and the file
3258 is positioned so that new data is appended to the file.
3261 Open the file for reading and writing. If the file doesn't
3262 exist, create a new empty file. Set the initial access position
3263 to the end of the file.
3265 +'access'+ defaults to 'r'.
3267 If a file is opened for both reading and writing, then `seek`
3268 must be invoked between a read and a write, or vice versa.
3270 If the first character of +'fileName'+ is "|" then the remaining
3271 characters of +'fileName'+ are treated as a list of arguments that
3272 describe a command pipeline to invoke, in the same style as the
3273 arguments for exec. In this case, the channel identifier returned
3274 by open may be used to write to the command's input pipe or read
3275 from its output pipe, depending on the value of +'access'+. If write-only
3276 access is used (e.g. +'access'+ is 'w'), then standard output for the
3277 pipeline is directed to the current standard output unless overridden
3278 by the command. If read-only access is used (e.g. +'access'+ is r),
3279 standard input for the pipeline is taken from the current standard
3280 input unless overridden by the command.
3282 The `pid` command may be used to return the process ids of the commands
3283 forming the command pipeline.
3285 See also `socket`, `pid`, `exec`
3289 +*package provide* 'name ?version?'+
3291 Indicates that the current script provides the package named +'name'+.
3292 If no version is specified, '1.0' is used.
3294 Any script which provides a package may include this statement
3295 as the first statement, although it is not required.
3297 +*package require* 'name ?version?'*+
3299 Searches for the package with the given +'name'+ by examining each path
3300 in '$::auto_path' and trying to load '$path/$name.so' as a dynamic extension,
3301 or '$path/$name.tcl' as a script package.
3303 The first such file which is found is considered to provide the package.
3304 (The version number is ignored).
3306 If '$name.so' exists, it is loaded with the `load` command,
3307 otherwise if '$name.tcl' exists it is loaded with the `source` command.
3309 If `load` or `source` fails, `package require` will fail immediately.
3310 No further attempt will be made to locate the file.
3318 The first form returns the process identifier of the current process.
3320 The second form accepts a handle returned by `open` and returns a list
3321 of the process ids forming the pipeline in the same form as `exec ... &`.
3322 If 'fileId' represents a regular file handle rather than a command pipeline,
3323 the empty string is returned instead.
3325 See also `open`, `exec`
3329 +*proc* 'name args ?statics? body'+
3331 The `proc` command creates a new Tcl command procedure, +'name'+.
3332 When the new command is invoked, the contents of +'body'+ will be executed.
3333 Tcl interpreter. +'args'+ specifies the formal arguments to the procedure.
3334 If specified, +'statics'+, declares static variables which are bound to the
3337 See PROCEDURES for detailed information about Tcl procedures.
3339 The `proc` command returns +'name'+ (which is useful with `local`).
3341 When a procedure is invoked, the procedure's return value is the
3342 value specified in a `return` command. If the procedure doesn't
3343 execute an explicit `return`, then its return value is the value
3344 of the last command executed in the procedure's body.
3346 If an error occurs while executing the procedure body, then the
3347 procedure-as-a-whole will return that same error.
3351 +*puts* ?*-nonewline*? '?fileId? string'+
3353 +'fileId' *puts* ?*-nonewline*? 'string'+
3355 Writes the characters given by +'string'+ to the file given
3356 by +'fileId'+. +'fileId'+ must have been the return
3357 value from a previous call to `open`, or it may be
3358 +stdout+ or +stderr+ to refer to one of the standard I/O
3359 channels; it must refer to a file that was opened for
3362 In the first form, if no +'fileId'+ is specified then it defaults to +stdout+.
3363 `puts` normally outputs a newline character after +'string'+,
3364 but this feature may be suppressed by specifying the +-nonewline+
3367 Output to files is buffered internally by Tcl; the `flush`
3368 command may be used to force buffered characters to be output.
3372 Creates a pair of `aio` channels and returns the handles as a list: +{read write}+
3376 # Must close $w after exec
3386 Returns the path name of the current working directory.
3390 +*rand* '?min? ?max?'+
3392 Returns a random integer between +'min'+ (defaults to 0) and +'max'+
3393 (defaults to the maximum integer).
3395 If only one argument is given, it is interpreted as +'max'+.
3399 +*range* '?start? end ?step?'+
3401 Returns a list of integers starting at +'start'+ (defaults to 0)
3402 and ranging up to but not including +'end'+ in steps of +'step'+ defaults to 1).
3415 +*read* ?*-nonewline*? 'fileId'+
3417 +'fileId' *read* ?*-nonewline*?+
3419 +*read* 'fileId numBytes'+
3421 +'fileId' *read* 'numBytes'+
3424 In the first form, all of the remaining bytes are read from the file
3425 given by +'fileId'+; they are returned as the result of the command.
3426 If the +-nonewline+ switch is specified then the last
3427 character of the file is discarded if it is a newline.
3429 In the second form, the extra argument specifies how many bytes to read;
3430 exactly this many bytes will be read and returned, unless there are fewer than
3431 +'numBytes'+ bytes left in the file; in this case, all the remaining
3434 +'fileId'+ must be +stdin+ or the return value from a previous call
3435 to `open`; it must refer to a file that was opened for reading.
3439 +*regexp ?-nocase? ?-line? ?-indices? ?-start* 'offset'? *?-all? ?-inline? ?--?* 'exp string ?matchVar? ?subMatchVar subMatchVar \...?'+
3441 Determines whether the regular expression +'exp'+ matches part or
3442 all of +'string'+ and returns 1 if it does, 0 if it doesn't.
3444 See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS above for complete information on the
3445 syntax of +'exp'+ and how it is matched against +'string'+.
3447 If additional arguments are specified after +'string'+ then they
3448 are treated as the names of variables to use to return
3449 information about which part(s) of +'string'+ matched +'exp'+.
3450 +'matchVar'+ will be set to the range of +'string'+ that
3451 matched all of +'exp'+. The first +'subMatchVar'+ will contain
3452 the characters in +'string'+ that matched the leftmost parenthesized
3453 subexpression within +'exp'+, the next +'subMatchVar'+ will
3454 contain the characters that matched the next parenthesized
3455 subexpression to the right in +'exp'+, and so on.
3457 Normally, +'matchVar'+ and the each +'subMatchVar'+ are set to hold the
3458 matching characters from `string`, however see +-indices+ and
3461 If there are more values for +'subMatchVar'+ than parenthesized subexpressions
3462 within +'exp'+, or if a particular subexpression in +'exp'+ doesn't
3463 match the string (e.g. because it was in a portion of the expression
3464 that wasn't matched), then the corresponding +'subMatchVar'+ will be
3465 set to +"-1 -1"+ if +-indices+ has been specified or to an empty
3468 The following switches modify the behaviour of +'regexp'+
3471 Causes upper-case and lower-case characters to be treated as
3472 identical during the matching process.
3475 Use newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline
3476 is a completely ordinary character with no special meaning in
3477 either REs or strings. With this flag, +[^+ bracket expressions
3478 and +.+ never match newline, an +^+ anchor matches the null
3479 string after any newline in the string in addition to its normal
3480 function, and the +$+ anchor matches the null string before any
3481 newline in the string in addition to its normal function.
3484 Changes what is stored in the subMatchVars. Instead of
3485 storing the matching characters from string, each variable
3486 will contain a list of two decimal strings giving the indices
3487 in string of the first and last characters in the matching
3488 range of characters.
3490 +*-start* 'offset'+::
3491 Specifies a character index offset into the string at which to start
3492 matching the regular expression. If +-indices+ is
3493 specified, the indices will be indexed starting from the
3494 absolute beginning of the input string. +'offset'+ will be
3495 constrained to the bounds of the input string.
3498 Causes the regular expression to be matched as many times as possible
3499 in the string, returning the total number of matches found. If this
3500 is specified with match variables, they will contain information
3501 for the last match only.
3504 Causes the command to return, as a list, the data that would otherwise
3505 be placed in match variables. When using +-inline+, match variables
3506 may not be specified. If used with +-all+, the list will be concatenated
3507 at each iteration, such that a flat list is always returned. For
3508 each match iteration, the command will append the overall match
3509 data, plus one element for each subexpression in the regular
3513 Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be
3514 treated as +'exp'+ even if it starts with a +-+.
3518 +*regsub ?-nocase? ?-all? ?-line? ?-start* 'offset'? ?*--*? 'exp string subSpec ?varName?'+
3520 This command matches the regular expression +'exp'+ against
3521 +'string'+ using the rules described in REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
3524 If +'varName'+ is specified, the commands stores +'string'+ to +'varName'+
3525 with the substitutions detailed below, and returns the number of
3526 substitutions made (normally 1 unless +-all+ is specified).
