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: +$(...)+
49 14. Modular build allows many features to be omitted or built as dynamic, loadable modules
50 15. Highly suitable for use in an embedded environment
51 16. Support for UDP, IPv6, Unix-Domain sockets in addition to TCP sockets
57 1. Add `file mtimeus` for high resolution file timestamps
59 Changes between 0.77 and 0.78
60 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
61 1. Add serial/tty support with `aio tty`
62 2. Add support for 'jimsh -'
63 3. Add hidden '-commands' option to many commands
64 4. Add scriptable autocompletion support in interactive mode with `tcl::autocomplete`
66 6. Add scriptable autocompletion support with `history completion`
67 7. Add support for `tree delete`
68 8. Add support for `defer` and '$jim::defer'
69 9. Renamed `os.wait` to `wait`, now more Tcl-compatible and compatible with `exec ... &`
70 10. `pipe` is now a synonym for `socket pipe`
71 11. Closing a pipe open with `open |...` now returns Tcl-like status
72 12. It is now possible to used `exec` redirection with a pipe opened with `open |...`
73 13. Interactive line editing now supports multiline mode if $::history::multiline is set
75 Changes between 0.76 and 0.77
76 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
77 1. Add support for `aio sync`
78 2. Add SSL and TLS support in aio
80 4. Added support for boolean constants in `expr`
81 5. `string is` now supports 'boolean' class
82 6. Add support for `aio lock` and `aio unlock`
83 7. Add new `interp` command
85 Changes between 0.75 and 0.76
86 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
87 1. `glob` now supports the +-tails+ option
88 2. Add support for `string cat`
89 3. Allow `info source` to add source info
91 Changes between 0.74 and 0.75
92 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
93 1. `binary`, `pack` and `unpack` now support floating point
94 2. `file copy` +-force+ handles source and target as the same file
95 3. `format` now supports +%b+ for binary conversion
96 4. `lsort` now supports +-unique+ and +-real+
97 5. Add support for half-close with `aio close` +?r|w?+
98 6. Add `socket pair` for a bidirectional pipe
99 7. Add '--random-hash' to randomise hash tables for greater security
100 8. `dict` now supports 'for', 'values', 'incr', 'append', 'lappend', 'update', 'info' and 'replace'
101 9. `file stat` no longer requires the variable name
102 10. Add support for `file link`
104 Changes between 0.73 and 0.74
105 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
106 1. Numbers with leading zeros are treated as decimal, not octal
108 3. Add LFS (64 bit) support for `aio seek`, `aio tell`, `aio copyto`, `file copy`
109 4. `string compare` and `string equal` now support '-length'
110 5. `glob` now supports '-directory'
112 Changes between 0.72 and 0.73
113 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
114 1. Built-in regexp now support non-capturing parentheses: (?:...)
115 2. Add `string replace`
116 3. Add `string totitle`
117 4. Add `info statics`
118 5. Add +build-jim-ext+ for easy separate building of loadable modules (extensions)
119 6. `local` now works with any command, not just procs
120 7. Add `info alias` to access the target of an alias
121 8. UTF-8 encoding past the basic multilingual plane (BMP) is supported
124 11. Most extensions are now enabled by default
125 12. Add support for namespaces and the `namespace` command
128 Changes between 0.71 and 0.72
129 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
130 1. procs now allow 'args' and optional parameters in any position
131 2. Add Tcl-compatible expr functions, `rand()`, `srand()` and `pow()`
132 3. Add support for the '-force' option to `file delete`
133 4. Better diagnostics when `source` fails to load a script with a missing quote or bracket
134 5. New +tcl_platform(pathSeparator)+
135 6. Add support settings the modification time with `file mtime`
136 7. `exec` is now fully supported on win32 (mingw32)
137 8. `file join`, `pwd`, `glob` etc. now work for mingw32
138 9. Line editing is now supported for the win32 console (mingw32)
139 10. Add `aio listen` command
141 Changes between 0.70 and 0.71
142 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
143 1. Allow 'args' to be renamed in procs
144 2. Add +$(...)+ shorthand syntax for expressions
145 3. Add automatic reference variables in procs with +&var+ syntax
146 4. Support +jimsh --version+
147 5. Additional variables in +tcl_platform()+
148 6. `local` procs now push existing commands and `upcall` can call them
149 7. Add `loop` command (TclX compatible)
150 8. Add `aio buffering` command
151 9. `info complete` can now return the missing character
152 10. `binary format` and `binary scan` are now (optionally) supported
153 11. Add `string byterange`
154 12. Built-in regexp now support non-greedy repetition (*?, +?, ??)
158 Tcl stands for 'tool command language' and is pronounced
159 'http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/tickle[tickle]'.
160 It is actually two things: a language and a library.
162 First, Tcl is a simple textual language, intended primarily for
163 issuing commands to interactive programs such as text editors,
164 debuggers, illustrators, and shells. It has a simple syntax and is also
165 programmable, so Tcl users can write command procedures to provide more
166 powerful commands than those in the built-in set.
168 Second, Tcl is a library package that can be embedded in application
169 programs. The Tcl library consists of a parser for the Tcl language,
170 routines to implement the Tcl built-in commands, and procedures that
171 allow each application to extend Tcl with additional commands specific
172 to that application. The application program generates Tcl commands and
173 passes them to the Tcl parser for execution. Commands may be generated
174 by reading characters from an input source, or by associating command
175 strings with elements of the application's user interface, such as menu
176 entries, buttons, or keystrokes.
178 When the Tcl library receives commands it parses them into component
179 fields and executes built-in commands directly. For commands implemented
180 by the application, Tcl calls back to the application to execute the
181 commands. In many cases commands will invoke recursive invocations of the
182 Tcl interpreter by passing in additional strings to execute (procedures,
183 looping commands, and conditional commands all work in this way).
185 An application program gains three advantages by using Tcl for its command
186 language. First, Tcl provides a standard syntax: once users know Tcl,
187 they will be able to issue commands easily to any Tcl-based application.
188 Second, Tcl provides programmability. All a Tcl application needs
189 to do is to implement a few application-specific low-level commands.
190 Tcl provides many utility commands plus a general programming interface
191 for building up complex command procedures. By using Tcl, applications
192 need not re-implement these features.
194 Third, Tcl can be used as a common language for communicating between
195 applications. Inter-application communication is not built into the
196 Tcl core described here, but various add-on libraries, such as the Tk
197 toolkit, allow applications to issue commands to each other. This makes
198 it possible for applications to work together in much more powerful ways
199 than was previously possible.
201 Fourth, Jim Tcl includes a command processor, +jimsh+, which can be
202 used to run standalone Tcl scripts, or to run Tcl commands interactively.
204 This manual page focuses primarily on the Tcl language. It describes
205 the language syntax and the built-in commands that will be available
206 in any application based on Tcl. The individual library procedures are
207 described in more detail in separate manual pages, one per procedure.
209 JIMSH COMMAND INTERPRETER
210 -------------------------
211 A simple, but powerful command processor, +jimsh+, is part of Jim Tcl.
212 It may be invoked in interactive mode as:
216 or to process the Tcl script in a file with:
220 or to process the Tcl script from standard input:
224 It may also be invoked to execute an immediate script with:
230 Interactive mode reads Tcl commands from standard input, evaluates
231 those commands and prints the results.
234 Welcome to Jim version 0.73, Copyright (c) 2005-8 Salvatore Sanfilippo
237 . lsort [info commands p*]
238 package parray pid popen proc puts pwd
239 . foreach i {a b c} {
246 invalid command name "bad"
250 If +jimsh+ is configured with line editing (it is by default) and a VT-100-compatible
251 terminal is detected, Emacs-style line editing commands are available, including:
252 arrow keys, +\^W+ to erase a word, +\^U+ to erase the line, +^R+ for reverse incremental search
253 in history. Additionally, the +h+ command may be used to display the command history.
255 Command line history is automatically saved and loaded from +~/.jim_history+
257 In interactive mode, +jimsh+ automatically runs the script +~/.jimrc+ at startup
262 The central data structure in Tcl is an interpreter (C type 'Jim_Interp').
263 An interpreter consists of a set of command bindings, a set of variable
264 values, and a few other miscellaneous pieces of state. Each Tcl command
265 is interpreted in the context of a particular interpreter.
267 Some Tcl-based applications will maintain multiple interpreters
268 simultaneously, each associated with a different widget or portion of
269 the application. Interpreters are relatively lightweight structures.
270 They can be created and deleted quickly, so application programmers should
271 feel free to use multiple interpreters if that simplifies the application.
275 Tcl supports only one type of data: strings. All commands, all arguments
276 to commands, all command results, and all variable values are strings.
278 Where commands require numeric arguments or return numeric results,
279 the arguments and results are passed as strings. Many commands expect
280 their string arguments to have certain formats, but this interpretation
281 is up to the individual commands. For example, arguments often contain
282 Tcl command strings, which may get executed as part of the commands.
283 The easiest way to understand the Tcl interpreter is to remember that
284 everything is just an operation on a string. In many cases Tcl constructs
285 will look similar to more structured constructs from other languages.
286 However, the Tcl constructs are not structured at all; they are just
287 strings of characters, and this gives them a different behaviour than
288 the structures they may look like.
290 Although the exact interpretation of a Tcl string depends on who is doing
291 the interpretation, there are three common forms that strings take:
292 commands, expressions, and lists. The major sections below discuss
293 these three forms in more detail.
297 The Tcl language has syntactic similarities to both the Unix shells
298 and Lisp. However, the interpretation of commands is different
299 in Tcl than in either of those other two systems.
300 A Tcl command string consists of one or more commands separated
301 by newline characters or semi-colons.
302 Each command consists of a collection of fields separated by
303 white space (spaces or tabs).
304 The first field must be the name of a command, and the
305 additional fields, if any, are arguments that will be passed to
306 that command. For example, the command:
310 has three fields: the first, `set`, is the name of a Tcl command, and
311 the last two, 'a' and '22', will be passed as arguments to
312 the `set` command. The command name may refer either to a built-in
313 Tcl command, an application-specific command bound in with the library
314 procedure 'Jim_CreateCommand', or a command procedure defined with the
315 `proc` built-in command.
317 Arguments are passed literally as text strings. Individual commands may
318 interpret those strings in any fashion they wish. The `set` command,
319 for example, will treat its first argument as the name of a variable
320 and its second argument as a string value to assign to that variable.
321 For other commands arguments may be interpreted as integers, lists,
322 file names, or Tcl commands.
324 Command names should normally be typed completely (e.g. no abbreviations).
325 However, if the Tcl interpreter cannot locate a command it invokes a
326 special command named `unknown` which attempts to find or create the
329 For example, at many sites `unknown` will search through library
330 directories for the desired command and create it as a Tcl procedure if
331 it is found. The `unknown` command often provides automatic completion
332 of abbreviated commands, but usually only for commands that were typed
335 It's probably a bad idea to use abbreviations in command scripts and
336 other forms that will be re-used over time: changes to the command set
337 may cause abbreviations to become ambiguous, resulting in scripts that
342 If the first non-blank character in a command is +\#+, then everything
343 from the +#+ up through the next newline character is treated as
344 a comment and ignored. When comments are embedded inside nested
345 commands (e.g. fields enclosed in braces) they must have properly-matched
346 braces (this is necessary because when Tcl parses the top-level command
347 it doesn't yet know that the nested field will be used as a command so
348 it cannot process the nested comment character as a comment).
350 GROUPING ARGUMENTS WITH DOUBLE-QUOTES
351 -------------------------------------
352 Normally each argument field ends at the next white space, but
353 double-quotes may be used to create arguments with embedded space.
355 If an argument field begins with a double-quote, then the argument isn't
356 terminated by white space (including newlines) or a semi-colon (see below
357 for information on semi-colons); instead it ends at the next double-quote
358 character. The double-quotes are not included in the resulting argument.
359 For example, the command
361 set a "This is a single argument"
363 will pass two arguments to `set`: 'a' and 'This is a single argument'.
365 Within double-quotes, command substitutions, variable substitutions,
366 and backslash substitutions still occur, as described below. If the
367 first character of a command field is not a quote, then quotes receive
368 no special interpretation in the parsing of that field.
370 GROUPING ARGUMENTS WITH BRACES
371 ------------------------------
372 Curly braces may also be used for grouping arguments. They are similar
373 to quotes except for two differences. First, they nest; this makes them
374 easier to use for complicated arguments like nested Tcl command strings.
375 Second, the substitutions described below for commands, variables, and
376 backslashes do *not* occur in arguments enclosed in braces, so braces
377 can be used to prevent substitutions where they are undesirable.
379 If an argument field begins with a left brace, then the argument ends
380 at the matching right brace. Tcl will strip off the outermost layer
381 of braces and pass the information between the braces to the command
382 without any further modification. For example, in the command
384 set a {xyz a {b c d}}
386 the `set` command will receive two arguments: 'a'
389 When braces or quotes are in effect, the matching brace or quote need
390 not be on the same line as the starting quote or brace; in this case
391 the newline will be included in the argument field along with any other
392 characters up to the matching brace or quote. For example, the `eval`
393 command takes one argument, which is a command string; `eval` invokes
394 the Tcl interpreter to execute the command string. The command
401 will assign the value '22' to 'a' and '33' to 'b'.
403 If the first character of a command field is not a left
404 brace, then neither left nor right
405 braces in the field will be treated specially (except as part of
406 variable substitution; see below).
408 COMMAND SUBSTITUTION WITH BRACKETS
409 ----------------------------------
410 If an open bracket occurs in a field of a command, then command
411 substitution occurs (except for fields enclosed in braces). All of the
412 text up to the matching close bracket is treated as a Tcl command and
413 executed immediately. Then the result of that command is substituted
414 for the bracketed text. For example, consider the command
418 When the `set` command has only a single argument, it is the name of a
419 variable and `set` returns the contents of that variable. In this case,
420 if variable 'b' has the value 'foo', then the command above is equivalent
425 Brackets can be used in more complex ways. For example, if the variable
426 'b' has the value 'foo' and the variable 'c' has the value 'gorp',
429 set a xyz[set b].[set c]
431 is equivalent to the command
436 A bracketed command may contain multiple commands separated by newlines
437 or semi-colons in the usual fashion. In this case the value of the last
438 command is used for substitution. For example, the command
443 is equivalent to the command
448 If a field is enclosed in braces then the brackets and the characters
449 between them are not interpreted specially; they are passed through to
450 the argument verbatim.
452 VARIABLE SUBSTITUTION WITH $
453 ----------------------------
454 The dollar sign (+$+) may be used as a special shorthand form for
455 substituting variable values. If +$+ appears in an argument that isn't
456 enclosed in braces then variable substitution will occur. The characters
457 after the +$+, up to the first character that isn't a number, letter,
458 or underscore, are taken as a variable name and the string value of that
459 variable is substituted for the name.
461 For example, if variable 'foo' has the value 'test', then the command
465 is equivalent to the command
469 There are two special forms for variable substitution. If the next
470 character after the name of the variable is an open parenthesis, then
471 the variable is assumed to be an array name, and all of the characters
472 between the open parenthesis and the next close parenthesis are taken as
473 an index into the array. Command substitutions and variable substitutions
474 are performed on the information between the parentheses before it is
477 For example, if the variable 'x' is an array with one element named
478 'first' and value '87' and another element named '14' and value 'more',
481 set a xyz$x(first)zyx
483 is equivalent to the command
487 If the variable 'index' has the value '14', then the command
489 set a xyz$x($index)zyx
491 is equivalent to the command
495 For more information on arrays, see VARIABLES AND ARRAYS below.
497 The second special form for variables occurs when the dollar sign is
498 followed by an open curly brace. In this case the variable name consists
499 of all the characters up to the next curly brace.
501 Array references are not possible in this form: the name between braces
502 is assumed to refer to a scalar variable. For example, if variable
503 'foo' has the value 'test', then the command
507 is equivalent to the command
512 Variable substitution does not occur in arguments that are enclosed in
513 braces: the dollar sign and variable name are passed through to the
516 The dollar sign abbreviation is simply a shorthand form. +$a+ is
517 completely equivalent to +[set a]+; it is provided as a convenience
520 SEPARATING COMMANDS WITH SEMI-COLONS
521 ------------------------------------
522 Normally, each command occupies one line (the command is terminated by a
523 newline character). However, semi-colon (+;+) is treated as a command
524 separator character; multiple commands may be placed on one line by
525 separating them with a semi-colon. Semi-colons are not treated as
526 command separators if they appear within curly braces or double-quotes.
528 BACKSLASH SUBSTITUTION
529 ----------------------
530 Backslashes may be used to insert non-printing characters into command
531 fields and also to insert special characters like braces and brackets
532 into fields without them being interpreted specially as described above.
534 The backslash sequences understood by the Tcl interpreter are
535 listed below. In each case, the backslash
536 sequence is replaced by the given character:
537 [[BackslashSequences]]
548 Carriage-return (0xd).
571 +{backslash}<space>+::
572 Space ( ): doesn't terminate argument.
575 Semi-colon: doesn't terminate command.
580 +{backslash}<newline>+::
581 Nothing: this joins two lines together
582 into a single line. This backslash feature is unique in that
583 it will be applied even when the sequence occurs within braces.
585 +{backslash}{backslash}+::
586 Backslash ('{backslash}').
589 The digits +'ddd'+ (one, two, or three of them) give the octal value of
590 the character. Note that Jim supports null characters in strings.
593 +{backslash}u\{nnn\}+::
594 +{backslash}Unnnnnnnn+::
595 The UTF-8 encoding of the unicode codepoint represented by the hex digits, +'nnnn'+, is inserted.
596 The 'u' form allows for one to four hex digits.
597 The 'U' form allows for one to eight hex digits.
598 The 'u\{nnn\}' form allows for one to eight hex digits, but makes it easier to insert
599 characters UTF-8 characters which are followed by a hex digit.
601 For example, in the command
605 the second argument to `set` will be +{x[ yza+.
607 If a backslash is followed by something other than one of the options
608 described above, then the backslash is transmitted to the argument
609 field without any special processing, and the Tcl scanner continues
610 normal processing with the next character. For example, in the
615 The first argument to `set` will be +{backslash}*a+ and the second
616 argument will be +{backslash}{foo+.
618 If an argument is enclosed in braces, then backslash sequences inside
619 the argument are parsed but no substitution occurs (except for
620 backslash-newline): the backslash
621 sequence is passed through to the argument as is, without making
622 any special interpretation of the characters in the backslash sequence.
623 In particular, backslashed braces are not counted in locating the
624 matching right brace that terminates the argument.
630 the second argument to `set` will be +{backslash}{abc+.
632 This backslash mechanism is not sufficient to generate absolutely
633 any argument structure; it only covers the
634 most common cases. To produce particularly complicated arguments
635 it is probably easiest to use the `format` command along with
636 command substitution.
638 STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS
639 ------------------------------------
641 Many string and list commands take one or more 'index' parameters which
642 specify a position in the string relative to the start or end of the string/list.
644 The index may be one of the following forms:
647 A simple integer, where '0' refers to the first element of the string
650 +integer+integer+ or::
652 The sum or difference of the two integers. e.g. +2+3+ refers to the 5th element.
653 This is useful when used with (e.g.) +$i+1+ rather than the more verbose
657 The last element of the string or list.
660 The 'nth-from-last' element of the string or list.
664 1. A command is just a string.
665 2. Within a string commands are separated by newlines or semi-colons
666 (unless the newline or semi-colon is within braces or brackets
668 3. A command consists of fields. The first field is the name of the command.
669 The other fields are strings that are passed to that command as arguments.
670 4. Fields are normally separated by white space.
671 5. Double-quotes allow white space and semi-colons to appear within
673 Command substitution, variable substitution, and backslash substitution
674 still occur inside quotes.
675 6. Braces defer interpretation of special characters.
676 If a field begins with a left brace, then it consists of everything
677 between the left brace and the matching right brace. The
678 braces themselves are not included in the argument.
679 No further processing is done on the information between the braces
680 except that backslash-newline sequences are eliminated.
681 7. If a field doesn't begin with a brace then backslash,
682 variable, and command substitution are done on the field. Only a
683 single level of processing is done: the results of one substitution
684 are not scanned again for further substitutions or any other
685 special treatment. Substitution can
686 occur on any field of a command, including the command name
687 as well as the arguments.
688 8. If the first non-blank character of a command is a +\#+, everything
689 from the +#+ up through the next newline is treated as a comment
694 The second major interpretation applied to strings in Tcl is
695 as expressions. Several commands, such as `expr`, `for`,
696 and `if`, treat one or more of their arguments as expressions
697 and call the Tcl expression processors ('Jim_ExprLong',
698 'Jim_ExprBoolean', etc.) to evaluate them.
700 The operators permitted in Tcl expressions are a subset of
701 the operators permitted in C expressions, and they have the
702 same meaning and precedence as the corresponding C operators.
703 Expressions almost always yield numeric results
704 (integer or floating-point values).
705 For example, the expression
711 Tcl expressions differ from C expressions in the way that
712 operands are specified, and in that Tcl expressions support
713 non-numeric operands and string comparisons.
715 A Tcl expression consists of a combination of operands, operators,
718 White space may be used between the operands and operators and
719 parentheses; it is ignored by the expression processor.
720 Where possible, operands are interpreted as integer values.
722 Integer values may be specified in decimal (the normal case) or in
723 hexadecimal (if the first two characters of the operand are '0x').
724 Note that Jim Tcl does *not* treat numbers with leading zeros as octal.
726 If an operand does not have one of the integer formats given
727 above, then it is treated as a floating-point number if that is
728 possible. Floating-point numbers may be specified in any of the
729 ways accepted by an ANSI-compliant C compiler (except that the
730 'f', 'F', 'l', and 'L' suffixes will not be permitted in
731 most installations). For example, all of the
732 following are valid floating-point numbers: 2.1, 3., 6e4, 7.91e+16.
734 If no numeric interpretation is possible, then an operand is left
735 as a string (and only a limited set of operators may be applied to
738 String constants representing boolean constants
739 (+'0'+, +'1'+, +'false'+, +'off'+, +'no'+, +'true'+, +'on'+, +'yes'+)
740 are also recognized and can be used in logical operations.
742 1. Operands may be specified in any of the following ways:
744 2. As a numeric value, either integer or floating-point.
746 3. As one of valid boolean constants
748 4. As a Tcl variable, using standard '$' notation.
749 The variable's value will be used as the operand.
751 5. As a string enclosed in double-quotes.
752 The expression parser will perform backslash, variable, and
753 command substitutions on the information between the quotes,
754 and use the resulting value as the operand
756 6. As a string enclosed in braces.
757 The characters between the open brace and matching close brace
758 will be used as the operand without any substitutions.
760 7. As a Tcl command enclosed in brackets.
761 The command will be executed and its result will be used as
764 Where substitutions occur above (e.g. inside quoted strings), they
765 are performed by the expression processor.
766 However, an additional layer of substitution may already have
767 been performed by the command parser before the expression
768 processor was called.
770 As discussed below, it is usually best to enclose expressions
771 in braces to prevent the command parser from performing substitutions
774 For some examples of simple expressions, suppose the variable 'a' has
775 the value 3 and the variable 'b' has the value 6. Then the expression
776 on the left side of each of the lines below will evaluate to the value
777 on the right side of the line:
782 {word one} < "word $a" 0
784 The valid operators are listed below, grouped in decreasing order
786 [[OperatorPrecedence]]
787 +int() double() round() abs(), rand(), srand()+::
788 Unary functions (except rand() which takes no arguments)
789 * +'int()'+ converts the numeric argument to an integer by truncating down.
790 * +'double()'+ converts the numeric argument to floating point.
791 * +'round()'+ converts the numeric argument to the closest integer value.
792 * +'abs()'+ takes the absolute value of the numeric argument.
793 * +'rand()'+ returns a pseudo-random floating-point value in the range (0,1).
794 * +'srand()'+ takes an integer argument to (re)seed the random number generator. Returns the first random number from that seed.
796 +sin() cos() tan() asin() acos() atan() sinh() cosh() tanh() ceil() floor() exp() log() log10() sqrt()+::
797 Unary math functions.
798 If Jim is compiled with math support, these functions are available.
801 Unary minus, unary plus, bit-wise NOT, logical NOT. None of these operands
802 may be applied to string operands, and bit-wise NOT may be
803 applied only to integers.
806 Power. e.g. 'x^y^'. If Jim is compiled with math support, supports doubles and
807 integers. Otherwise supports integers only. (Note that the math-function form
808 has the same highest precedence)
811 Multiply, divide, remainder. None of these operands may be
812 applied to string operands, and remainder may be applied only
816 Add and subtract. Valid for any numeric operands.
819 Left and right shift, left and right rotate. Valid for integer operands only.
822 Boolean less, greater, less than or equal, and greater than or equal.
823 Each operator produces 1 if the condition is true, 0 otherwise.
824 These operators may be applied to strings as well as numeric operands,
825 in which case string comparison is used.
828 Boolean equal and not equal. Each operator produces a zero/one result.
829 Valid for all operand types. *Note* that values will be converted to integers
830 if possible, then floating point types, and finally strings will be compared.
831 It is recommended that 'eq' and 'ne' should be used for string comparison.
834 String equal and not equal. Uses the string value directly without
835 attempting to convert to a number first.
838 String in list and not in list. For 'in', result is 1 if the left operand (as a string)
839 is contained in the right operand (as a list), or 0 otherwise. The result for
840 +{$a ni $list}+ is equivalent to +{!($a in $list)}+.
843 Bit-wise AND. Valid for integer operands only.
846 Bit-wise OR. Valid for integer operands only.
849 Bit-wise exclusive OR. Valid for integer operands only.
852 Logical AND. Produces a 1 result if both operands are non-zero, 0 otherwise.
853 Valid for numeric operands only (integers or floating-point).
856 Logical OR. Produces a 0 result if both operands are zero, 1 otherwise.
857 Valid for numeric operands only (integers or floating-point).
860 If-then-else, as in C. If +'x'+
861 evaluates to non-zero, then the result is the value of +'y'+.
862 Otherwise the result is the value of +'z'+.
863 The +'x'+ operand must have a numeric value, while +'y'+ and +'z'+ can
866 See the C manual for more details on the results
867 produced by each operator.
868 All of the binary operators group left-to-right within the same
869 precedence level. For example, the expression
875 The +&&+, +||+, and +?:+ operators have 'lazy evaluation', just as
876 in C, which means that operands are not evaluated if they are not
877 needed to determine the outcome. For example, in
881 only one of +[a]+ or +[b]+ will actually be evaluated,
882 depending on the value of +$v+.
884 All internal computations involving integers are done with the C
885 type 'long long' if available, or 'long' otherwise, and all internal
886 computations involving floating-point are done with the C type
889 When converting a string to floating-point, exponent overflow is
890 detected and results in a Tcl error.