3527 This is 0 if there were no matches.
3529 If +'varName'+ is not specified, the substituted string will be returned
3532 When copying +'string'+, the portion of +'string'+ that
3533 matched +'exp'+ is replaced with +'subSpec'+.
3534 If +'subSpec'+ contains a +&+ or +{backslash}0+, then it is replaced
3535 in the substitution with the portion of +'string'+ that
3538 If +'subSpec'+ contains a +{backslash}n+, where +'n'+ is a digit
3539 between 1 and 9, then it is replaced in the substitution with
3540 the portion of +'string'+ that matched the +'n'+\'-th
3541 parenthesized subexpression of +'exp'+.
3542 Additional backslashes may be used in +'subSpec'+ to prevent special
3543 interpretation of +&+ or +{backslash}0+ or +{backslash}n+ or
3546 The use of backslashes in +'subSpec'+ tends to interact badly
3547 with the Tcl parser's use of backslashes, so it's generally
3548 safest to enclose +'subSpec'+ in braces if it includes
3551 The following switches modify the behaviour of +'regsub'+
3554 Upper-case characters in +'string'+ are converted to lower-case
3555 before matching against +'exp'+; however, substitutions
3556 specified by +'subSpec'+ use the original unconverted form
3560 All ranges in +'string'+ that match +'exp'+ are found and substitution
3561 is performed for each of these ranges, rather than only the
3562 first. The +&+ and +{backslash}n+ sequences are handled for
3563 each substitution using the information from the corresponding
3567 Use newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline
3568 is a completely ordinary character with no special meaning in
3569 either REs or strings. With this flag, +[^+ bracket expressions
3570 and +.+ never match newline, an +^+ anchor matches the null
3571 string after any newline in the string in addition to its normal
3572 function, and the +$+ anchor matches the null string before any
3573 newline in the string in addition to its normal function.
3575 +*-start* 'offset'+::
3576 Specifies a character index offset into the string at which to
3577 start matching the regular expression. +'offset'+ will be
3578 constrained to the bounds of the input string.
3581 Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be
3582 treated as +'exp'+ even if it starts with a +-+.
3586 +*ref* 'string tag ?finalizer?'+
3588 Create a new reference containing +'string'+ of type +'tag'+.
3589 If +'finalizer'+ is specified, it is a command which will be invoked
3590 when the a garbage collection cycle runs and this reference is
3591 no longer accessible.
3593 The finalizer is invoked as:
3595 finalizer reference string
3597 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
3601 +*rename* 'oldName newName'+
3603 Rename the command that used to be called +'oldName'+ so that it
3604 is now called +'newName'+. If +'newName'+ is an empty string
3605 (e.g. {}) then +'oldName'+ is deleted. The `rename` command
3606 returns an empty string as result.
3610 +*return* ?*-code* 'code'? ?*-errorinfo* 'stacktrace'? ?*-errorcode* 'errorcode'? ?*-level* 'n'? ?'value'?+
3612 Return immediately from the current procedure (or top-level command
3613 or `source` command), with +'value'+ as the return value. If +'value'+
3614 is not specified, an empty string will be returned as result.
3616 If +-code+ is specified (as either a number or ok, error, break,
3617 continue, signal, return or exit), this code will be used instead
3618 of +JIM_OK+. This is generally useful when implementing flow of control
3621 If +-level+ is specified and greater than 1, it has the effect of delaying
3622 the new return code from +-code+. This is useful when rethrowing an error
3623 from `catch`. See the implementation of try/catch in tclcompat.tcl for
3624 an example of how this is done.
3626 Note: The following options are only used when +-code+ is JIM_ERR.
3628 If +-errorinfo+ is specified (as returned from `info stacktrace`)
3629 it is used to initialize the stacktrace.
3631 If +-errorcode+ is specified, it is used to set the global variable $::errorCode.
3635 +*scan* 'string format varName1 ?varName2 \...?'+
3637 This command parses fields from an input string in the same fashion
3638 as the C 'sscanf' procedure. +'string'+ gives the input to be parsed
3639 and +'format'+ indicates how to parse it, using '%' fields as in
3640 'sscanf'. All of the 'sscanf' options are valid; see the 'sscanf'
3641 man page for details. Each +'varName'+ gives the name of a variable;
3642 when a field is scanned from +'string'+, the result is converted back
3643 into a string and assigned to the corresponding +'varName'+. The
3644 only unusual conversion is for '%c'. For '%c' conversions a single
3645 character value is converted to a decimal string, which is then
3646 assigned to the corresponding +'varName'+; no field width may be
3647 specified for this conversion.
3651 +*seek* 'fileId offset ?origin?'+
3653 +'fileId' *seek* 'offset ?origin?'+
3655 Change the current access position for +'fileId'+.
3656 The +'offset'+ and +'origin'+ arguments specify the position at
3657 which the next read or write will occur for +'fileId'+.
3658 +'offset'+ must be a number (which may be negative) and +'origin'+
3659 must be one of the following:
3662 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the start
3666 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the current
3667 access position; a negative +'offset'+ moves the access position
3668 backwards in the file.
3671 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the end of
3672 the file. A negative +'offset'+ places the access position before
3673 the end-of-file, and a positive +'offset'+ places the access position
3674 after the end-of-file.
3676 The +'origin'+ argument defaults to +start+.
3678 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to
3679 `open`, or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one
3680 of the standard I/O channels.
3682 This command returns an empty string.
3686 +*set* 'varName ?value?'+
3688 Returns the value of variable +'varName'+.
3690 If +'value'+ is specified, then set the value of +'varName'+ to +'value'+,
3691 creating a new variable if one doesn't already exist, and return
3694 If +'varName'+ contains an open parenthesis and ends with a
3695 close parenthesis, then it refers to an array element: the characters
3696 before the open parenthesis are the name of the array, and the characters
3697 between the parentheses are the index within the array.
3698 Otherwise +'varName'+ refers to a scalar variable.
3700 If no procedure is active, then +'varName'+ refers to a global
3703 If a procedure is active, then +'varName'+ refers to a parameter
3704 or local variable of the procedure, unless the +'global'+ command
3705 has been invoked to declare +'varName'+ to be global.
3707 The +::+ prefix may also be used to explicitly reference a variable
3708 in the global scope.
3712 +*setref* 'reference string'+
3714 Store a new string in +'reference'+, replacing the existing string.
3715 The reference must be a valid reference create with the `ref`
3718 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
3722 Command for signal handling.
3724 See `kill` for the different forms which may be used to specify signals.
3726 Commands which return a list of signal names do so using the canonical form:
3729 +*signal handle* ?'signals \...'?+::
3730 If no signals are given, returns a list of all signals which are currently
3732 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals currently
3735 +*signal ignore* ?'signals \...'?+::
3736 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which are currently
3738 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals
3739 currently being ignored. These signals are still delivered, but
3740 are not considered by `catch -signal` or `try -signal`. Use
3741 `signal check` to determine which signals have occurred but
3744 +*signal block* ?'signals \...'?+::
3745 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which are currently
3747 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals
3748 currently being blocked. These signals are not delivered to the process.
3749 This can be useful for signals such as +SIGPIPE+, especially in conjunction
3750 with `exec` as child processes inherit the parent's signal disposition.
3752 +*signal default* ?'signals \...'?+::
3753 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which currently have
3754 the default behaviour.
3755 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals which have
3756 the default behaviour.
3758 +*signal check ?-clear?* ?'signals \...'?+::
3759 Returns a list of signals which have been delivered to the process
3760 but are 'ignored'. If signals are specified, only that set of signals will
3761 be checked, otherwise all signals will be checked.
3762 If +-clear+ is specified, any signals returned are removed and will not be
3763 returned by subsequent calls to `signal check` unless delivered again.
3765 +*signal throw* ?'signal'?+::
3766 Raises the given signal, which defaults to +SIGINT+ if not specified.
3767 The behaviour is identical to:
3771 Note that `signal handle` and `signal ignore` represent two forms of signal
3772 handling. `signal handle` is used in conjunction with `catch -signal` or `try -signal`
3773 to immediately abort execution when the signal is delivered. Alternatively, `signal ignore`
3774 is used in conjunction with `signal check` to handle signal synchronously. Consider the
3777 Prevent a processing from taking too long
3779 signal handle SIGALRM
3782 .. possibly long running process ..
3785 puts stderr "Process took too long"
3788 Handle SIGHUP to reconfigure:
3790 signal ignore SIGHUP
3792 ... handle configuration/reconfiguration ...
3793 while {[signal check -clear SIGHUP] eq ""} {
3794 ... do processing ..
3796 # Received SIGHUP, so reconfigure
3799 Note: signal handling is currently not supported in child interpreters.
3800 In these interpreters, the signal command does not exist.
3806 Pauses for the given number of seconds, which may be a floating
3807 point value less than one to sleep for less than a second, or an
3808 integer to sleep for one or more seconds.