891 For conversion to integer from string, detection of overflow depends
892 on the behaviour of some routines in the local C library, so it should
893 be regarded as unreliable.
894 In any case, overflow and underflow are generally not detected
895 reliably for intermediate results.
897 Conversion among internal representations for integer, floating-point,
898 string operands is done automatically as needed.
899 For arithmetic computations, integers are used until some
900 floating-point number is introduced, after which floating-point is used.
905 yields the result 1, while
908 5 / ( [string length "abcd"] + 0.0 )
910 both yield the result 1.25.
912 String values may be used as operands of the comparison operators,
913 although the expression evaluator tries to do comparisons as integer
914 or floating-point when it can.
915 If one of the operands of a comparison is a string and the other
916 has a numeric value, the numeric operand is converted back to
917 a string using the C 'sprintf' format specifier
918 '%d' for integers and '%g' for floating-point values.
919 For example, the expressions
924 both evaluate to 1. The first comparison is done using integer
925 comparison, and the second is done using string comparison after
926 the second operand is converted to the string '18'.
928 In general it is safest to enclose an expression in braces when
929 entering it in a command: otherwise, if the expression contains
930 any white space then the Tcl interpreter will split it
931 among several arguments. For example, the command
935 results in three arguments being passed to `expr`: +$a+,
936 \+, and +$b+. In addition, if the expression isn't in braces
937 then the Tcl interpreter will perform variable and command substitution
938 immediately (it will happen in the command parser rather than in
939 the expression parser). In many cases the expression is being
940 passed to a command that will evaluate the expression later (or
941 even many times if, for example, the expression is to be used to
942 decide when to exit a loop). Usually the desired goal is to re-do
943 the variable or command substitutions each time the expression is
944 evaluated, rather than once and for all at the beginning. For example,
947 for {set i 1} $i<=10 {incr i} {...} ** WRONG **
949 is probably intended to iterate over all values of +i+ from 1 to 10.
950 After each iteration of the body of the loop, `for` will pass
951 its second argument to the expression evaluator to see whether or not
952 to continue processing. Unfortunately, in this case the value of +i+
953 in the second argument will be substituted once and for all when the
954 `for` command is parsed. If +i+ was 0 before the `for`
955 command was invoked then the second argument of `for` will be +0\<=10+
956 which will always evaluate to 1, even though +i+ eventually
957 becomes greater than 10. In the above case the loop will never
958 terminate. Instead, the expression should be placed in braces:
960 for {set i 1} {$i<=10} {incr i} {...} ** RIGHT **
962 This causes the substitution of 'i'
963 to be delayed; it will be re-done each time the expression is
964 evaluated, which is the desired result.
968 The third major way that strings are interpreted in Tcl is as lists.
969 A list is just a string with a list-like structure
970 consisting of fields separated by white space. For example, the
975 is a list with four elements or fields.
976 Lists have the same basic structure as command strings, except
977 that a newline character in a list is treated as a field separator
978 just like space or tab. Conventions for braces and quotes
979 and backslashes are the same for lists as for commands. For example,
984 is a list with three elements: +a+, +b c+, and +d e {f g h}+.
986 Whenever an element is extracted from a list, the same rules about
987 braces and quotes and backslashes are applied as for commands. Thus in
988 the example above when the third element is extracted from the list,
993 (when the field was extracted, all that happened was to strip off
994 the outermost layer of braces). Command substitution and
995 variable substitution are never
996 made on a list (at least, not by the list-processing commands; the
997 list can always be passed to the Tcl interpreter for evaluation).
999 The Tcl commands `concat`, `foreach`, `lappend`, `lindex`, `linsert`,
1000 `list`, `llength`, `lrange`, `lreplace`, `lsearch`, and `lsort` allow
1001 you to build lists, extract elements from them, search them, and perform
1002 other list-related functions.
1004 Advanced list commands include `lrepeat`, `lreverse`, `lmap`, `lassign`, `lset`.
1009 A new addition to Tcl 8.5 is the ability to expand a list into separate
1010 arguments. Support for this feature is also available in Jim.
1012 Consider the following attempt to exec a list:
1017 This will attempt to exec a command named "ls -l", which will clearly not
1018 work. Typically eval and concat are required to solve this problem, however
1019 it can be solved much more easily with +\{*\}+.
1023 This will expand the following argument into individual elements and then evaluate
1024 the resulting command.
1026 Note that the official Tcl syntax is +\{*\}+, however +\{expand\}+ is retained
1027 for backward compatibility with experimental versions of this feature.
1031 Tcl provides two commands that support string matching using regular
1032 expressions, `regexp` and `regsub`, as well as `switch -regexp` and
1035 Regular expressions may be implemented one of two ways. Either using the system's C library
1036 POSIX regular expression support, or using the built-in regular expression engine.
1037 The differences between these are described below.
1039 *NOTE* Tcl 7.x and 8.x use perl-style Advanced Regular Expressions (+ARE+).
1041 POSIX Regular Expressions
1042 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1043 If the system supports POSIX regular expressions, and UTF-8 support is not enabled,
1044 this support will be used by default. The type of regular expressions supported are
1045 Extended Regular Expressions (+ERE+) rather than Basic Regular Expressions (+BRE+).
1046 See REG_EXTENDED in the documentation.
1048 Using the system-supported POSIX regular expressions will typically
1049 make for the smallest code size, but some features such as UTF-8
1050 and +{backslash}w+, +{backslash}d+, +{backslash}s+ are not supported, and null characters
1051 in strings are not supported.
1053 See regex(3) and regex(7) for full details.
1055 Jim built-in Regular Expressions
1056 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1057 The Jim built-in regular expression engine may be selected with +./configure --with-jim-regexp+
1058 or it will be selected automatically if UTF-8 support is enabled.
1060 This engine supports UTF-8 as well as some +ARE+ features. The differences with both Tcl 7.x/8.x
1061 and POSIX are highlighted below.
1063 1. UTF-8 strings and patterns are both supported
1064 2. All Tcl character classes are supported (e.g. +[:alnum:]+, +[:digit:]+, +[:space:]+), but...
1065 3. Character classes apply to ASCII characters only
1066 4. Supported shorthand character classes: +{backslash}w+ = +[:alnum:]+, +{backslash}W+ = +^[:alnum:]+, +{backslash}d+ = +[:digit:],+ +{backslash}D+ = +^[:digit:],+ +{backslash}s+ = +[:space:]+, + +{backslash}S+ = +^[:space:]+
1067 5. Supported constraint escapes: +{backslash}m+ = +{backslash}<+ = start of word, +{backslash}M+ = +{backslash}>+ = end of word
1068 6. Backslash escapes may be used within regular expressions, such as +{backslash}n+ = newline, +{backslash}uNNNN+ = unicode
1069 7. Partially supported constraint escapes: +{backslash}A+ = start of string, +{backslash}Z+ = end of string
1070 8. Support for the +?+ non-greedy quantifier. e.g. +*?+
1071 9. Support for non-capturing parentheses +(?:...)+
1072 10. Jim Tcl considers that both patterns and strings end at a null character (+\x00+)
1076 Each command produces two results: a code and a string. The
1077 code indicates whether the command completed successfully or not,
1078 and the string gives additional information. The valid codes are
1079 defined in jim.h, and are:
1082 This is the normal return code, and indicates that the command completed
1083 successfully. The string gives the command's return value.
1086 Indicates that an error occurred; the string gives a message describing
1090 Indicates that the `return` command has been invoked, and that the
1091 current procedure (or top-level command or `source` command)
1092 should return immediately. The
1093 string gives the return value for the procedure or command.
1096 Indicates that the `break` command has been invoked, so the
1097 innermost loop should abort immediately. The string should always
1101 Indicates that the `continue` command has been invoked, so the
1102 innermost loop should go on to the next iteration. The string
1103 should always be empty.
1106 Indicates that a signal was caught while executing a commands.
1107 The string contains the name of the signal caught.
1108 See the `signal` and `catch` commands.
1111 Indicates that the command called the `exit` command.
1112 The string contains the exit code.
1114 Tcl programmers do not normally need to think about return codes,
1115 since +JIM_OK+ is almost always returned. If anything else is returned
1116 by a command, then the Tcl interpreter immediately stops processing
1117 commands and returns to its caller. If there are several nested
1118 invocations of the Tcl interpreter in progress, then each nested
1119 command will usually return the error to its caller, until eventually
1120 the error is reported to the top-level application code. The
1121 application will then display the error message for the user.
1123 In a few cases, some commands will handle certain `error` conditions
1124 themselves and not return them upwards. For example, the `for`
1125 command checks for the +JIM_BREAK+ code; if it occurs, then `for`
1126 stops executing the body of the loop and returns +JIM_OK+ to its
1127 caller. The `for` command also handles +JIM_CONTINUE+ codes and the
1128 procedure interpreter handles +JIM_RETURN+ codes. The `catch`
1129 command allows Tcl programs to catch errors and handle them without
1130 aborting command interpretation any further.
1132 The `info returncodes` command may be used to programmatically map between
1133 return codes and names.
1137 Tcl allows you to extend the command interface by defining
1138 procedures. A Tcl procedure can be invoked just like any other Tcl
1139 command (it has a name and it receives one or more arguments).
1140 The only difference is that its body isn't a piece of C code linked
1141 into the program; it is a string containing one or more other
1144 The `proc` command is used to create a new Tcl command procedure:
1146 +*proc* 'name arglist ?statics? body'+
1148 The new command is named +'name'+, and it replaces any existing command
1149 there may have been by that name. Whenever the new command is
1150 invoked, the contents of +'body'+ will be executed by the Tcl
1153 +'arglist'+ specifies the formal arguments to the procedure.
1154 It consists of a list, possibly empty, of the following
1155 argument specifiers:
1158 Required Argument - A simple argument name.
1161 Optional Argument - A two-element list consisting of the
1162 argument name, followed by the default value, which will
1163 be used if the corresponding argument is not supplied.
1166 Reference Argument - The caller is expected to pass the name of
1167 an existing variable. An implicit +`upvar` 1 origname name+ is done
1168 to make the variable available in the proc scope.
1171 Variable Argument - The special name +'args'+, which is
1172 assigned all remaining arguments (including none) as a list. The
1173 variable argument may only be specified once. Note that
1174 the syntax +{args newname}+ may be used to retain the special
1175 behaviour of +'args'+ with a different local name. In this case,
1176 the variable is named +'newname'+ rather than +'args'+.
1178 When the command is invoked, a local variable will be created for each of
1179 the formal arguments to the procedure; its value will be the value
1180 of corresponding argument in the invoking command or the argument's
1183 Arguments with default values need not be specified in a procedure
1184 invocation. However, there must be enough actual arguments for all
1185 required arguments, and there must not be any extra actual arguments
1186 (unless the Variable Argument is specified).
1188 Actual arguments are assigned to formal arguments as in left-to-right
1189 order with the following precedence.
1191 1. Required Arguments (including Reference Arguments)
1192 2. Optional Arguments
1193 3. Variable Argument
1195 The following example illustrates precedence. Assume a procedure declaration:
1197 proc p {{a A} args b {c C} d} {...}
1199 This procedure requires at least two arguments, but can accept an unlimited number.
1200 The following table shows how various numbers of arguments are assigned.
1201 Values marked as +-+ are assigned the default value.
1203 [width="40%",frame="topbot",options="header"]
1205 |Number of arguments|a|args|b|c|d
1213 When +'body'+ is being executed, variable names normally refer to local
1214 variables, which are created automatically when referenced and deleted
1215 when the procedure returns. One local variable is automatically created
1216 for each of the procedure's arguments. Global variables can be
1217 accessed by invoking the `global` command or via the +::+ prefix.
1221 In addition to procedure arguments, Jim procedures may declare static variables.
1222 These variables scoped to the procedure and initialised at procedure definition.
1223 Either from the static variable definition, or from the enclosing scope.
1225 Consider the following example:
1228 jim> proc a {} {a {b 2}} {
1240 The static variable +'a'+ has no initialiser, so it is initialised from
1241 the enclosing scope with the value 1. (Note that it is an error if there
1242 is no variable with the same name in the enclosing scope). However +'b'+
1243 has an initialiser, so it is initialised to 2.
1245 Unlike a local variable, the value of a static variable is retained across
1246 invocations of the procedure.
1248 See the `proc` command for information on how to define procedures
1249 and what happens when they are invoked. See also NAMESPACES.
1251 VARIABLES - SCALARS AND ARRAYS
1252 ------------------------------
1253 Tcl allows the definition of variables and the use of their values
1254 either through '$'-style variable substitution, the `set`
1255 command, or a few other mechanisms.
1257 Variables need not be declared: a new variable will automatically
1258 be created each time a new variable name is used.
1260 Tcl supports two types of variables: scalars and arrays.
1261 A scalar variable has a single value, whereas an array variable
1262 can have any number of elements, each with a name (called
1263 its 'index') and a value.
1265 Array indexes may be arbitrary strings; they need not be numeric.
1266 Parentheses are used refer to array elements in Tcl commands.
1267 For example, the command
1271 will modify the element of 'x' whose index is 'first'
1272 so that its new value is '44'.
1274 Two-dimensional arrays can be simulated in Tcl by using indexes
1275 that contain multiple concatenated values.
1276 For example, the commands
1281 set the elements of 'a' whose indexes are '2,3' and '3,6'.
1283 In general, array elements may be used anywhere in Tcl that scalar
1284 variables may be used.
1286 If an array is defined with a particular name, then there may
1287 not be a scalar variable with the same name.
1289 Similarly, if there is a scalar variable with a particular
1290 name then it is not possible to make array references to the
1293 To convert a scalar variable to an array or vice versa, remove
1294 the existing variable with the `unset` command.
1296 The `array` command provides several features for dealing
1297 with arrays, such as querying the names of all the elements of
1298 the array and converting between an array and a list.
1300 Variables may be either global or local. If a variable
1301 name is used when a procedure isn't being executed, then it
1302 automatically refers to a global variable. Variable names used
1303 within a procedure normally refer to local variables associated with that
1304 invocation of the procedure. Local variables are deleted whenever
1305 a procedure exits. Either `global` command may be used to request
1306 that a name refer to a global variable for the duration of the current
1307 procedure (this is somewhat analogous to 'extern' in C), or the variable
1308 may be explicitly scoped with the +::+ prefix. For example
1324 ARRAYS AS LISTS IN JIM
1325 ----------------------
1326 Unlike Tcl, Jim can automatically convert between a list (with an even
1327 number of elements) and an array value. This is similar to the way Tcl
1328 can convert between a string and a list.
1339 Thus `array set` is equivalent to `set` when the variable does not
1342 The reverse is also true where an array will be converted into
1345 set a(1) one; set a(2) two
1354 Tcl 8.5 introduced the dict command, and Jim Tcl has added a version
1355 of this command. Dictionaries provide efficient access to key-value
1356 pairs, just like arrays, but dictionaries are pure values. This
1357 means that you can pass them to a procedure just as a list or a
1358 string. Tcl dictionaries are therefore much more like Tcl lists,
1359 except that they represent a mapping from keys to values, rather
1360 than an ordered sequence.
1362 You can nest dictionaries, so that the value for a particular key
1363 consists of another dictionary. That way you can elegantly build
1364 complicated data structures, such as hierarchical databases. You
1365 can also combine dictionaries with other Tcl data structures. For
1366 instance, you can build a list of dictionaries that themselves
1369 Dictionaries are values that contain an efficient, order-preserving
1370 mapping from arbitrary keys to arbitrary values. Each key in the
1371 dictionary maps to a single value. They have a textual format that
1372 is exactly that of any list with an even number of elements, with
1373 each mapping in the dictionary being represented as two items in
1374 the list. When a command takes a dictionary and produces a new
1375 dictionary based on it (either returning it or writing it back into
1376 the variable that the starting dictionary was read from) the new
1377 dictionary will have the same order of keys, modulo any deleted
1378 keys and with new keys added on to the end. When a string is
1379 interpreted as a dictionary and it would otherwise have duplicate
1380 keys, only the last value for a particular key is used; the others
1381 are ignored, meaning that, "apple banana" and "apple carrot apple
1382 banana" are equivalent dictionaries (with different string
1385 Note that in Jim, arrays are implemented as dictionaries.
1386 Thus automatic conversion between lists and dictionaries applies
1387 as it does for arrays.
1389 jim> dict set a 1 one
1391 jim> dict set a 2 two
1397 jim> dict set a 3 T three
1398 1 one 2 two 3 {T three}
1400 See the `dict` command for more details.
1404 Tcl added namespaces as a mechanism avoiding name clashes, especially in applications
1405 including a number of 3rd party components. While there is less need for namespaces
1406 in Jim Tcl (which does not strive to support large applications), it is convenient to
1407 provide a subset of the support for namespaces to easy porting code from Tcl.
1409 Jim Tcl currently supports "light-weight" namespaces which should be adequate for most
1410 purposes. This feature is currently experimental. See README.namespaces for more information
1411 and the documentation of the `namespace` command.
1413 GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION
1414 -----------------------------------------------
1415 Unlike Tcl, Jim has some sophisticated support for functional programming.
1416 These are described briefly below.
1418 More information may be found at http://wiki.tcl.tk/13847
1422 A reference can be thought of as holding a value with one level of indirection,
1423 where the value may be garbage collected when unreferenced.
1424 Consider the following example:
1426 jim> set r [ref "One String" test]
1427 <reference.<test___>.00000000000000000000>
1431 The operation `ref` creates a references to the value specified by the
1432 first argument. (The second argument is a "type" used for documentation purposes).
1434 The operation `getref` is the dereferencing operation which retrieves the value
1435 stored in the reference.
1437 jim> setref $r "New String"
1442 The operation `setref` replaces the value stored by the reference. If the old value
1443 is no longer accessible by any reference, it will eventually be automatically be garbage
1448 Normally, all values in Tcl are passed by value. As such values are copied and released
1449 automatically as necessary.
1451 With the introduction of references, it is possible to create values whose lifetime
1452 transcend their scope. To support this, case, the Jim system will periodically identify
1453 and discard objects which are no longer accessible by any reference.
1455 The `collect` command may be used to force garbage collection. Consider a reference created
1458 jim> proc f {ref value} { puts "Finaliser called for $ref,$value" }
1459 jim> set r [ref "One String" test f]
1460 <reference.<test___>.00000000000
1465 Finaliser called for <reference.<test___>.00000000000,One String
1468 Note that once the reference, 'r', was modified so that it no longer
1469 contained a reference to the value, the garbage collector discarded
1470 the value (after calling the finalizer).
1472 The finalizer for a reference may be examined or changed with the `finalize` command
1476 jim> finalize $r newf
1481 Jim provides a garbage collected `lambda` function. This is a procedure
1482 which is able to create an anonymous procedure. Consider:
1484 jim> set f [lambda {a} {{x 0}} { incr x $a }]
1491 This create an anonymous procedure (with the name stored in 'f'), with a static variable
1492 which is incremented by the supplied value and the result returned.
1494 Once the procedure name is no longer accessible, it will automatically be deleted
1495 when the garbage collector runs.
1497 The procedure may also be delete immediately by renaming it "". e.g.
1503 If Jim is built with UTF-8 support enabled (configure --enable-utf),
1504 then most string-related commands become UTF-8 aware. These include,
1505 but are not limited to, `string match`, `split`, `glob`, `scan` and
1508 UTF-8 encoding has many advantages, but one of the complications is that
1509 characters can take a variable number of bytes. Thus the addition of
1510 `string bytelength` which returns the number of bytes in a string,
1511 while `string length` returns the number of characters.
1513 If UTF-8 support is not enabled, all commands treat bytes as characters
1514 and `string bytelength` returns the same value as `string length`.
1516 Note that even if UTF-8 support is not enabled, the +{backslash}uNNNN+ and related syntax
1517 is still available to embed UTF-8 sequences.
1519 Jim Tcl supports all currently defined unicode codepoints. That is 21 bits, up to +'U+1FFFFF'.
1523 Commands such as `string match`, `lsearch -glob`, `array names` and others use string
1524 pattern matching rules. These commands support UTF-8. For example:
1526 string match a\[\ua0-\ubf\]b "a\u00a3b"
1530 +format %c+ allows a unicode codepoint to be be encoded. For example, the following will return
1531 a string with two bytes and one character. The same as +{backslash}ub5+
1535 `format` respects widths as character widths, not byte widths. For example, the following will
1536 return a string with three characters, not three bytes.
1538 format %.3s \ub5\ub6\ub7\ub8
1540 Similarly, +scan ... %c+ allows a UTF-8 to be decoded to a unicode codepoint. The following will set
1541 +'a'+ to 181 (0xb5) and +'b'+ to 65 (0x41).
1543 scan \u00b5A %c%c a b
1545 `scan %s` will also accept a character class, including unicode ranges.
1549 `string is` has *not* been extended to classify UTF-8 characters. Therefore, the following
1550 will return 0, even though the string may be considered to be alphabetic.
1552 string is alpha \ub5Test
1554 This does not affect the string classes 'ascii', 'control', 'digit', 'double', 'integer' or 'xdigit'.
1556 Case Mapping and Conversion
1557 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1558 Jim provides a simplified unicode case mapping. This means that case conversion
1559 and comparison will not increase or decrease the number of characters in a string.
1560 (Although it may change the number of bytes).
1562 `string toupper` will convert any lowercase letters to their uppercase equivalent.
1563 Any character which is not a letter or has no uppercase equivalent is left unchanged.
1564 Similarly for `string tolower` and `string totitle`.
1566 Commands which perform case insensitive matches, such as `string compare -nocase`
1567 and `lsearch -nocase` fold both strings to uppercase before comparison.
1569 Invalid UTF-8 Sequences
1570 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1571 Some UTF-8 character sequences are invalid, such as those beginning with '0xff',
1572 those which represent character sequences longer than 3 bytes (greater than U+FFFF),
1573 and those which end prematurely, such as a lone '0xc2'.
1575 In these situations, the offending bytes are treated as single characters. For example,
1576 the following returns 2.
1578 string bytelength \xff\xff
1582 If UTF-8 support is enabled, the built-in regular expression engine will be
1583 selected which supports UTF-8 strings and patterns.
1585 See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
1589 The Tcl library provides the following built-in commands, which will
1590 be available in any application using Tcl. In addition to these
1591 built-in commands, there may be additional commands defined by each
1592 application, plus commands defined as Tcl procedures.
1594 In the command syntax descriptions below, words in +*boldface*+ are
1595 literals that you type verbatim to Tcl.
1597 Words in +'italics'+ are meta-symbols; they serve as names for any of
1598 a range of values that you can type.
1600 Optional arguments or groups of arguments are indicated by enclosing them
1601 in +?question-marks?+.
1603 Ellipses (+\...+) indicate that any number of additional
1604 arguments or groups of arguments may appear, in the same format
1605 as the preceding argument(s).
1616 Delivers the +SIGALRM+ signal to the process after the given
1617 number of seconds. If the platform supports 'ualarm(3)' then
1618 the argument may be a floating point value. Otherwise it must
1621 Note that unless a signal handler for +SIGALRM+ has been installed
1622 (see `signal`), the process will exit on this signal.
1626 +*alias* 'name args\...'+
1628 Creates a single word alias (command) for one or more words. For example,
1629 the following creates an alias for the command `info exists`.
1636 `alias` returns +'name'+, allowing it to be used with `local`.
1638 See also `proc`, `curry`, `lambda`, `local`, `info alias`, `exists -alias`
1642 +*append* 'varName value ?value value ...?'+
1644 Append all of the +'value'+ arguments to the current value
1645 of variable +'varName'+. If +'varName'+ doesn't exist,
1646 it is given a value equal to the concatenation of all the
1647 +'value'+ arguments.
1649 This command provides an efficient way to build up long
1650 variables incrementally.
1651 For example, "`append a $b`" is much more efficient than
1652 "`set a $a$b`" if +$a+ is long.
1656 +*apply* 'lambdaExpr ?arg1 arg2 \...?'+
1658 The command `apply` provides for anonymous procedure calls,
1659 similar to `lambda`, but without command name being created, even temporarily.
1661 The function +'lambdaExpr'+ is a two element list +{args body}+
1662 or a three element list +{args body namespace}+. The first element
1663 args specifies the formal arguments, in the same form as the `proc` and `lambda` commands.
1667 +*array* 'option arrayName ?arg\...?'+
1669 This command performs one of several operations on the
1670 variable given by +'arrayName'+.
1672 Note that in general, if the named array does not exist, the +'array'+ command behaves
1673 as though the array exists but is empty.
1675 The +'option'+ argument determines what action is carried out by the
1676 command. The legal +'options'+ (which may be abbreviated) are:
1678 +*array exists* 'arrayName'+::
1679 Returns 1 if arrayName is an array variable, 0 if there is
1680 no variable by that name.
1682 +*array get* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1683 Returns a list containing pairs of elements. The first
1684 element in each pair is the name of an element in arrayName
1685 and the second element of each pair is the value of the
1686 array element. The order of the pairs is undefined. If
1687 pattern is not specified, then all of the elements of the
1688 array are included in the result. If pattern is specified,
1689 then only those elements whose names match pattern (using
1690 the matching rules of string match) are included. If arrayName
1691 isn't the name of an array variable, or if the array contains
1692 no elements, then an empty list is returned.
1694 +*array names* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1695 Returns a list containing the names of all of the elements
1696 in the array that match pattern. If pattern is omitted then
1697 the command returns all of the element names in the array.
1698 If pattern is specified, then only those elements whose
1699 names match pattern (using the matching rules of string
1700 match) are included. If there are no (matching) elements
1701 in the array, or if arrayName isn't the name of an array
1702 variable, then an empty string is returned.
1704 +*array set* 'arrayName list'+::
1705 Sets the values of one or more elements in arrayName. list
1706 must have a form like that returned by array get, consisting
1707 of an even number of elements. Each odd-numbered element
1708 in list is treated as an element name within arrayName, and
1709 the following element in list is used as a new value for
1710 that array element. If the variable arrayName does not
1711 already exist and list is empty, arrayName is created with
1712 an empty array value.
1714 +*array size* 'arrayName'+::
1715 Returns the number of elements in the array. If arrayName
1716 isn't the name of an array then 0 is returned.
1718 +*array unset* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1719 Unsets all of the elements in the array that match pattern
1720 (using the matching rules of string match). If arrayName
1721 isn't the name of an array variable or there are no matching
1722 elements in the array, no error will be raised. If pattern
1723 is omitted and arrayName is an array variable, then the
1724 command unsets the entire array. The command always returns
1731 This command may be invoked only inside the body of a loop command
1732 such as `for` or `foreach` or `while`. It returns a +JIM_BREAK+ code
1733 to signal the innermost containing loop command to return immediately.