3812 +*source* 'fileName'+
3814 Read file +'fileName'+ and pass the contents to the Tcl interpreter
3815 as a sequence of commands to execute in the normal fashion. The return
3816 value of `source` is the return value of the last command executed
3817 from the file. If an error occurs in executing the contents of the
3818 file, then the `source` command will return that error.
3820 If a `return` command is invoked from within the file, the remainder of
3821 the file will be skipped and the `source` command will return
3822 normally with the result from the `return` command.
3826 +*split* 'string ?splitChars?'+
3828 Returns a list created by splitting +'string'+ at each character
3829 that is in the +'splitChars'+ argument.
3831 Each element of the result list will consist of the
3832 characters from +'string'+ between instances of the
3833 characters in +'splitChars'+.
3835 Empty list elements will be generated if +'string'+ contains
3836 adjacent characters in +'splitChars'+, or if the first or last
3837 character of +'string'+ is in +'splitChars'+.
3839 If +'splitChars'+ is an empty string then each character of
3840 +'string'+ becomes a separate element of the result list.
3842 +'splitChars'+ defaults to the standard white-space characters.
3845 split "comp.unix.misc" .
3847 returns +'"comp unix misc"'+ and
3849 split "Hello world" {}
3851 returns +'"H e l l o { } w o r l d"'+.
3856 +*stackdump* 'stacktrace'+
3858 Creates a human readable representation of a stack trace.
3865 Returns a live stack trace as a list of +proc file line proc file line \...+.
3866 Iteratively uses `info frame` to create the stack trace. This stack trace is in the
3867 same form as produced by `catch` and `info stacktrace`
3869 See also `stackdump`.
3874 +*string* 'option arg ?arg \...?'+
3876 Perform one of several string operations, depending on +'option'+.
3877 The legal options (which may be abbreviated) are:
3879 +*string bytelength* 'string'+::
3880 Returns the length of the string in bytes. This will return
3881 the same value as `string length` if UTF-8 support is not enabled,
3882 or if the string is composed entirely of ASCII characters.
3883 See UTF-8 AND UNICODE.
3885 +*string byterange* 'string first last'+::
3886 Like `string range` except works on bytes rather than characters.
3887 These commands are identical if UTF-8 support is not enabled.
3889 +*string cat* '?string1 string2 \...?'+::
3890 Concatenates the given strings into a single string.
3892 +*string compare ?-nocase?* ?*-length* 'len? string1 string2'+::
3893 Perform a character-by-character comparison of strings +'string1'+ and
3894 +'string2'+ in the same way as the C 'strcmp' procedure. Return
3895 -1, 0, or 1, depending on whether +'string1'+ is lexicographically
3896 less than, equal to, or greater than +'string2'+. If +-length+
3897 is specified, then only the first +'len'+ characters are used
3898 in the comparison. If +'len'+ is negative, it is ignored.
3899 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
3901 +*string equal ?-nocase?* '?*-length* len?' 'string1 string2'+::
3902 Returns 1 if the strings are equal, or 0 otherwise. If +-length+
3903 is specified, then only the first +'len'+ characters are used
3904 in the comparison. If +'len'+ is negative, it is ignored.
3905 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
3907 +*string first* 'string1 string2 ?firstIndex?'+::
3908 Search +'string2'+ for a sequence of characters that exactly match
3909 the characters in +'string1'+. If found, return the index of the
3910 first character in the first such match within +'string2'+. If not
3911 found, return -1. If +'firstIndex'+ is specified, matching will start
3912 from +'firstIndex'+ of +'string1'+.
3914 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'firstIndex'+.
3916 +*string index* 'string charIndex'+::
3917 Returns the +'charIndex'+'th character of the +'string'+
3918 argument. A +'charIndex'+ of 0 corresponds to the first
3919 character of the string.
3920 If +'charIndex'+ is less than 0 or greater than
3921 or equal to the length of the string then an empty string is
3924 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'charIndex'+.
3926 +*string is* 'class' ?*-strict*? 'string'+::
3927 Returns 1 if +'string'+ is a valid member of the specified character
3928 class, otherwise returns 0. If +-strict+ is specified, then an
3929 empty string returns 0, otherwise an empty string will return 1
3930 on any class. The following character classes are recognized
3931 (the class name can be abbreviated):
3933 +alnum+;; Any alphabet or digit character.
3934 +alpha+;; Any alphabet character.
3935 +ascii+;; Any character with a value less than 128 (those that are in the 7-bit ascii range).
3936 +boolean+;; Any of the valid string formats for a boolean value in Tcl (0, false, no, off, 1, true, yes, on)
3937 +control+;; Any control character.
3938 +digit+;; Any digit character.
3939 +double+;; Any of the valid forms for a double in Tcl, with optional surrounding whitespace.
3940 In case of under/overflow in the value, 0 is returned.
3941 +graph+;; Any printing character, except space.
3942 +integer+;; Any of the valid string formats for an integer value in Tcl, with optional surrounding whitespace.
3943 +lower+;; Any lower case alphabet character.
3944 +print+;; Any printing character, including space.
3945 +punct+;; Any punctuation character.
3946 +space+;; Any space character.
3947 +upper+;; Any upper case alphabet character.
3948 +xdigit+;; Any hexadecimal digit character ([0-9A-Fa-f]).
3950 Note that string classification does +'not'+ respect UTF-8. See UTF-8 AND UNICODE
3952 Note that only +'lowercase'+ boolean values are recognized (Tcl accepts any case).
3954 +*string last* 'string1 string2 ?lastIndex?'+::
3955 Search +'string2'+ for a sequence of characters that exactly match
3956 the characters in +'string1'+. If found, return the index of the
3957 first character in the last such match within +'string2'+. If there
3958 is no match, then return -1. If +'lastIndex'+ is specified, only characters
3959 up to +'lastIndex'+ of +'string2'+ will be considered in the match.
3961 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'lastIndex'+.
3963 +*string length* 'string'+::
3964 Returns a decimal string giving the number of characters in +'string'+.
3965 If UTF-8 support is enabled, this may be different than the number of bytes.
3966 See UTF-8 AND UNICODE
3968 +*string map ?-nocase?* 'mapping string'+::
3969 Replaces substrings in +'string'+ based on the key-value pairs in
3970 +'mapping'+, which is a list of +key value key value \...+ as in the form
3971 returned by `array get`. Each instance of a key in the string will be
3972 replaced with its corresponding value. If +-nocase+ is specified, then
3973 matching is done without regard to case differences. Both key and value may
3974 be multiple characters. Replacement is done in an ordered manner, so the
3975 key appearing first in the list will be checked first, and so on. +'string'+ is
3976 only iterated over once, so earlier key replacements will have no affect for
3977 later key matches. For example,
3979 string map {abc 1 ab 2 a 3 1 0} 1abcaababcabababc
3982 will return the string +01321221+.
3984 Note that if an earlier key is a prefix of a later one, it will completely mask the later
3985 one. So if the previous example is reordered like this,
3987 string map {1 0 ab 2 a 3 abc 1} 1abcaababcabababc
3990 it will return the string +02c322c222c+.
3992 +*string match ?-nocase?* 'pattern string'+::
3993 See if +'pattern'+ matches +'string'+; return 1 if it does, 0
3994 if it doesn't. Matching is done in a fashion similar to that
3995 used by the C-shell. For the two strings to match, their contents
3996 must be identical except that the following special sequences
3997 may appear in +'pattern'+:
4000 Matches any sequence of characters in +'string'+,
4001 including a null string.
4004 Matches any single character in +'string'+.
4007 Matches any character in the set given by +'chars'+.
4008 If a sequence of the form +'x-y'+ appears in +'chars'+,
4009 then any character between +'x'+ and +'y'+, inclusive,
4013 Matches the single character +'x'+. This provides a way of
4014 avoiding the special interpretation of the characters +{backslash}*?[]+
4017 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
4019 +*string range* 'string first last'+::
4020 Returns a range of consecutive characters from +'string'+, starting
4021 with the character whose index is +'first'+ and ending with the
4022 character whose index is +'last'+. An index of 0 refers to the
4023 first character of the string.
4025 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
4027 If +'first'+ is less than zero then it is treated as if it were zero, and
4028 if +'last'+ is greater than or equal to the length of the string then
4029 it is treated as if it were +end+. If +'first'+ is greater than
4030 +'last'+ then an empty string is returned.
4032 +*string repeat* 'string count'+::
4033 Returns a new string consisting of +'string'+ repeated +'count'+ times.
4035 +*string replace* 'string first last ?newstring?'+::
4036 Removes a range of consecutive characters from +'string'+, starting
4037 with the character whose index is +'first'+ and ending with the
4038 character whose index is +'last'+. If +'newstring'+ is specified,
4039 then it is placed in the removed character range. If +'first'+ is
4040 less than zero then it is treated as if it were zero, and if +'last'+
4041 is greater than or equal to the length of the string then it is
4042 treated as if it were +end+. If +'first'+ is greater than +'last'+
4043 or the length of the initial string, or +'last'+ is less than 0,
4044 then the initial string is returned untouched.