1737 +*case* 'string' ?in? 'patList body ?patList body ...?'+
1739 +*case* 'string' ?in? {'patList body ?patList body ...?'}+
1741 *Note* that the `switch` command should generally be preferred unless compatibility
1742 with Tcl 6.x is desired.
1744 Match +'string'+ against each of the +'patList'+ arguments
1745 in order. If one matches, then evaluate the following +'body'+ argument
1746 by passing it recursively to the Tcl interpreter, and return the result
1747 of that evaluation. Each +'patList'+ argument consists of a single
1748 pattern or list of patterns. Each pattern may contain any of the wild-cards
1749 described under `string match`.
1751 If a +'patList'+ argument is +default+, the corresponding body will be
1752 evaluated if no +'patList'+ matches +'string'+. If no +'patList'+ argument
1753 matches +'string'+ and no default is given, then the `case` command returns
1756 Two syntaxes are provided.
1758 The first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands;
1759 this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the
1760 patterns or commands.
1762 The second form places all of the patterns and commands together into
1763 a single argument; the argument must have proper list structure, with
1764 the elements of the list being the patterns and commands.
1766 The second form makes it easy to construct multi-line case commands,
1767 since the braces around the whole list make it unnecessary to include a
1768 backslash at the end of each line.
1770 Since the +'patList'+ arguments are in braces in the second form,
1771 no command or variable substitutions are performed on them; this makes
1772 the behaviour of the second form different than the first form in some
1775 Below are some examples of `case` commands:
1777 case abc in {a b} {format 1} default {format 2} a* {format 3}
1787 will return '1', and
1802 +*catch* ?-?no?'code \...'? ?--? 'command ?resultVarName? ?optionsVarName?'+
1804 The `catch` command may be used to prevent errors from aborting
1805 command interpretation. `catch` evaluates +'command'+, and returns a
1806 +JIM_OK+ code, regardless of any errors that might occur while
1807 executing +'command'+ (with the possible exception of +JIM_SIGNAL+ -
1810 The return value from `catch` is a decimal string giving the code
1811 returned by the Tcl interpreter after executing +'command'+. This
1812 will be '0' (+JIM_OK+) if there were no errors in +'command'+; otherwise
1813 it will have a non-zero value corresponding to one of the exceptional
1814 return codes (see jim.h for the definitions of code values, or the
1815 `info returncodes` command).
1817 If the +'resultVarName'+ argument is given, then it gives the name
1818 of a variable; `catch` will set the value of the variable to the
1819 string returned from +'command'+ (either a result or an error message).
1821 If the +'optionsVarName'+ argument is given, then it gives the name
1822 of a variable; `catch` will set the value of the variable to a
1823 dictionary. For any return code other than +JIM_RETURN+, the value
1824 for the key +-code+ will be set to the return code. For +JIM_RETURN+
1825 it will be set to the code given in `return -code`. Additionally,
1826 for the return code +JIM_ERR+, the value of the key +-errorinfo+
1827 will contain the current stack trace (the same result as `info stacktrace`),
1828 the value of the key +-errorcode+ will contain the
1829 same value as the global variable $::errorCode, and the value of
1830 the key +-level+ will be the current return level (see `return -level`).
1831 This can be useful to rethrow an error:
1833 if {[catch {...} msg opts]} {
1834 ...maybe do something with the error...
1836 return {*}$opts $msg
1839 Normally `catch` will +'not'+ catch any of the codes +JIM_EXIT+, +JIM_EVAL+ or +JIM_SIGNAL+.
1840 The set of codes which will be caught may be modified by specifying the one more codes before
1843 e.g. To catch +JIM_EXIT+ but not +JIM_BREAK+ or +JIM_CONTINUE+
1845 catch -exit -nobreak -nocontinue -- { ... }
1847 The use of +--+ is optional. It signifies that no more return code options follow.
1849 Note that if a signal marked as `signal handle` is caught with `catch -signal`, the return value
1850 (stored in +'resultVarName'+) is name of the signal caught.
1856 Change the current working directory to +'dirName'+.
1858 Returns an empty string.
1860 This command can potentially be disruptive to an application, so it may
1861 be removed in some applications.
1866 Returns the current time as seconds since the epoch.
1869 Returns the current time in `clicks'.
1871 +*clock microseconds*+::
1872 Returns the current time in microseconds.
1874 +*clock milliseconds*+::
1875 Returns the current time in milliseconds.
1877 +*clock format* 'seconds' ?*-format* 'format?'+::
1878 Format the given time (seconds since the epoch) according to the given
1879 format. See strftime(3) for supported formats.
1880 If no format is supplied, "%c" is used.
1882 +*clock scan* 'str' *-format* 'format'+::
1883 Scan the given time string using the given format string.
1884 See strptime(3) for supported formats.
1892 Closes the file given by +'fileId'+.
1893 +'fileId'+ must be the return value from a previous invocation
1894 of the `open` command; after this command, it should not be
1901 Normally reference garbage collection is automatically performed periodically.
1902 However it may be run immediately with the `collect` command.
1904 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
1908 +*concat* 'arg ?arg \...?'+
1910 This command treats each argument as a list and concatenates them
1911 into a single list. It permits any number of arguments. For example,
1914 concat a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
1926 This command may be invoked only inside the body of a loop command such
1927 as `for` or `foreach` or `while`. It returns a +JIM_CONTINUE+ code to
1928 signal the innermost containing loop command to skip the remainder of
1929 the loop's body but continue with the next iteration of the loop.
1933 +*alias* 'args\...'+
1935 Similar to `alias` except it creates an anonymous procedure (lambda) instead of
1938 the following creates a local, unnamed alias for the command `info exists`.
1940 set e [local curry info exists]
1945 `curry` returns the name of the procedure.
1947 See also `proc`, `alias`, `lambda`, `local`.
1951 +*dict* 'option ?arg\...?'+
1953 Performs one of several operations on dictionary values.
1955 The +'option'+ argument determines what action is carried out by the
1956 command. The legal +'options'+ are:
1958 +*dict create* '?key value \...?'+::
1959 Create and return a new dictionary value that contains each of
1960 the key/value mappings listed as arguments (keys and values
1961 alternating, with each key being followed by its associated
1964 +*dict exists* 'dictionary key ?key \...?'+::
1965 Returns a boolean value indicating whether the given key (or path
1966 of keys through a set of nested dictionaries) exists in the given
1967 dictionary value. This returns a true value exactly when `dict get`
1968 on that path will succeed.
1970 +*dict get* 'dictionary ?key \...?'+::
1971 Given a dictionary value (first argument) and a key (second argument),
1972 this will retrieve the value for that key. Where several keys are
1973 supplied, the behaviour of the command shall be as if the result
1974 of "`dict get $dictVal $key`" was passed as the first argument to
1975 dict get with the remaining arguments as second (and possibly
1976 subsequent) arguments. This facilitates lookups in nested dictionaries.
1977 If no keys are provided, dict would return a list containing pairs
1978 of elements in a manner similar to array get. That is, the first
1979 element of each pair would be the key and the second element would
1980 be the value for that key. It is an error to attempt to retrieve
1981 a value for a key that is not present in the dictionary.
1983 +*dict keys* 'dictionary ?pattern?'+::
1984 Returns a list of the keys in the dictionary.
1985 If pattern is specified, then only those keys whose
1986 names match +'pattern'+ (using the matching rules of string
1987 match) are included.
1989 +*dict merge* ?'dictionary \...'?+::
1990 Return a dictionary that contains the contents of each of the
1991 +'dictionary'+ arguments. Where two (or more) dictionaries
1992 contain a mapping for the same key, the resulting dictionary
1993 maps that key to the value according to the last dictionary on
1994 the command line containing a mapping for that key.
1996 +*dict set* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? value'+::
1997 This operation takes the +'name'+ of a variable containing a dictionary
1998 value and places an updated dictionary value in that variable
1999 containing a mapping from the given key to the given value. When
2000 multiple keys are present, this operation creates or updates a chain
2001 of nested dictionaries.
2003 +*dict size* 'dictionary'+::
2004 Return the number of key/value mappings in the given dictionary value.
2006 +*dict unset* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? value'+::
2007 This operation (the companion to `dict set`) takes the name of a
2008 variable containing a dictionary value and places an updated
2009 dictionary value in that variable that does not contain a mapping
2010 for the given key. Where multiple keys are present, this describes
2011 a path through nested dictionaries to the mapping to remove. At
2012 least one key must be specified, but the last key on the key-path
2013 need not exist. All other components on the path must exist.
2015 +*dict with* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? script'+::
2016 Execute the Tcl script in +'script'+ with the value for each
2017 key in +'dictionaryName'+ mapped to a variable with the same
2018 name. Where one or more keys are given, these indicate a chain
2019 of nested dictionaries, with the innermost dictionary being the
2020 one opened out for the execution of body. Making +'dictionaryName'+
2021 unreadable will make the updates to the dictionary be discarded,
2022 and this also happens if the contents of +'dictionaryName'+ are
2023 adjusted so that the chain of dictionaries no longer exists.
2024 The result of `dict with` is (unless some kind of error occurs)
2025 the result of the evaluation of body.
2027 The variables are mapped in the scope enclosing the `dict with`;
2028 it is recommended that this command only be used in a local
2029 scope (procedure). Because of this, the variables set by
2030 `dict with` will continue to exist after the command finishes (unless
2031 explicitly unset). Note that changes to the contents of +'dictionaryName'+
2032 only happen when +'script'+ terminates.
2034 +*dict for, values, incr, append, lappend, update, info, replace*+ to be documented...
2038 +*env* '?name? ?default?'+
2040 If +'name'+ is supplied, returns the value of +'name'+ from the initial
2041 environment (see getenv(3)). An error is returned if +'name'+ does not
2042 exist in the environment, unless +'default'+ is supplied - in which case
2043 that value is returned instead.
2045 If no arguments are supplied, returns a list of all environment variables
2046 and their values as +{name value \...}+
2048 See also the global variable +::env+
2056 Returns 1 if an end-of-file condition has occurred on +'fileId'+,
2059 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to `open`,
2060 or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one of the
2061 standard I/O channels.
2065 +*error* 'message ?stacktrace?'+
2067 Returns a +JIM_ERR+ code, which causes command interpretation to be
2068 unwound. +'message'+ is a string that is returned to the application
2069 to indicate what went wrong.
2071 If the +'stacktrace'+ argument is provided and is non-empty,
2072 it is used to initialize the stacktrace.
2074 This feature is most useful in conjunction with the `catch` command:
2075 if a caught error cannot be handled successfully, +'stacktrace'+ can be used
2076 to return a stack trace reflecting the original point of occurrence
2081 error $errMsg [info stacktrace]
2083 See also `errorInfo`, `info stacktrace`, `catch` and `return`
2087 +*errorInfo* 'error ?stacktrace?'+
2089 Returns a human-readable representation of the given error message and stack trace.
2092 if {[catch {...} error]} {
2093 puts stderr [errorInfo $error [info stacktrace]]
2101 +*eval* 'arg ?arg\...?'+
2103 `eval` takes one or more arguments, which together comprise a Tcl
2104 command (or collection of Tcl commands separated by newlines in the
2105 usual way). `eval` concatenates all its arguments in the same
2106 fashion as the `concat` command, passes the concatenated string to the
2107 Tcl interpreter recursively, and returns the result of that
2108 evaluation (or any error generated by it).
2112 +*exec* 'arg ?arg\...?'+
2114 This command treats its arguments as the specification
2115 of one or more UNIX commands to execute as subprocesses.
2116 The commands take the form of a standard shell pipeline;
2117 +|+ arguments separate commands in the
2118 pipeline and cause standard output of the preceding command
2119 to be piped into standard input of the next command (or +|&+ for
2120 both standard output and standard error).
2122 Under normal conditions the result of the `exec` command
2123 consists of the standard output produced by the last command
2124 in the pipeline followed by the standard error output.
2126 If any of the commands writes to its standard error file,
2127 then this will be included in the result after the standard output
2128 of the last command.
2130 Note that unlike Tcl, data written to standard error does not cause
2131 `exec` to return an error.
2133 If any of the commands in the pipeline exit abnormally or
2134 are killed or suspended, then `exec` will return an error.
2135 If no standard error output was produced, or is redirected,
2136 the error message will include the normal result, as above,
2137 followed by error messages describing the abnormal terminations.
2139 If any standard error output was produced, these abnormal termination
2140 messages are suppressed.
2142 If the last character of the result or error message
2143 is a newline then that character is deleted from the result
2144 or error message for consistency with normal
2147 An +'arg'+ may have one of the following special forms:
2150 The standard output of the last command in the pipeline
2151 is redirected to the file. In this situation `exec`
2152 will normally return an empty string.
2155 As above, but append to the file.
2158 The standard output of the last command in the pipeline is
2159 redirected to the given (writable) file descriptor (e.g. stdout,
2160 stderr, or the result of `open`). In this situation `exec`
2161 will normally return an empty string.
2164 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline
2165 is redirected to the file.
2168 As above, but append to the file.
2171 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline is
2172 redirected to the given (writable) file descriptor.
2175 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline is
2176 redirected to the same file descriptor as the standard output.
2179 Both the standard output and standard error of the last command
2180 in the pipeline is redirected to the file.
2183 As above, but append to the file.
2186 The standard input of the first command in the pipeline
2187 is taken from the file.
2190 The standard input of the first command is taken as the
2191 given immediate value.
2194 The standard input of the first command in the pipeline
2195 is taken from the given (readable) file descriptor.
2197 If there is no redirection of standard input, standard error
2198 or standard output, these are connected to the corresponding
2199 input or output of the application.
2201 If the last +'arg'+ is +&+ then the command will be
2202 executed in background.
2203 In this case the standard output from the last command
2204 in the pipeline will
2205 go to the application's standard output unless
2206 redirected in the command, and error output from all
2207 the commands in the pipeline will go to the application's
2208 standard error file. The return value of exec in this case
2209 is a list of process ids (pids) in the pipeline.
2211 Each +'arg'+ becomes one word for a command, except for
2212 +|+, +<+, +<<+, +>+, and +&+ arguments, and the
2213 arguments that follow +<+, +<<+, and +>+.
2215 The first word in each command is taken as the command name;
2216 the directories in the PATH environment variable are searched for
2217 an executable by the given name.
2219 No `glob` expansion or other shell-like substitutions
2220 are performed on the arguments to commands.
2222 If the command fails, the global $::errorCode (and the -errorcode
2223 option in `catch`) will be set to a list, as follows:
2225 +*CHILDKILLED* 'pid sigName msg'+::
2226 This format is used when a child process has been killed
2227 because of a signal. The pid element will be the process's
2228 identifier (in decimal). The sigName element will be the
2229 symbolic name of the signal that caused the process to
2230 terminate; it will be one of the names from the include
2231 file signal.h, such as SIGPIPE. The msg element will be a
2232 short human-readable message describing the signal, such
2233 as "write on pipe with no readers" for SIGPIPE.
2235 +*CHILDSUSP* 'pid sigName msg'+::
2236 This format is used when a child process has been suspended
2237 because of a signal. The pid element will be the process's
2238 identifier, in decimal. The sigName element will be the
2239 symbolic name of the signal that caused the process to
2240 suspend; this will be one of the names from the include
2241 file signal.h, such as SIGTTIN. The msg element will be a
2242 short human-readable message describing the signal, such
2243 as "background tty read" for SIGTTIN.
2245 +*CHILDSTATUS* 'pid code'+::
2246 This format is used when a child process has exited with a
2247 non-zero exit status. The pid element will be the process's
2248 identifier (in decimal) and the code element will be the
2249 exit code returned by the process (also in decimal).
2251 The environment for the executed command is set from $::env (unless
2252 this variable is unset, in which case the original environment is used).
2256 +*exists ?-var|-proc|-command|-alias?* 'name'+
2258 Checks the existence of the given variable, procedure, command
2259 or alias respectively and returns 1 if it exists or 0 if not. This command
2260 provides a more simplified/convenient version of `info exists`,
2261 `info procs` and `info commands`.
2263 If the type is omitted, a type of '-var' is used. The type may be abbreviated.
2267 +*exit* '?returnCode?'+
2269 Terminate the process, returning +'returnCode'+ to the
2270 parent as the exit status.
2272 If +'returnCode'+ isn't specified then it defaults
2275 Note that exit can be caught with `catch`.
2281 Calls the expression processor to evaluate +'arg'+, and returns
2282 the result as a string. See the section EXPRESSIONS above.
2284 Note that Jim supports a shorthand syntax for `expr` as +$(\...)+
2285 The following two are identical.
2287 set x [expr {3 * 2 + 1}]
2292 +*file* 'option name ?arg\...?'+
2294 Operate on a file or a file name. +'name'+ is the name of a file.
2296 +'option'+ indicates what to do with the file name. Any unique
2297 abbreviation for +'option'+ is acceptable. The valid options are:
2299 +*file atime* 'name'+::
2300 Return a decimal string giving the time at which file +'name'+
2301 was last accessed. The time is measured in the standard UNIX
2302 fashion as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1, 1970).
2303 If the file doesn't exist or its access time cannot be queried then an
2306 +*file copy ?-force?* 'source target'+::
2307 Copies file +'source'+ to file +'target'+. The source file must exist.
2308 The target file must not exist, unless +-force+ is specified.
2310 +*file delete ?-force? ?--?* 'name\...'+::
2311 Deletes file or directory +'name'+. If the file or directory doesn't exist, nothing happens.
2312 If it can't be deleted, an error is generated. Non-empty directories will not be deleted
2313 unless the +-force+ options is given. In this case no errors will be generated, even
2314 if the file/directory can't be deleted. Use +'--'+ if there is any possibility of
2315 the first name being +'-force'+.
2317 +*file dirname* 'name'+::
2318 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ up to but not including
2319 the last slash character. If there are no slashes in +'name'+
2320 then return +.+ (a single dot). If the last slash in +'name'+ is its first
2321 character, then return +/+.
2323 +*file executable* 'name'+::
2324 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is executable by
2325 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2327 +*file exists* 'name'+::
2328 Return '1' if file +'name'+ exists and the current user has
2329 search privileges for the directories leading to it, '0' otherwise.
2331 +*file extension* 'name'+::
2332 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ after and including the
2333 last dot in +'name'+. If there is no dot in +'name'+ then return
2336 +*file isdirectory* 'name'+::
2337 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is a directory,
2340 +*file isfile* 'name'+::
2341 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is a regular file,
2344 +*file join* 'arg\...'+::
2345 Joins multiple path components. Note that if any components is
2346 an absolute path, the preceding components are ignored.
2347 Thus +"`file` join /tmp /root"+ returns +"/root"+.
2349 +*file link* ?*-hard|-symbolic*? 'newname target'+::
2350 Creates a hard link (default) or symbolic link from +'newname'+ to +'target'+.
2351 Note that the sense of this command is the opposite of `file rename` and `file copy`
2352 and also of `ln`, but this is compatible with Tcl.
2353 An error is returned if +'target'+ doesn't exist or +'newname'+ already exists.
2355 +*file lstat* 'name varName'+::
2356 Same as 'stat' option (see below) except uses the +'lstat'+
2357 kernel call instead of +'stat'+. This means that if +'name'+
2358 refers to a symbolic link the information returned in +'varName'+
2359 is for the link rather than the file it refers to. On systems that
2360 don't support symbolic links this option behaves exactly the same
2361 as the 'stat' option.
2363 +*file mkdir* 'dir1 ?dir2\...?'+::
2364 Creates each directory specified. For each pathname +'dir'+ specified,
2365 this command will create all non-existing parent directories
2366 as well as +'dir'+ itself. If an existing directory is specified,
2367 then no action is taken and no error is returned. Trying to
2368 overwrite an existing file with a directory will result in an
2369 error. Arguments are processed in the order specified, halting
2370 at the first error, if any.
2372 +*file mtime* 'name ?time?'+::
2373 Return a decimal string giving the time at which file +'name'+
2374 was last modified. The time is measured in the standard UNIX
2375 fashion as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1, 1970).
2376 If the file doesn't exist or its modified time cannot be queried then an
2377 error is generated. If +'time'+ is given, sets the modification time
2378 of the file to the given value.
2380 +*file mtimeus* 'name ?time_us?'+::
2381 As for `file mtime` except the time value is in microseconds
2382 since the epoch (see also `clock microseconds`).
2383 Note that some platforms and some filesystems don't support high
2384 resolution timestamps for files.
2386 +*file normalize* 'name'+::
2387 Return the normalized path of +'name'+. See 'realpath(3)'.
2389 +*file owned* 'name'+::
2390 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is owned by the current user,
2393 +*file readable* 'name'+::
2394 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is readable by
2395 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2397 +*file readlink* 'name'+::
2398 Returns the value of the symbolic link given by +'name'+ (i.e. the
2399 name of the file it points to). If
2400 +'name'+ isn't a symbolic link or its value cannot be read, then
2401 an error is returned. On systems that don't support symbolic links
2402 this option is undefined.
2404 +*file rename* ?*-force*? 'oldname' 'newname'+::
2405 Renames the file from the old name to the new name.
2406 If +'newname'+ already exists, an error is returned unless +'-force'+ is
2409 +*file rootname* 'name'+::
2410 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ up to but not including
2411 the last '.' character in the name. If +'name'+ doesn't contain
2412 a dot, then return +'name'+.
2414 +*file size* 'name'+::
2415 Return a decimal string giving the size of file +'name'+ in bytes.
2416 If the file doesn't exist or its size cannot be queried then an
2419 +*file stat* 'name ?varName?'+::
2420 Invoke the 'stat' kernel call on +'name'+, and return the result
2421 as a dictionary with the following keys: 'atime',
2422 'ctime', 'dev', 'gid', 'ino', 'mode', 'mtime',
2423 'nlink', 'size', 'type', 'uid', 'mtimeus' (if supported - see `file mtimeus`)
2424 Each element except 'type' is a decimal string with the value of
2425 the corresponding field from the 'stat' return structure; see the
2426 manual entry for 'stat' for details on the meanings of the values.
2427 The 'type' element gives the type of the file in the same form
2428 returned by the command `file type`.
2429 If +'varName'+ is specified, it is taken to be the name of an array
2430 variable and the values are also stored into the array.
2432 +*file tail* 'name'+::
2433 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ after the last slash.
2434 If +'name'+ contains no slashes then return +'name'+.
2436 +*file tempfile* '?template?'+::
2437 Creates and returns the name of a unique temporary file. If +'template'+ is omitted, a
2438 default template will be used to place the file in /tmp. See 'mkstemp(3)' for
2439 the format of the template and security concerns.
2441 +*file type* 'name'+::
2442 Returns a string giving the type of file +'name'+, which will be
2443 one of +file+, +directory+, +characterSpecial+,
2444 +blockSpecial+, +fifo+, +link+, or +socket+.
2446 +*file writable* 'name'+::
2447 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is writable by
2448 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2450 The `file` commands that return 0/1 results are often used in
2451 conditional or looping commands, for example:
2453 if {![file exists foo]} {
2454 error {bad file name}
2461 +*finalize* 'reference ?command?'+
2463 If +'command'+ is omitted, returns the finalizer command for the given reference.
2465 Otherwise, sets a new finalizer command for the given reference. +'command'+ may be
2466 the empty string to remove the current finalizer.
2468 The reference must be a valid reference create with the `ref`
2471 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2479 Flushes any output that has been buffered for +'fileId'+. +'fileId'+ must
2480 have been the return value from a previous call to `open`, or it may be
2481 +stdout+ or +stderr+ to access one of the standard I/O streams; it must
2482 refer to a file that was opened for writing. This command returns an
2487 +*for* 'start test next body'+
2489 `for` is a looping command, similar in structure to the C `for` statement.
2490 The +'start'+, +'next'+, and +'body'+ arguments must be Tcl command strings,
2491 and +'test'+ is an expression string.
2493 The `for` command first invokes the Tcl interpreter to execute +'start'+.
2494 Then it repeatedly evaluates +'test'+ as an expression; if the result is
2495 non-zero it invokes the Tcl interpreter on +'body'+, then invokes the Tcl
2496 interpreter on +'next'+, then repeats the loop. The command terminates
2497 when +'test'+ evaluates to 0.
2499 If a `continue` command is invoked within +'body'+ then any remaining
2500 commands in the current execution of +'body'+ are skipped; processing
2501 continues by invoking the Tcl interpreter on +'next'+, then evaluating
2502 +'test'+, and so on.
2504 If a `break` command is invoked within +'body'+ or +'next'+, then the `for`
2505 command will return immediately.
2507 The operation of `break` and `continue` are similar to the corresponding
2510 `for` returns an empty string.
2514 +*foreach* 'varName list body'+
2516 +*foreach* 'varList list ?varList2 list2 \...? body'+
2518 In this command, +'varName'+ is the name of a variable, +'list'+
2519 is a list of values to assign to +'varName'+, and +'body'+ is a
2520 collection of Tcl commands.
2522 For each field in +'list'+ (in order from left to right), `foreach` assigns
2523 the contents of the field to +'varName'+ (as if the `lindex` command
2524 had been used to extract the field), then calls the Tcl interpreter to
2527 If instead of being a simple name, +'varList'+ is used, multiple assignments
2528 are made each time through the loop, one for each element of +'varList'+.
2530 For example, if there are two elements in +'varList'+ and six elements in
2531 the list, the loop will be executed three times.
2533 If the length of the list doesn't evenly divide by the number of elements
2534 in +'varList'+, the value of the remaining variables in the last iteration
2535 of the loop are undefined.
2537 The `break` and `continue` statements may be invoked inside +'body'+,
2538 with the same effect as in the `for` command.
2540 `foreach` returns an empty string.
2544 +*format* 'formatString ?arg \...?'+
2546 This command generates a formatted string in the same way as the
2547 C 'sprintf' procedure (it uses 'sprintf' in its
2548 implementation). +'formatString'+ indicates how to format
2549 the result, using +%+ fields as in 'sprintf', and the additional
2550 arguments, if any, provide values to be substituted into the result.
2552 All of the 'sprintf' options are valid; see the 'sprintf'
2553 man page for details. Each +'arg'+ must match the expected type
2554 from the +%+ field in +'formatString'+; the `format` command
2555 converts each argument to the correct type (floating, integer, etc.)
2556 before passing it to 'sprintf' for formatting.
2558 The only unusual conversion is for +%c+; in this case the argument
2559 must be a decimal string, which will then be converted to the corresponding
2560 ASCII (or UTF-8) character value.
2562 In addition, Jim Tcl provides basic support for conversion to binary with +%b+.
2564 `format` does backslash substitution on its +'formatString'+
2565 argument, so backslash sequences in +'formatString'+ will be handled
2566 correctly even if the argument is in braces.