4046 +*string reverse* 'string'+::
4047 Returns a string that is the same length as +'string'+ but
4048 with its characters in the reverse order.
4050 +*string tolower* 'string'+::
4051 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that all upper case
4052 letters have been converted to lower case.
4054 +*string totitle* 'string'+::
4055 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that the first character
4056 is converted to title case (or upper case if there is no UTF-8 titlecase variant)
4057 and all remaining characters have been converted to lower case.
4059 +*string toupper* 'string'+::
4060 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that all lower case
4061 letters have been converted to upper case.
4063 +*string trim* 'string ?chars?'+::
4064 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any leading
4065 or trailing characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4067 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4068 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4070 +*string trimleft* 'string ?chars?'+::
4071 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any
4072 leading characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4074 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4075 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4077 +*string trimright* 'string ?chars?'+::
4078 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any
4079 trailing characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4081 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4082 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4083 Null characters are always removed.
4087 +*subst ?-nobackslashes? ?-nocommands? ?-novariables?* 'string'+
4089 This command performs variable substitutions, command substitutions,
4090 and backslash substitutions on its string argument and returns the
4091 fully-substituted result. The substitutions are performed in exactly
4092 the same way as for Tcl commands. As a result, the string argument
4093 is actually substituted twice, once by the Tcl parser in the usual
4094 fashion for Tcl commands, and again by the subst command.
4096 If any of the +-nobackslashes+, +-nocommands+, or +-novariables+ are
4097 specified, then the corresponding substitutions are not performed.
4098 For example, if +-nocommands+ is specified, no command substitution
4099 is performed: open and close brackets are treated as ordinary
4100 characters with no special interpretation.
4102 *Note*: when it performs its substitutions, subst does not give any
4103 special treatment to double quotes or curly braces. For example,
4104 the following script returns +xyz \{44\}+, not +xyz \{$a\}+.
4112 +*switch* '?options? string pattern body ?pattern body \...?'+
4114 +*switch* '?options? string {pattern body ?pattern body \...?}'+
4116 The `switch` command matches its string argument against each of
4117 the pattern arguments in order. As soon as it finds a pattern that
4118 matches string it evaluates the following body and returns the
4119 result of that evaluation. If the last pattern argument is default
4120 then it matches anything. If no pattern argument matches string and
4121 no default is given, then the `switch` command returns an empty string.
4122 If the initial arguments to switch start with - then they are treated
4123 as options. The following options are currently supported:
4126 Use exact matching when comparing string to a
4127 pattern. This is the default.
4130 When matching string to the patterns, use glob-style
4131 matching (i.e. the same as implemented by the string
4135 When matching string to the patterns, use regular
4136 expression matching (i.e. the same as implemented
4137 by the regexp command).
4139 +-command 'commandname'+::
4140 When matching string to the patterns, use the given command, which
4141 must be a single word. The command is invoked as
4142 'commandname pattern string', or 'commandname -nocase pattern string'
4143 and must return 1 if matched, or 0 if not.
4146 Marks the end of options. The argument following
4147 this one will be treated as string even if it starts
4150 Two syntaxes are provided for the pattern and body arguments. The
4151 first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands;
4152 this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the
4153 patterns or commands. The second form places all of the patterns
4154 and commands together into a single argument; the argument must
4155 have proper list structure, with the elements of the list being the
4156 patterns and commands. The second form makes it easy to construct
4157 multi-line `switch` commands, since the braces around the whole list
4158 make it unnecessary to include a backslash at the end of each line.
4159 Since the pattern arguments are in braces in the second form, no
4160 command or variable substitutions are performed on them; this makes
4161 the behaviour of the second form different than the first form in
4164 If a body is specified as +-+ it means that the body for the next
4165 pattern should also be used as the body for this pattern (if the
4166 next pattern also has a body of +-+ then the body after that is
4167 used, and so on). This feature makes it possible to share a single
4168 body among several patterns.
4170 Below are some examples of `switch` commands:
4172 switch abc a - b {format 1} abc {format 2} default {format 3}
4176 switch -regexp aaab {
4196 +*tailcall* 'cmd ?arg\...?'+
4198 The `tailcall` command provides an optimised way of invoking a command whilst replacing
4199 the current call frame. This is similar to 'exec' in Bourne Shell.
4201 The following are identical except the first immediately replaces the current call frame.
4205 return [uplevel 1 [list a b c]]
4207 `tailcall` is useful as a dispatch mechanism:
4210 tailcall sub_$cmd {*}$args
4221 Returns a decimal string giving the current access position in
4224 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to
4225 `open`, or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one
4226 of the standard I/O channels.
4230 +*throw* 'code ?msg?'+
4232 This command throws an exception (return) code along with an optional message.
4233 This command is mostly for convenient usage with `try`.
4235 The command +throw break+ is equivalent to +break+.
4236 The command +throw 20 message+ can be caught with an +on 20 \...+ clause to `try`.
4240 +*time* 'command ?count?'+
4242 This command will call the Tcl interpreter +'count'+
4243 times to execute +'command'+ (or once if +'count'+ isn't
4244 specified). It will then return a string of the form
4246 503 microseconds per iteration
4248 which indicates the average amount of time required per iteration,
4251 Time is measured in elapsed time, not CPU time.
4255 +*try* '?catchopts? tryscript' ?*on* 'returncodes {?resultvar? ?optsvar?} handlerscript \...'? ?*finally* 'finalscript'?+
4257 The `try` command is provided as a convenience for exception handling.
4259 This interpeter first evaluates +'tryscript'+ under the effect of the catch
4260 options +'catchopts'+ (e.g. +-signal -noexit --+, see `catch`).
4262 It then evaluates the script for the first matching 'on' handler
4263 (there many be zero or more) based on the return code from the `try`
4264 section. For example a normal +JIM_ERR+ error will be matched by
4265 an 'on error' handler.
4267 Finally, any +'finalscript'+ is evaluated.
4269 The result of this command is the result of +'tryscript'+, except in the
4270 case where an exception occurs in a matching 'on' handler script or the 'finally' script,
4271 in which case the result is this new exception.
4273 The specified +'returncodes'+ is a list of return codes either as names ('ok', 'error', 'break', etc.)
4276 If +'resultvar'+ and +'optsvar'+ are specified, they are set as for `catch` before evaluating
4277 the matching handler.
4284 } on {continue break} {} {
4285 error "Unexpected break/continue"
4286 } on error {msg opts} {
4287 puts "Dealing with error"
4288 return {*}$opts $msg
4290 puts "Got signal: $sig"
4295 If break, continue or error are raised, they are dealt with by the matching
4298 In any case, the file will be closed via the 'finally' clause.
4300 See also `throw`, `catch`, `return`, `error`.
4304 +*unknown* 'cmdName ?arg arg ...?'+
4306 This command doesn't actually exist as part of Tcl, but Tcl will
4307 invoke it if it does exist.
4309 If the Tcl interpreter encounters a command name for which there
4310 is not a defined command, then Tcl checks for the existence of
4311 a command named `unknown`.
4313 If there is no such command, then the interpreter returns an
4316 If the `unknown` command exists, then it is invoked with
4317 arguments consisting of the fully-substituted name and arguments
4318 for the original non-existent command.
4320 The `unknown` command typically does things like searching
4321 through library directories for a command procedure with the name
4322 +'cmdName'+, or expanding abbreviated command names to full-length,
4323 or automatically executing unknown commands as UNIX sub-processes.
4325 In some cases (such as expanding abbreviations) `unknown` will
4326 change the original command slightly and then (re-)execute it.
4327 The result of the `unknown` command is used as the result for
4328 the original non-existent command.
4332 +*unset ?-nocomplain? ?--?* '?name name ...?'+
4335 Each +'name'+ is a variable name, specified in any of the
4336 ways acceptable to the `set` command.
4338 If a +'name'+ refers to an element of an array, then that
4339 element is removed without affecting the rest of the array.
4341 If a +'name'+ consists of an array name with no parenthesized
4342 index, then the entire array is deleted.
4344 The `unset` command returns an empty string as result.
4346 An error occurs if any of the variables doesn't exist, unless '-nocomplain'
4347 is specified. The '--' argument may be specified to stop option processing
4348 in case the variable name may be '-nocomplain'.
4352 +*upcall* 'command ?args ...?'+
4354 May be used from within a proc defined as `local` `proc` in order to call
4355 the previous, hidden version of the same command.