2568 The return value from `format` is the formatted string.
2572 +*getref* 'reference'+
2574 Returns the string associated with +'reference'+. The reference must
2575 be a valid reference create with the `ref` command.
2577 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2581 +*gets* 'fileId ?varName?'+
2583 +'fileId' *gets* '?varName?'+
2585 Reads the next line from the file given by +'fileId'+ and discards
2586 the terminating newline character.
2588 If +'varName'+ is specified, then the line is placed in the variable
2589 by that name and the return value is a count of the number of characters
2590 read (not including the newline).
2592 If the end of the file is reached before reading
2593 any characters then -1 is returned and +'varName'+ is set to an
2596 If +'varName'+ is not specified then the return value will be
2597 the line (minus the newline character) or an empty string if
2598 the end of the file is reached before reading any characters.
2600 An empty string will also be returned if a line contains no characters
2601 except the newline, so `eof` may have to be used to determine
2602 what really happened.
2604 If the last character in the file is not a newline character, then
2605 `gets` behaves as if there were an additional newline character
2606 at the end of the file.
2608 +'fileId'+ must be +stdin+ or the return value from a previous
2609 call to `open`; it must refer to a file that was opened
2614 +*glob* ?*-nocomplain*? ?*-directory* 'dir'? ?*-tails*? ?*--*? 'pattern ?pattern \...?'+
2616 This command performs filename globbing, using csh rules. The returned
2617 value from `glob` is the list of expanded filenames.
2619 If +-nocomplain+ is specified as the first argument then an empty
2620 list may be returned; otherwise an error is returned if the expanded
2621 list is empty. The +-nocomplain+ argument must be provided
2622 exactly: an abbreviation will not be accepted.
2624 If +-directory+ is given, the +'dir'+ is understood to contain a
2625 directory name to search in. This allows globbing inside directories
2626 whose names may contain glob-sensitive characters. The returned names
2627 include the directory name unless +'-tails'+ is specified.
2629 If +'-tails'+ is specified, along with +-directory+, the returned names
2630 are relative to the given directory.
2635 +*global* 'varName ?varName \...?'+
2637 This command is ignored unless a Tcl procedure is being interpreted.
2638 If so, then it declares each given +'varName'+ to be a global variable
2639 rather than a local one. For the duration of the current procedure
2640 (and only while executing in the current procedure), any reference to
2641 +'varName'+ will be bound to a global variable instead
2644 An alternative to using `global` is to use the +::+ prefix
2645 to explicitly name a variable in the global scope.
2649 +*if* 'expr1' ?*then*? 'body1' *elseif* 'expr2' ?*then*? 'body2' *elseif* \... ?*else*? ?'bodyN'?+
2651 The `if` command evaluates +'expr1'+ as an expression (in the same way
2652 that `expr` evaluates its argument). The value of the expression must
2653 be numeric; if it is non-zero then +'body1'+ is executed by passing it to
2654 the Tcl interpreter.
2656 Otherwise +'expr2'+ is evaluated as an expression and if it is non-zero
2657 then +'body2'+ is executed, and so on.
2659 If none of the expressions evaluates to non-zero then +'bodyN'+ is executed.
2661 The +then+ and +else+ arguments are optional "noise words" to make the
2662 command easier to read.
2664 There may be any number of +elseif+ clauses, including zero. +'bodyN'+
2665 may also be omitted as long as +else+ is omitted too.
2667 The return value from the command is the result of the body script that
2668 was executed, or an empty string if none of the expressions was non-zero
2669 and there was no +'bodyN'+.
2673 +*incr* 'varName ?increment?'+
2675 Increment the value stored in the variable whose name is +'varName'+.
2676 The value of the variable must be integral.
2678 If +'increment'+ is supplied then its value (which must be an
2679 integer) is added to the value of variable +'varName'+; otherwise
2680 1 is added to +'varName'+.
2682 The new value is stored as a decimal string in variable +'varName'+
2683 and also returned as result.
2685 If the variable does not exist, the variable is implicitly created
2686 and set to +0+ first.
2691 +*info* 'option ?arg\...?'+::
2693 Provide information about various internals to the Tcl interpreter.
2694 The legal +'option'+'s (which may be abbreviated) are:
2696 +*info args* 'procname'+::
2697 Returns a list containing the names of the arguments to procedure
2698 +'procname'+, in order. +'procname'+ must be the name of a
2699 Tcl command procedure.
2701 +*info alias* 'command'+::
2702 +'command'+ must be an alias created with `alias`. In which case the target
2703 command and arguments, as passed to `alias` are returned. See `exists -alias`
2705 +*info body* 'procname'+::
2706 Returns the body of procedure +'procname'+. +'procname'+ must be
2707 the name of a Tcl command procedure.
2710 Returns a list of all open file handles from `open` or `socket`
2712 +*info commands* ?'pattern'?+::
2713 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of names of all the
2714 Tcl commands, including both the built-in commands written in C and
2715 the command procedures defined using the `proc` command.
2716 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2717 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2720 +*info complete* 'command' ?'missing'?+::
2721 Returns 1 if +'command'+ is a complete Tcl command in the sense of
2722 having no unclosed quotes, braces, brackets or array element names,
2723 If the command doesn't appear to be complete then 0 is returned.
2724 This command is typically used in line-oriented input environments
2725 to allow users to type in commands that span multiple lines; if the
2726 command isn't complete, the script can delay evaluating it until additional
2727 lines have been typed to complete the command. If +'varName'+ is specified, the
2728 missing character is stored in the variable with that name.
2730 +*info exists* 'varName'+::
2731 Returns '1' if the variable named +'varName'+ exists in the
2732 current context (either as a global or local variable), returns '0'
2735 +*info frame* ?'number'?+::
2736 If +'number'+ is not specified, this command returns a number
2737 which is the same result as `info level` - the current stack frame level.
2738 If +'number'+ is specified, then the result is a list consisting of the procedure,
2739 filename and line number for the procedure call at level +'number'+ on the stack.
2740 If +'number'+ is positive then it selects a particular stack level (1 refers
2741 to the top-most active procedure, 2 to the procedure it called, and
2742 so on); otherwise it gives a level relative to the current level
2743 (0 refers to the current procedure, -1 to its caller, and so on).
2744 The level has an identical meaning to `info level`.
2746 +*info globals* ?'pattern'?+::
2747 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the names
2748 of currently-defined global variables.
2749 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2750 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2754 An alias for `os.gethostname` for compatibility with Tcl 6.x
2756 +*info level* ?'number'?+::
2757 If +'number'+ is not specified, this command returns a number
2758 giving the stack level of the invoking procedure, or 0 if the
2759 command is invoked at top-level. If +'number'+ is specified,
2760 then the result is a list consisting of the name and arguments for the
2761 procedure call at level +'number'+ on the stack. If +'number'+
2762 is positive then it selects a particular stack level (1 refers
2763 to the top-most active procedure, 2 to the procedure it called, and
2764 so on); otherwise it gives a level relative to the current level
2765 (0 refers to the current procedure, -1 to its caller, and so on).
2766 See the `uplevel` command for more information on what stack
2769 +*info locals* ?'pattern'?+::
2770 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the names
2771 of currently-defined local variables, including arguments to the
2772 current procedure, if any. Variables defined with the `global`
2773 and `upvar` commands will not be returned. If +'pattern'+ is
2774 specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+ are returned.
2775 Matching is determined using the same rules as for `string match`.
2777 +*info nameofexecutable*+::
2778 Returns the name of the binary file from which the application
2779 was invoked. A full path will be returned, unless the path
2780 can't be determined, in which case the empty string will be returned.
2782 +*info procs* ?'pattern'?+::
2783 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the
2784 names of Tcl command procedures.
2785 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2786 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2789 +*info references*+::
2790 Returns a list of all references which have not yet been garbage
2793 +*info returncodes* ?'code'?+::
2794 Returns a list representing the mapping of standard return codes
2795 to names. e.g. +{0 ok 1 error 2 return \...}+. If a code is given,
2796 instead returns the name for the given code.
2799 If a Tcl script file is currently being evaluated (i.e. there is a
2800 call to 'Jim_EvalFile' active or there is an active invocation
2801 of the `source` command), then this command returns the name
2802 of the innermost file being processed. Otherwise the command returns an
2805 +*info source* 'script ?filename line?'+::
2806 With a single argument, returns the original source location of the given script as a list of
2807 +{filename linenumber}+. If the source location can't be determined, the
2808 list +{{} 0}+ is returned. If +'filename'+ and +'line'+ are given, returns a copy
2809 of +'script'+ with the associate source information. This can be useful to produce
2810 useful messages from `eval`, etc. if the original source information may be lost.
2812 +*info stacktrace*+::
2813 After an error is caught with `catch`, returns the stack trace as a list
2814 of +{procedure filename line \...}+.
2816 +*info statics* 'procname'+::
2817 Returns a dictionary of the static variables of procedure
2818 +'procname'+. +'procname'+ must be the name of a Tcl command
2819 procedure. An empty dictionary is returned if the procedure has
2820 no static variables.
2823 Returns the version number for this version of Jim in the form +*x.yy*+.
2825 +*info vars* ?'pattern'?+::
2826 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified,
2827 returns a list of all the names of currently-visible variables, including
2828 both locals and currently-visible globals.
2829 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2830 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2835 +*join* 'list ?joinString?'+
2837 The +'list'+ argument must be a valid Tcl list. This command returns the
2838 string formed by joining all of the elements of +'list'+ together with
2839 +'joinString'+ separating each adjacent pair of elements.
2841 The +'joinString'+ argument defaults to a space character.
2845 +*kill* ?'SIG'|*-0*? 'pid'+
2847 Sends the given signal to the process identified by +'pid'+.
2849 The signal may be specified by name or number in one of the following forms:
2857 The signal name may be in either upper or lower case.
2859 The special signal name +-0+ simply checks that a signal +'could'+ be sent.
2861 If no signal is specified, SIGTERM is used.
2863 An error is raised if the signal could not be delivered.
2867 +*lambda* 'args ?statics? body'+
2869 The `lambda` command is identical to `proc`, except rather than
2870 creating a named procedure, it creates an anonymous procedure and returns
2871 the name of the procedure.
2873 See `proc` and GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2877 +*lappend* 'varName value ?value value \...?'+
2879 Treat the variable given by +'varName'+ as a list and append each of
2880 the +'value'+ arguments to that list as a separate element, with spaces
2883 If +'varName'+ doesn't exist, it is created as a list with elements given
2884 by the +'value'+ arguments. `lappend` is similar to `append` except that
2885 each +'value'+ is appended as a list element rather than raw text.
2887 This command provides a relatively efficient way to build up large lists.
2892 is much more efficient than
2894 set a [concat $a [list $b]]
2900 +*lassign* 'list varName ?varName \...?'+
2902 This command treats the value +'list'+ as a list and assigns successive elements from that list to
2903 the variables given by the +'varName'+ arguments in order. If there are more variable names than
2904 list elements, the remaining variables are set to the empty string. If there are more list elements
2905 than variables, a list of unassigned elements is returned.
2907 jim> lassign {1 2 3} a b; puts a=$a,b=$b
2913 +*local* 'cmd ?arg\...?'+
2915 First, `local` evaluates +'cmd'+ with the given arguments. The return value must
2916 be the name of an existing command, which is marked as having local scope.
2917 This means that when the current procedure exits, the specified
2918 command is deleted. This can be useful with `lambda`, local procedures or
2919 to automatically close a filehandle.
2921 In addition, if a command already exists with the same name,
2922 the existing command will be kept rather than deleted, and may be called
2923 via `upcall`. The previous command will be restored when the current
2924 procedure exits. See `upcall` for more details.
2926 In this example, a local procedure is created. Note that the procedure
2927 continues to have global scope while it is active.
2930 # proc ... returns "inner" which is marked local
2931 local proc inner {} {
2932 # will be deleted when 'outer' exits
2939 In this example, the lambda is deleted at the end of the procedure rather
2940 than waiting until garbage collection.
2943 set x [lambda inner {args} {
2944 # will be deleted when 'outer' exits
2946 # Use 'function' here which simply returns $x
2955 +*loop* 'var first limit ?incr? body'+
2957 Similar to `for` except simpler and possibly more efficient.
2958 With a positive increment, equivalent to:
2960 for {set var $first} {$var < $limit} {incr var $incr} $body
2962 If +'incr'+ is not specified, 1 is used.
2963 Note that setting the loop variable inside the loop does not
2964 affect the loop count.
2968 +*lindex* 'list ?index ...?'+
2970 Treats +'list'+ as a Tcl list and returns element +'index'+ from it
2971 (0 refers to the first element of the list).
2972 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
2974 In extracting the element, +'lindex'+ observes the same rules concerning
2975 braces and quotes and backslashes as the Tcl command interpreter; however,
2976 variable substitution and command substitution do not occur.
2978 If no index values are given, simply returns +'list'+
2980 If +'index'+ is negative or greater than or equal to the number of elements
2981 in +'list'+, then an empty string is returned.
2983 If additional index arguments are supplied, then each argument is
2984 used in turn to select an element from the previous indexing
2985 operation, allowing the script to select elements from sublists.
2989 +*linsert* 'list index element ?element element \...?'+
2991 This command produces a new list from +'list'+ by inserting all
2992 of the +'element'+ arguments just before the element +'index'+
2993 of +'list'+. Each +'element'+ argument will become
2994 a separate element of the new list. If +'index'+ is less than
2995 or equal to zero, then the new elements are inserted at the
2996 beginning of the list. If +'index'+ is greater than or equal
2997 to the number of elements in the list, then the new elements are
2998 appended to the list.