4357 If there is no previous definition of the command, an error is returned.
4361 +*uplevel* '?level? command ?command ...?'+
4363 All of the +'command'+ arguments are concatenated as if they had
4364 been passed to `concat`; the result is then evaluated in the
4365 variable context indicated by +'level'+. `uplevel` returns
4366 the result of that evaluation. If +'level'+ is an integer, then
4367 it gives a distance (up the procedure calling stack) to move before
4368 executing the command. If +'level'+ consists of +\#+ followed by
4369 a number then the number gives an absolute level number. If +'level'+
4370 is omitted then it defaults to +1+. +'level'+ cannot be
4371 defaulted if the first +'command'+ argument starts with a digit or +#+.
4373 For example, suppose that procedure 'a' was invoked
4374 from top-level, and that it called 'b', and that 'b' called 'c'.
4375 Suppose that 'c' invokes the `uplevel` command. If +'level'+
4376 is +1+ or +#2+ or omitted, then the command will be executed
4377 in the variable context of 'b'. If +'level'+ is +2+ or +#1+
4378 then the command will be executed in the variable context of 'a'.
4380 If +'level'+ is '3' or +#0+ then the command will be executed
4381 at top-level (only global variables will be visible).
4382 The `uplevel` command causes the invoking procedure to disappear
4383 from the procedure calling stack while the command is being executed.
4384 In the above example, suppose 'c' invokes the command
4386 uplevel 1 {set x 43; d}
4388 where 'd' is another Tcl procedure. The `set` command will
4389 modify the variable 'x' in 'b's context, and 'd' will execute
4390 at level 3, as if called from 'b'. If it in turn executes
4395 then the `set` command will modify the same variable 'x' in 'b's
4396 context: the procedure 'c' does not appear to be on the call stack
4397 when 'd' is executing. The command `info level` may
4398 be used to obtain the level of the current procedure.
4400 `uplevel` makes it possible to implement new control
4401 constructs as Tcl procedures (for example, `uplevel` could
4402 be used to implement the `while` construct as a Tcl procedure).
4406 +*upvar* '?level? otherVar myVar ?otherVar myVar ...?'+
4408 This command arranges for one or more local variables in the current
4409 procedure to refer to variables in an enclosing procedure call or
4410 to global variables.
4412 +'level'+ may have any of the forms permitted for the `uplevel`
4413 command, and may be omitted if the first letter of the first +'otherVar'+
4414 isn't +#+ or a digit (it defaults to '1').
4416 For each +'otherVar'+ argument, `upvar` makes the variable
4417 by that name in the procedure frame given by +'level'+ (or at
4418 global level, if +'level'+ is +#0+) accessible
4419 in the current procedure by the name given in the corresponding
4422 The variable named by +'otherVar'+ need not exist at the time of the
4423 call; it will be created the first time +'myVar'+ is referenced, just like
4424 an ordinary variable.
4426 `upvar` may only be invoked from within procedures.
4428 `upvar` returns an empty string.
4430 The `upvar` command simplifies the implementation of call-by-name
4431 procedure calling and also makes it easier to build new control constructs
4433 For example, consider the following procedure:
4440 'add2' is invoked with an argument giving the name of a variable,
4441 and it adds two to the value of that variable.
4442 Although 'add2' could have been implemented using `uplevel`
4443 instead of `upvar`, `upvar` makes it simpler for 'add2'
4444 to access the variable in the caller's procedure frame.
4450 +*wait -nohang* 'pid'+
4452 With no arguments, cleans up any processes started by `exec ... &` that have completed
4453 (reaps zombie processes).
4455 With one or two arguments, waits for a process by id, either returned by `exec ... &`
4456 or by `os.fork` (if supported).
4458 Waits for the process to complete, unless +-nohang+ is specified, in which case returns
4459 immediately if the process is still running.
4461 Returns a list of 3 elements.
4463 +{NONE x x}+ if the process does not exist or has already been waited for, or
4464 if -nohang is specified, and the process is still alive.
4466 +{CHILDSTATUS <pid> <exit-status>}+ if the process exited normally.
4468 +{CHILDKILLED <pid> <signal>}+ if the process terminated on a signal.
4470 +{CHILDSUSP <pid> none}+ if the process terminated for some other reason.
4472 Note that on platforms supporting waitpid(2), +pid+ can also be given special values such
4473 as 0 or -1. See waitpid(2) for more detail.
4477 +*while* 'test body'+
4479 The +'while'+ command evaluates +'test'+ as an expression
4480 (in the same way that `expr` evaluates its argument).
4481 The value of the expression must be numeric; if it is non-zero
4482 then +'body'+ is executed by passing it to the Tcl interpreter.
4484 Once +'body'+ has been executed then +'test'+ is evaluated
4485 again, and the process repeats until eventually +'test'+
4486 evaluates to a zero numeric value. `continue`
4487 commands may be executed inside +'body'+ to terminate the current
4488 iteration of the loop, and `break`
4489 commands may be executed inside +'body'+ to cause immediate
4490 termination of the `while` command.
4492 The `while` command always returns an empty string.
4497 The following extensions may or may not be available depending upon
4498 what options were selected when Jim Tcl was built.
4502 posix: os.fork, os.gethostname, os.getids, os.uptime
4503 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4505 Invokes 'fork(2)' and returns the result.
4507 +*os.gethostname*+::
4508 Invokes 'gethostname(3)' and returns the result.
4511 Returns the various user/group ids for the current process.
4514 uid 1000 euid 1000 gid 100 egid 100
4517 Returns the number of seconds since system boot. See description of 'uptime' in 'sysinfo(2)'.
4519 ANSI I/O (aio) and EVENTLOOP API
4520 --------------------------------
4521 Jim provides an alternative object-based API for I/O.
4523 See `open` and `socket` for commands which return an I/O handle.
4527 +$handle *accept* ?addrvar?+::
4528 Server socket only: Accept a connection and return stream.
4529 If +'addrvar'+ is specified, the address of the connected client is stored
4530 in the named variable in the form 'addr:port' for IP sockets or 'path' for Unix domain sockets.
4531 See `socket` for details.
4533 +$handle *buffering none|line|full*+::
4534 Sets the buffering mode of the stream.
4536 +$handle *close ?r(ead)|w(rite)|-nodelete?*+::
4538 The +'read'+ and +'write'+ arguments perform a "half-close" on a socket. See the 'shutdown(2)' man page.
4539 The +'-nodelete'+ option is applicable only for Unix domain sockets. It closes the socket
4540 but does not delete the bound path (e.g. after `os.fork`).
4543 +$handle *copyto* 'tofd ?size?'+::
4544 Copy bytes to the file descriptor +'tofd'+. If +'size'+ is specified, at most
4545 that many bytes will be copied. Otherwise copying continues until the end
4546 of the input file. Returns the number of bytes actually copied.
4549 Returns 1 if stream is at eof
4551 +$handle *filename*+::
4552 Returns the original filename associated with the handle.
4553 Handles returned by `socket` give the socket type instead of a filename.
4558 +$handle *gets* '?var?'+::
4559 Read one line and return it or store it in the var
4561 +$handle *isatty*+::
4562 Returns 1 if the stream is a tty device.
4564 +$handle *lock ?-wait?*+::
4565 Apply a POSIX lock to the open file associated with the handle using
4566 'fcntl(F_SETLK)', or 'fcntl(F_SETLKW)' to wait for the lock to be available if +'-wait'+
4568 The handle must be open for write access.
4569 Returns 1 if the lock was successfully obtained, 0 otherwise.
4570 An error occurs if the handle is not suitable for locking (e.g.
4571 if it is not open for write)
4573 +$handle *ndelay ?0|1?*+::
4574 Set O_NDELAY (if arg). Returns current/new setting.
4575 Note that in general ANSI I/O interacts badly with non-blocking I/O.
4578 +$handle *peername*+::
4579 Returns the remote address or path of the connected socket. See 'getpeername(2)'.
4581 +$handle *puts ?-nonewline?* 'str'+::
4582 Write the string, with newline unless -nonewline
4584 +$handle *read ?-nonewline?* '?len?'+::
4585 Read and return bytes from the stream. To eof if no len.
4587 +$handle *recvfrom* 'maxlen ?addrvar?'+::
4588 Receives a message from the handle via recvfrom(2) and returns it.
4589 At most +'maxlen'+ bytes are read. If +'addrvar'+ is specified, the sending address
4590 of the message is stored in the named variable in the form 'addr:port' for IP sockets
4591 or 'path' for Unix domain sockets. See `socket` for details.
4593 +$handle *seek* 'offset' *?start|current|end?*+::
4594 Seeks in the stream (default 'current')
4596 +$handle *sendto* 'str ?address'+::
4597 Sends the string, +'str'+, to the given address (host:port or path) via the socket using 'sendto(2)'.
4598 This is intended for udp/dgram sockets and may give an error or behave in unintended
4599 ways for other handle types.
4600 Returns the number of bytes written.
4602 +$handle *sockname*+::
4603 Returns the bound address or path of the socket. See 'getsockname(2)'.
4605 +$handle *sockopt* '?name value?'+::
4606 With no arguments, returns a dictionary of socket options currently set for the handle
4607 (will be empty for a non-socket). With +'name'+ and +'value'+, sets the socket option
4608 to the given value. Currently supports the following boolean socket options:
4609 +broadcast, debug, keepalive, nosigpipe, oobinline, tcp_nodelay+, and the following
4610 integer socket options: +sndbuf, rcvbuf+
4613 Flush the stream, then 'fsync(2)' to commit any changes to storage.
4614 Only available on platforms that support 'fsync(2)'.
4617 Returns the current seek position
4619 +$handle *tty* ?settings?+::
4620 If no arguments are given, returns a dictionary containing the tty settings for the stream.
4621 If arguments are given, they must either be a dictionary, or +setting value \...+
4622 Abbrevations are supported for both settings and values, so the following is acceptable:
4623 +$f tty parity e input c out raw+.
4624 Only available on platforms that support 'termios(3)'. Supported settings are:
4627 Baud rate. e.g. 115200
4635 +*parity even|odd|none*+;;
4638 +*handshake xonxoff|rtscts|none*+;;
4641 +*input raw|cooked*+;;
4642 Input character processing. In raw mode, the usual key sequences such as ^C do
4643 not generate signals.
4645 +*output raw|cooked*+;;
4646 Output character processing. Typically CR -> CRNL is disabled in raw mode.
4648 +*vmin* 'numchars'+;;
4649 Minimum number of characters to read.
4652 Timeout for noncanonical read (units of 0.1 seconds)
4654 +$handle *ssl* ?*-server* 'cert priv'?+::
4655 Upgrades the stream to a SSL/TLS session and returns the handle.
4657 +$handle *unlock*+::
4658 Release a POSIX lock previously acquired by `aio lock`.
4660 +$handle *verify*+::
4661 Verifies the certificate of a SSL/TLS stream peer
4663 +*load_ssl_certs* 'dir'+::
4664 Loads SSL/TLS CA certificates for use during verification
4668 +*fconfigure* 'handle' *?-blocking 0|1? ?-buffering noneline|full? ?-translation* 'mode'?+::
4669 For compatibility with Tcl, a limited form of the `fconfigure`
4670 command is supported.
4671 * `fconfigure ... -blocking` maps to `aio ndelay`
4672 * `fconfigure ... -buffering` maps to `aio buffering`
4673 * `fconfigure ... -translation` is accepted but ignored
4676 eventloop: after, vwait, update
4677 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4679 The following commands allow a script to be invoked when the given condition occurs.
4680 If no script is given, returns the current script. If the given script is the empty, the
4683 +$handle *readable* '?readable-script?'+::
4684 Sets or returns the script for when the socket is readable.
4686 +$handle *writable* '?writable-script?'+::
4687 Sets or returns the script for when the socket is writable.
4689 +$handle *onexception* '?exception-script?'+::
4690 Sets or returns the script for when oob data received.
4692 For compatibility with 'Tcl', these may be prefixed with `fileevent`. e.g.
4695 +fileevent $handle *readable* '\...'+
4697 Time-based execution is also available via the eventloop API.
4700 Sleeps for the given number of milliseconds. No events are
4701 processed during this time.
4703 +*after* 'ms'|*idle* 'script ?script \...?'+::
4704 The scripts are concatenated and executed after the given
4705 number of milliseconds have elapsed. If 'idle' is specified,
4706 the script will run the next time the event loop is processed
4707 with `vwait` or `update`. The script is only run once and
4708 then removed. Returns an event id.
4710 +*after cancel* 'id|command'+::
4711 Cancels an `after` event with the given event id or matching
4712 command (script). Returns the number of milliseconds
4713 remaining until the event would have fired. Returns the
4714 empty string if no matching event is found.
4716 +*after info* '?id?'+::
4717 If +'id'+ is not given, returns a list of current `after`
4718 events. If +'id'+ is given, returns a list containing the
4719 associated script and either 'timer' or 'idle' to indicated
4720 the type of the event. An error occurs if +'id'+ does not
4723 +*vwait* 'variable'+::
4724 A call to `vwait` enters the eventloop. `vwait` processes
4725 events until the named (global) variable changes or all
4726 event handlers are removed. The variable need not exist
4727 beforehand. If there are no event handlers defined, `vwait`
4728 returns immediately.
4730 +*update ?idletasks?*+::
4731 A call to `update` enters the eventloop to process expired events, but
4732 no new events. If 'idletasks' is specified, only expired time events are handled,
4734 Returns once handlers have been run for all expired events.
4736 Scripts are executed at the global scope. If an error occurs during a handler script,
4737 an attempt is made to call (the user-defined command) `bgerror` with the details of the error.
4738 If the `bgerror` command does not exist, the error message details are printed to stderr instead.
4740 If a file event handler script generates an error, the handler is automatically removed
4741 to prevent infinite errors. (A time event handler is always removed after execution).
4744 Called when an event handler script generates an error. Note that the normal command resolution
4745 rules are used for bgerror. First the name is resolved in the current namespace, then in the
4750 Various socket types may be created.
4752 +*socket unix* 'path'+::
4753 A unix domain socket client connected to 'path'
4755 +*socket unix.server* 'path'+::
4756 A unix domain socket server listening on 'path'
4758 +*socket unix.dgram* '?path?'+::
4759 A unix domain socket datagram client, optionally connected to 'path'
4761 +*socket unix.dgram.server* 'path'+::
4762 A unix domain socket datagram server server listening on 'path'
4764 +*socket ?-ipv6? stream* 'addr:port'+::
4765 A TCP socket client. (See the forms for +'addr'+ below)
4767 +*socket ?-ipv6? stream.server* '?addr:?port'+::
4768 A TCP socket server (+'addr'+ defaults to +0.0.0.0+ for IPv4 or +[::]+ for IPv6).
4770 +*socket ?-ipv6? dgram* ?'addr:port'?+::
4771 A UDP socket client. If the address is not specified,
4772 the client socket will be unbound and 'sendto' must be used
4773 to indicated the destination.
4775 +*socket ?-ipv6? dgram.server* 'addr:port'+::
4776 A UDP socket server.
4779 A synonym for `pipe`
4782 A socketpair (see socketpair(2)). Like `pipe`, this command returns
4783 a list of two channels: {s1 s2}. These channels are both readable and writable.
4785 This command creates a socket connected (client) or bound (server) to the given
4788 The returned value is channel and may generally be used with the various file I/O
4789 commands (gets, puts, read, etc.), either as object-based syntax or Tcl-compatible syntax.
4791 . set f [socket stream www.google.com:80]
4793 . $f puts -nonewline "GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n"
4798 Server sockets, however support only 'accept', which is most useful in conjunction with
4801 set f [socket stream.server 80]
4803 set client [$f accept]
4806 $client puts -nonewline "HTTP/1.1 404 Not found\r\n"
4811 The address, +'addr'+, can be given in one of the following forms:
4813 1. For IPv4 socket types, an IPv4 address such as 192.168.1.1
4814 2. For IPv6 socket types, an IPv6 address such as [fe80::1234] or [::]
4817 Note that on many systems, listening on an IPv6 address such as [::] will
4818 also accept requests via IPv4.
4820 Where a hostname is specified, the +'first'+ returned address is used
4821 which matches the socket type is used.
4823 An unconnected dgram socket (either 'dgram' or 'unix.dgram') must use
4824 `sendto` to specify the destination address.
4826 The path for Unix domain sockets is automatically removed when the socket
4827 is closed. Use `close -nodelete` in the rare case where this behaviour
4828 should be avoided (e.g. after `os.fork`).
4832 +*syslog* '?options? ?priority? message'+
4834 This command sends message to system syslog facility with given
4835 priority. Valid priorities are:
4837 emerg, alert, crit, err, error, warning, notice, info, debug
4839 If a message is specified, but no priority is specified, then a
4840 priority of info is used.
4842 By default, facility user is used and the value of global tcl variable
4843 argv0 is used as ident string. However, any of the following options
4844 may be specified before priority to control these parameters:
4846 +*-facility* 'value'+::
4847 Use specified facility instead of user. The following
4848 values for facility are recognized:
4850 authpriv, cron, daemon, kernel, lpr, mail, news, syslog, user,
4853 +*-ident* 'string'+::
4854 Use given string instead of argv0 variable for ident string.
4856 +*-options* 'integer'+::
4857 Set syslog options such as +LOG_CONS+, +LOG_NDELAY+. You should
4858 use numeric values of those from your system syslog.h file,
4859 because I haven't got time to implement yet another hash
4864 The optional 'pack' extension provides commands to encode and decode binary strings.
4866 +*pack* 'varName value' *-intle|-intbe|-floatle|-floatbe|-str* 'bitwidth ?bitoffset?'+::
4867 Packs the binary representation of +'value'+ into the variable
4868 +'varName'+. The value is packed according to the given type
4869 (integer/floating point/string, big-endian/little-endian), width and bit offset.
4870 The variable is created if necessary (like `append`).
4871 The variable is expanded if necessary.
4873 +*unpack* 'binvalue' *-intbe|-intle|-uintbe|-uintle|-floatbe|-floatle|-str* 'bitpos bitwidth'+::
4874 Unpacks bits from +'binvalue'+ at bit position +'bitpos'+ and with +'bitwidth'+.
4875 Interprets the value according to the type (integer/floating point/string, big-endian/little-endian
4876 and signed/unsigned) and returns it. For integer types, +'bitwidth'+
4877 may be up to the size of a Jim Tcl integer (typically 64 bits). For floating point types,
4878 +'bitwidth'+ may be 32 bits (for single precision numbers) or 64 bits (for double precision).
4879 For the string type, both the width and the offset must be on a byte boundary (multiple of 8). Attempting to
4880 access outside the length of the value will return 0 for integer types, 0.0 for floating point types
4881 or the empty string for the string type.
4885 The optional 'zlib' extension provides a Tcl-compatible subset of the `zlib` command.
4887 +*crc32* 'data' '?startValue?'+::
4888 Returns the CRC32 checksum of a buffer. Optionally, an initial value may be specified; this is most useful
4889 for calculating the checksum of chunked data read from a stream (for instance, a pipe).
4891 +*deflate* 'string' '?level?'+::
4892 Compresses a buffer and outputs a raw, Deflate-compressed stream. Optionally, a compression level (1-9) may
4893 be specified to choose the desired speed vs. compression rate ratio.
4895 +*inflate* 'data' '?bufferSize?'+::
4896 Decompresses a raw, Deflate-compressed stream. When the uncompressed data size is known and specified, memory
4897 allocation is more efficient. Otherwise, decomperssion is chunked and therefore slower.
4899 +*gzip* 'string' '?-level level?'+::
4900 Compresses a buffer and adds a gzip header.
4902 +*gunzip* 'data' '?-buffersize size?'+::
4903 Decompresses a gzip-compressed buffer. Decompression is chunked, with a default, small buffer size of 64K
4904 which guarantees lower memory footprint at the cost of speed. It is recommended to use a bigger size, on
4905 systems without a severe memory constraint.
4909 The optional, pure-Tcl 'binary' extension provides the Tcl-compatible `binary scan` and `binary format`
4910 commands based on the low-level `pack` and `unpack` commands.
4912 See the Tcl documentation at: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TclCmd/binary.htm
4914 Note that 'binary format' with f/r/R specifiers (single-precision float) uses the value of Infinity
4915 in case of overflow.
4919 The optional, pure-Tcl 'oo' extension provides object-oriented (OO) support for Jim Tcl.
4921 See the online documentation (http://jim.tcl.tk/index.html/doc/www/www/documentation/oo/) for more details.
4923 +*class* 'classname ?baseclasses? classvars'+::
4924 Create a new class, +'classname'+, with the given dictionary
4925 (+'classvars'+) as class variables. These are the initial variables
4926 which all newly created objects of this class are initialised with.
4927 If a list of baseclasses is given, methods and instance variables
4930 +*super* 'method ?args \...?'+::
4931 From within a method, invokes the given method on the base class.
4932 Note that this will only call the last baseclass given.
4936 The optional, pure-Tcl 'tree' extension implements an OO, general purpose tree structure
4937 similar to that provided by tcllib ::struct::tree (http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/doc/trunk/embedded/www/tcllib/files/modules/struct/struct_tree.html)
4939 A tree is a collection of nodes, where each node (except the root node) has a single parent
4940 and zero or more child nodes (ordered), as well as zero or more attribute/value pairs.
4943 Creates and returns a new tree object with a single node named "root".
4944 All operations on the tree are invoked through this object.
4947 Destroy the tree and all it's nodes. (Note that the tree will also
4948 be automatically garbage collected once it goes out of scope).
4950 +$tree *set* 'nodename key value'+::
4951 Set the value for the given attribute key.
4953 +$tree *lappend* 'nodename key value \...'+::
4954 Append to the (list) value(s) for the given attribute key, or set if not yet set.
4956 +$tree *keyexists* 'nodename key'+::
4957 Returns 1 if the given attribute key exists.
4959 +$tree *get* 'nodename key'+::
4960 Returns the value associated with the given attribute key.
4962 +$tree *getall* 'nodename'+::
4963 Returns the entire attribute dictionary associated with the given key.
4965 +$tree *depth* 'nodename'+::
4966 Returns the depth of the given node. The depth of "root" is 0.
4968 +$tree *parent* 'nodename'+::
4969 Returns the node name of the parent node, or "" for the root node.
4971 +$tree *numchildren* 'nodename'+::
4972 Returns the number of child nodes.
4974 +$tree *children* 'nodename'+::
4975 Returns a list of the child nodes.
4977 +$tree *next* 'nodename'+::
4978 Returns the next sibling node, or "" if none.
4980 +$tree *insert* 'nodename ?index?'+::
4981 Add a new child node to the given node. The index is a list index
4982 such as +3+ or +end-2+. The default index is +end+.
4983 Returns the name of the newly added node.
4985 +$tree *walk* 'nodename' *dfs|bfs* {'actionvar nodevar'} 'script'+::
4986 Walks the tree starting from the given node, either breadth first (+bfs+)
4987 depth first (+dfs+).
4988 The value +"enter"+ or +"exit"+ is stored in variable +'actionvar'+.
4989 The name of each node is stored in +'nodevar'+.
4990 The script is evaluated twice for each node, on entry and exit.
4993 Dumps the tree contents to stdout
4997 The optional tclprefix extension provides the Tcl8.6-compatible `tcl::prefix` command
4998 (http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/prefix.htm) for matching strings against a table
4999 of possible values (typically commands or options).
5001 +*tcl::prefix all* 'table string'+::
5002 Returns a list of all elements in +'table'+ that begin with the prefix +'string'+.
5004 +*tcl::prefix longest* 'table string'+::
5005 Returns the longest common prefix of all elements in +'table'+ that begin with the prefix +'string'+.
5007 +*tcl::prefix match* '?options? table string'+::
5008 If +'string'+ equals one element in +'table'+ or is a prefix to
5009 exactly one element, the matched element is returned. If not, the
5010 result depends on the +-error+ option.
5012 * +*-exact*+ Accept only exact matches.
5013 * +*-message* 'string'+ Use +'string'+ in the error message at a mismatch. Default is "option".
5014 * +*-error* 'options'+ The options are used when no match is found. If +'options'+ is
5015 empty, no error is generated and an empty string is returned.
5016 Otherwise the options are used as return options when
5017 generating the error message. The default corresponds to
5022 Scriptable command line completion is supported in the interactive shell, 'jimsh', through
5023 the `tcl::autocomplete` callback. A simple implementation is provided, however this may
5024 be replaced with a custom command instead if desired.
5026 In the interactive shell, press <TAB> to activate command line completion.
5028 +*tcl::autocomplete* 'commandline'+::
5029 This command is called with the current command line when the user presses <TAB>.
5030 The command should return a list of all possible command lines that match the current command line.
5031 For example if +*pr*+ is the current command line, the list +*{prefix proc}*+ may be returned.
5035 The optional history extension provides script access to the command line editing
5036 and history support available in 'jimsh'. See 'examples/jtclsh.tcl' for an example.
5037 Note: if line editing support is not available, `history getline` acts like `gets` and
5038 the remaining subcommands do nothing.
5040 +*history load* 'filename'+::
5041 Load history from a (text) file. If the file does not exist or is not readable,
5044 +*history getline* 'prompt ?varname?'+::
5045 Displays the given prompt and allows a line to be entered. Similarly to `gets`,
5046 if +'varname'+ is given, it receives the line and the length of the line is returned,
5047 or -1 on EOF. If +'varname'+ is not given, the line is returned directly.
5049 +*history completion* 'command'+::
5050 Sets an autocompletion command (see `tcl::autocomplete`) that is active during `history getline`.
5051 If the command is empty, autocompletion is disabled.
5053 +*history add* 'line'+::
5054 Adds the given line to the history buffer.
5056 +*history save* 'filename'+::
5057 Saves the current history buffer to the given file.
5060 Displays the current history buffer to standard output.
5064 Provides namespace-related functions. See also: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/namespace.htm
5066 +*namespace code* 'script'+::
5067 Captures the current namespace context for later execution of
5068 the script +'script'+. It returns a new script in which script has
5069 been wrapped in a +*namespace inscope*+ command.
5071 +*namespace current*+::
5072 Returns the fully-qualified name for the current namespace.
5074 +*namespace delete* '?namespace ...?'+::
5075 Deletes all commands and variables with the given namespace prefixes.
5077 +*namespace eval* 'namespace arg ?arg...?'+::
5078 Activates a namespace called +'namespace'+ and evaluates some code in that context.
5080 +*namespace origin* 'command'+::
5081 Returns the fully-qualified name of the original command to which the imported command +'command'+ refers.
5083 +*namespace parent* ?namespace?+::
5084 Returns the fully-qualified name of the parent namespace for namespace +'namespace'+, if given, otherwise
5085 for the current namespace.
5087 +*namespace qualifiers* 'string'+::
5088 Returns any leading namespace qualifiers for +'string'+
5090 +*namespace tail* 'string'+::
5091 Returns the simple name at the end of a qualified string.
5093 +*namespace upvar* 'namespace ?arg...?'+::
5094 This command arranges for zero or more local variables in the current procedure to refer to variables in +'namespace'+
5096 +*namespace which* '?-command|-variable? name'+::
5097 Looks up +'name'+ as either a command (the default) or variable and returns its fully-qualified name.
5101 The optional 'interp' command allows sub-interpreters to be created where commands may be run
5102 independently (but synchronously) of the main interpreter.
5105 Creates and returns a new interpreter object (command).
5106 The created interpeter contains any built-in commands along with static extensions,
5107 but does not include any dynamically loaded commands (package require, load).
5108 These must be reloaded in the child interpreter if required.
5110 +*$interp delete*+::
5111 Deletes the interpeter object.
5113 +*$interp eval* 'script' ...+::
5114 Evaluates a script in the context for the child interpreter, in the same way as 'eval'.
5116 +*$interp alias* 'alias childcmd parentcmd ?arg ...?'+::
5117 Similar to 'alias', but creates a command, +'childcmd'+, in the child interpreter that is an
5118 alias for +'parentcmd'+ in the parent interpreter, with the given, fixed arguments.
5119 The alias may be deleted in the child with 'rename'.
5121 [[BuiltinVariables]]
5125 The following global variables are created automatically
5129 This variable is set by Jim as an array
5130 whose elements are the environment variables for the process.
5131 Reading an element will return the value of the corresponding
5132 environment variable.
5133 This array is initialised at startup from the `env` command.
5134 It may be modified and will affect the environment passed to
5135 commands invoked with `exec`.
5138 This variable is set by Jim as an array containing information
5139 about the platform on which Jim was built. Currently this includes
5140 'os' and 'platform'.
5143 This variable contains a list of paths to search for packages.
5144 It defaults to a location based on where jim is installed
5145 (e.g. +/usr/local/lib/jim+), but may be changed by +jimsh+
5146 or the embedding application. Note that +jimsh+ will consider
5147 the environment variable +$JIMLIB+ to be a list of colon-separated
5148 list of paths to add to +*auto_path*+.
5151 This variable holds the value of the -errorcode return
5152 option set by the most recent error that occurred in this
5153 interpreter. This list value represents additional information
5154 about the error in a form that is easy to process with
5155 programs. The first element of the list identifies a general
5156 class of errors, and determines the format of the rest of
5157 the list. The following formats for -errorcode return options
5158 are used by the Tcl core; individual applications may define
5159 additional formats. Currently only `exec` sets this variable.
5160 Otherwise it will be +NONE+.
5162 The following global variables are set by jimsh.
5164 +*tcl_interactive*+::
5165 This variable is set to 1 if jimsh is started in interactive mode
5169 This variable is set by Jim as an array containing information
5170 about the platform upon which Jim was built. The following is an
5171 example of the contents of this array.
5173 tcl_platform(byteOrder) = littleEndian
5174 tcl_platform(engine) = Jim
5175 tcl_platform(os) = Darwin
5176 tcl_platform(platform) = unix
5177 tcl_platform(pointerSize) = 8
5178 tcl_platform(threaded) = 0
5179 tcl_platform(wordSize) = 8
5180 tcl_platform(pathSeparator) = :
5183 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains the name
5187 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains a list
5188 of any arguments supplied to the script.
5191 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains the number
5192 of arguments supplied to the script.
5195 The value of argv[0] when jimsh was invoked.
5197 The following variables have special meaning to Jim Tcl:
5200 If this variable is set, it is considered to be a list of scripts to evaluate
5201 when the current proc exits (local variables), or the interpreter exits (global variable).
5204 +*history::multiline*+::
5205 If this variable is set to "1", interactive line editing operates in multiline mode.
5206 That is, long lines will wrap across multiple lines rather than scrolling within a
5209 CHANGES IN PREVIOUS RELEASES
5210 ----------------------------
5214 1. +platform_tcl()+ settings are now automatically determined
5215 2. Add aio `$handle filename`
5216 3. Add `info channels`
5217 4. The 'bio' extension is gone. Now `aio` supports 'copyto'.
5218 5. Add `exists` command
5219 6. Add the pure-Tcl 'oo' extension
5220 7. The `exec` command now only uses vfork(), not fork()
5221 8. Unit test framework is less verbose and more Tcl-compatible
5222 9. Optional UTF-8 support
5223 10. Optional built-in regexp engine for better Tcl compatibility and UTF-8 support
5224 11. Command line editing in interactive mode, e.g. 'jimsh'
5228 1. `source` now checks that a script is complete (.i.e. not missing a brace)
5229 2. 'info complete' now uses the real parser and so is 100% accurate
5230 3. Better access to live stack frames with 'info frame', `stacktrace` and `stackdump`
5231 4. `tailcall` no longer loses stack trace information
5232 5. Add `alias` and `curry`
5233 6. `lambda`, `alias` and `curry` are implemented via `tailcall` for efficiency
5234 7. `local` allows procedures to be deleted automatically at the end of the current procedure
5235 8. udp sockets are now supported for both clients and servers.
5236 9. vfork-based exec is now working correctly
5237 10. Add 'file tempfile'
5238 11. Add 'socket pipe'
5239 12. Enhance 'try ... on ... finally' to be more Tcl 8.6 compatible
5240 13. It is now possible to `return` from within `try`
5241 14. IPv6 support is now included
5243 16. Event handlers works better if an error occurs. eof handler has been removed.
5244 17. `exec` now sets $::errorCode, and catch sets opts(-errorcode) for exit status
5245 18. Command pipelines via open "|..." are now supported
5246 19. `pid` can now return pids of a command pipeline
5247 20. Add 'info references'
5248 21. Add support for 'after +'ms'+', 'after idle', 'after info', `update`
5249 22. `exec` now sets environment based on $::env
5251 24. Add support for 'lsort -index'
5255 1. Add support to `exec` for '>&', '>>&', '|&', '2>@1'
5256 2. Fix `exec` error messages when special token (e.g. '>') is the last token
5257 3. Fix `subst` handling of backslash escapes.
5258 4. Allow abbreviated options for `subst`
5259 5. Add support for `return`, `break`, `continue` in subst
5260 6. Many `expr` bug fixes
5261 7. Add support for functions in `expr` (e.g. int(), abs()), and also 'in', 'ni' list operations
5262 8. The variable name argument to `regsub` is now optional
5263 9. Add support for 'unset -nocomplain'
5264 10. Add support for list commands: `lassign`, `lrepeat`
5265 11. Fully-functional `lsearch` is now implemented
5266 12. Add 'info nameofexecutable' and 'info returncodes'
5267 13. Allow `catch` to determine what return codes are caught
5268 14. Allow `incr` to increment an unset variable by first setting to 0
5269 15. Allow 'args' and optional arguments to the left or required arguments in `proc`
5271 17. Add 'try ... finally' command
5277 Copyright 2005 Salvatore Sanfilippo <antirez@invece.org>
5278 Copyright 2005 Clemens Hintze <c.hintze@gmx.net>
5279 Copyright 2005 patthoyts - Pat Thoyts <patthoyts@users.sf.net>
5280 Copyright 2008 oharboe - Oyvind Harboe - oyvind.harboe@zylin.com
5281 Copyright 2008 Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
5282 Copyright 2008 Duane Ellis <openocd@duaneellis.com>
5283 Copyright 2008 Uwe Klein <uklein@klein-messgeraete.de>
5284 Copyright 2009 Steve Bennett <steveb@workware.net.au>
5287 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5288 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
5290 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
5291 notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
5292 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
5293 copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
5294 disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
5295 provided with the distribution.
5297 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE JIM TCL PROJECT ``AS IS'' AND ANY
5298 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
5299 THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
5300 PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
5301 JIM TCL PROJECT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
5302 INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
5303 (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
5304 OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
5305 HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
5306 STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
5307 ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
5308 ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
5310 The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation
5311 are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing
5312 official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Jim Tcl Project.