3000 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
3005 +*list* 'arg ?arg \...?'+
3007 This command returns a list comprised of all the arguments, +'arg'+. Braces
3008 and backslashes get added as necessary, so that the `lindex` command
3009 may be used on the result to re-extract the original arguments, and also
3010 so that `eval` may be used to execute the resulting list, with
3011 +'arg1'+ comprising the command's name and the other args comprising
3012 its arguments. `list` produces slightly different results than
3013 `concat`: `concat` removes one level of grouping before forming
3014 the list, while `list` works directly from the original arguments.
3015 For example, the command
3017 list a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
3021 a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
3023 while `concat` with the same arguments will return
3031 Treats +'list'+ as a list and returns a decimal string giving
3032 the number of elements in it.
3036 +*lset* 'varName ?index ..? newValue'+
3038 Sets an element in a list.
3040 The `lset` command accepts a parameter, +'varName'+, which it interprets
3041 as the name of a variable containing a Tcl list. It also accepts
3042 zero or more indices into the list. Finally, it accepts a new value
3043 for an element of varName. If no indices are presented, the command
3046 lset varName newValue
3048 In this case, newValue replaces the old value of the variable
3051 When presented with a single index, the `lset` command
3052 treats the content of the varName variable as a Tcl list. It addresses
3053 the index'th element in it (0 refers to the first element of the
3054 list). When interpreting the list, `lset` observes the same rules
3055 concerning braces and quotes and backslashes as the Tcl command
3056 interpreter; however, variable substitution and command substitution
3057 do not occur. The command constructs a new list in which the
3058 designated element is replaced with newValue. This new list is
3059 stored in the variable varName, and is also the return value from
3062 If index is negative or greater than or equal to the number of
3063 elements in $varName, then an error occurs.
3065 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
3067 If additional index arguments are supplied, then each argument is
3068 used in turn to address an element within a sublist designated by
3069 the previous indexing operation, allowing the script to alter
3070 elements in sublists. The command,
3074 replaces element 2 of sublist 1 with +'newValue'+.
3076 The integer appearing in each index argument must be greater than
3077 or equal to zero. The integer appearing in each index argument must
3078 be strictly less than the length of the corresponding list. In other
3079 words, the `lset` command cannot change the size of a list. If an
3080 index is outside the permitted range, an error is reported.
3085 +*lmap* 'varName list body'+
3087 +*lmap* 'varList list ?varList2 list2 \...? body'+
3089 `lmap` is a "collecting" `foreach` which returns a list of its results.
3093 jim> lmap i {1 2 3 4 5} {expr $i*$i}
3095 jim> lmap a {1 2 3} b {A B C} {list $a $b}
3098 If the body invokes `continue`, no value is added for this iteration.
3099 If the body invokes `break`, the loop ends and no more values are added.
3105 Loads the dynamic extension, +'filename'+. Generally the filename should have
3106 the extension +.so+. The initialisation function for the module must be based
3107 on the name of the file. For example loading +hwaccess.so+ will invoke
3108 the initialisation function, +Jim_hwaccessInit+. Normally the `load` command
3109 should not be used directly. Instead it is invoked automatically by `package require`.
3113 +*lrange* 'list first last'+
3115 +'list'+ must be a valid Tcl list. This command will return a new
3116 list consisting of elements +'first'+ through +'last'+, inclusive.
3118 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
3120 If +'last'+ is greater than or equal to the number of elements
3121 in the list, then it is treated as if it were +end+.
3123 If +'first'+ is greater than +'last'+ then an empty string
3126 Note: +"`lrange` 'list first first'"+ does not always produce the
3127 same result as +"`lindex` 'list first'"+ (although it often does
3128 for simple fields that aren't enclosed in braces); it does, however,
3129 produce exactly the same results as +"`list` [`lindex` 'list first']"+
3134 +*lreplace* 'list first last ?element element \...?'+
3136 Returns a new list formed by replacing one or more elements of
3137 +'list'+ with the +'element'+ arguments.
3139 +'first'+ gives the index in +'list'+ of the first element
3142 If +'first'+ is less than zero then it refers to the first
3143 element of +'list'+; the element indicated by +'first'+
3144 must exist in the list.
3146 +'last'+ gives the index in +'list'+ of the last element
3147 to be replaced; it must be greater than or equal to +'first'+.
3149 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
3151 The +'element'+ arguments specify zero or more new arguments to
3152 be added to the list in place of those that were deleted.
3154 Each +'element'+ argument will become a separate element of
3157 If no +'element'+ arguments are specified, then the elements
3158 between +'first'+ and +'last'+ are simply deleted.
3162 +*lrepeat* 'number element1 ?element2 \...?'+
3164 Build a list by repeating elements +'number'+ times (which must be
3165 a positive integer).
3174 Returns the list in reverse order.
3176 jim> lreverse {1 2 3}
3181 +*lsearch* '?options? list pattern'+
3183 This command searches the elements +'list'+ to see if one of them matches +'pattern'+. If so, the
3184 command returns the index of the first matching element (unless the options +-all+, +-inline+ or +-bool+ are
3185 specified.) If not, the command returns -1. The option arguments indicates how the elements of
3186 the list are to be matched against pattern and must have one of the values below:
3188 *Note* that this command is different from Tcl in that default match type is +-exact+ rather than +-glob+.
3191 +'pattern'+ is a literal string that is compared for exact equality against each list element.
3192 This is the default.
3195 +'pattern'+ is a glob-style pattern which is matched against each list element using the same
3196 rules as the string match command.
3199 +'pattern'+ is treated as a regular expression and matched against each list element using
3200 the rules described by `regexp`.
3202 +*-command* 'cmdname'+::
3203 +'cmdname'+ is a command which is used to match the pattern against each element of the
3204 list. It is invoked as +'cmdname' ?*-nocase*? 'pattern listvalue'+ and should return 1
3205 for a match, or 0 for no match.
3208 Changes the result to be the list of all matching indices (or all matching values if
3209 +-inline+ is specified as well). If indices are returned, the indices will be in numeric
3210 order. If values are returned, the order of the values will be the order of those values
3211 within the input list.
3214 The matching value is returned instead of its index (or an empty string if no value
3215 matches). If +-all+ is also specified, then the result of the command is the list of all
3216 values that matched. The +-inline+ and +-bool+ options are mutually exclusive.
3219 Changes the result to '1' if a match was found, or '0' otherwise. If +-all+ is also specified,
3220 the result will be a list of '0' and '1' for each element of the list depending upon whether
3221 the corresponding element matches. The +-inline+ and +-bool+ options are mutually exclusive.
3224 This negates the sense of the match, returning the index (or value
3225 if +-inline+ is specified) of the first non-matching value in the
3226 list. If +-bool+ is also specified, the '0' will be returned if a
3227 match is found, or '1' otherwise. If +-all+ is also specified,
3228 non-matches will be returned rather than matches.
3231 Causes comparisons to be handled in a case-insensitive manner.
3235 +*lsort* ?*-index* 'listindex'? ?*-nocase|-integer|-real|-command* 'cmdname'? ?*-unique*? ?*-decreasing*|*-increasing*? 'list'+
3237 Sort the elements of +'list'+, returning a new list in sorted order.
3238 By default, ASCII (or UTF-8) sorting is used, with the result in increasing order.
3240 If +-nocase+ is specified, comparisons are case-insensitive.
3242 If +-integer+ is specified, numeric sorting is used.
3244 If +-real+ is specified, floating point number sorting is used.
3246 If +-command 'cmdname'+ is specified, +'cmdname'+ is treated as a command
3247 name. For each comparison, +'cmdname $value1 $value2+' is called which
3248 should compare the values and return an integer less than, equal
3249 to, or greater than zero if the +'$value1'+ is to be considered less
3250 than, equal to, or greater than +'$value2'+, respectively.
3252 If +-decreasing+ is specified, the resulting list is in the opposite
3253 order to what it would be otherwise. +-increasing+ is the default.
3255 If +-unique+ is specified, then only the last set of duplicate elements found in the list will be retained.
3256 Note that duplicates are determined relative to the comparison used in the sort. Thus if +-index 0+ is used,
3257 +{1 a}+ and +{1 b}+ would be considered duplicates and only the second element, +{1 b}+, would be retained.
3259 If +-index 'listindex'+ is specified, each element of the list is treated as a list and
3260 the given index is extracted from the list for comparison. The list index may
3261 be any valid list index, such as +1+, +end+ or +end-2+.
3267 This command is a simple helper command to add a script to the '+$jim::defer+' variable
3268 that will run when the current proc or interpreter exits. For example:
3270 jim> proc a {} { defer {puts "Leaving a"}; puts "Exit" }
3275 If the '+$jim::defer+' variable exists, it is treated as a list of scripts to run
3276 when the proc or interpreter exits.
3280 +*open* 'fileName ?access?'+
3282 +*open* '|command-pipeline ?access?'+
3284 Opens a file and returns an identifier
3285 that may be used in future invocations
3286 of commands like `read`, `puts`, and `close`.
3287 +'fileName'+ gives the name of the file to open.
3289 The +'access'+ argument indicates the way in which the file is to be accessed.
3290 It may have any of the following values:
3293 Open the file for reading only; the file must already exist.
3296 Open the file for both reading and writing; the file must
3300 Open the file for writing only. Truncate it if it exists. If it doesn't
3301 exist, create a new file.
3304 Open the file for reading and writing. Truncate it if it exists.
3305 If it doesn't exist, create a new file.
3308 Open the file for writing only. The file must already exist, and the file
3309 is positioned so that new data is appended to the file.
3312 Open the file for reading and writing. If the file doesn't
3313 exist, create a new empty file. Set the initial access position
3314 to the end of the file.
3316 +'access'+ defaults to 'r'.
3318 If a file is opened for both reading and writing, then `seek`
3319 must be invoked between a read and a write, or vice versa.
3321 If the first character of +'fileName'+ is "|" then the remaining
3322 characters of +'fileName'+ are treated as a list of arguments that
3323 describe a command pipeline to invoke, in the same style as the
3324 arguments for exec. In this case, the channel identifier returned
3325 by open may be used to write to the command's input pipe or read
3326 from its output pipe, depending on the value of +'access'+. If write-only
3327 access is used (e.g. +'access'+ is 'w'), then standard output for the
3328 pipeline is directed to the current standard output unless overridden
3329 by the command. If read-only access is used (e.g. +'access'+ is r),
3330 standard input for the pipeline is taken from the current standard
3331 input unless overridden by the command.
3333 The `pid` command may be used to return the process ids of the commands
3334 forming the command pipeline.
3336 See also `socket`, `pid`, `exec`
3340 +*package provide* 'name ?version?'+
3342 Indicates that the current script provides the package named +'name'+.
3343 If no version is specified, '1.0' is used.
3345 Any script which provides a package may include this statement
3346 as the first statement, although it is not required.
3348 +*package require* 'name ?version?'*+
3350 Searches for the package with the given +'name'+ by examining each path
3351 in '$::auto_path' and trying to load '$path/$name.so' as a dynamic extension,
3352 or '$path/$name.tcl' as a script package.
3354 The first such file which is found is considered to provide the package.
3355 (The version number is ignored).
3357 If '$name.so' exists, it is loaded with the `load` command,
3358 otherwise if '$name.tcl' exists it is loaded with the `source` command.
3360 If `load` or `source` fails, `package require` will fail immediately.
3361 No further attempt will be made to locate the file.
3369 The first form returns the process identifier of the current process.
3371 The second form accepts a handle returned by `open` and returns a list
3372 of the process ids forming the pipeline in the same form as `exec ... &`.
3373 If 'fileId' represents a regular file handle rather than a command pipeline,
3374 the empty string is returned instead.
3376 See also `open`, `exec`
3380 +*proc* 'name args ?statics? body'+
3382 The `proc` command creates a new Tcl command procedure, +'name'+.
3383 When the new command is invoked, the contents of +'body'+ will be executed.
3384 Tcl interpreter. +'args'+ specifies the formal arguments to the procedure.
3385 If specified, +'statics'+, declares static variables which are bound to the
3388 See PROCEDURES for detailed information about Tcl procedures.
3390 The `proc` command returns +'name'+ (which is useful with `local`).
3392 When a procedure is invoked, the procedure's return value is the
3393 value specified in a `return` command. If the procedure doesn't
3394 execute an explicit `return`, then its return value is the value
3395 of the last command executed in the procedure's body.
3397 If an error occurs while executing the procedure body, then the
3398 procedure-as-a-whole will return that same error.
3402 +*puts* ?*-nonewline*? '?fileId? string'+
3404 +'fileId' *puts* ?*-nonewline*? 'string'+
3406 Writes the characters given by +'string'+ to the file given
3407 by +'fileId'+. +'fileId'+ must have been the return
3408 value from a previous call to `open`, or it may be
3409 +stdout+ or +stderr+ to refer to one of the standard I/O
3410 channels; it must refer to a file that was opened for
3413 In the first form, if no +'fileId'+ is specified then it defaults to +stdout+.
3414 `puts` normally outputs a newline character after +'string'+,
3415 but this feature may be suppressed by specifying the +-nonewline+
3418 Output to files is buffered internally by Tcl; the `flush`
3419 command may be used to force buffered characters to be output.
3423 Creates a pair of `aio` channels and returns the handles as a list: +{read write}+
3429 Returns the path name of the current working directory.
3433 +*rand* '?min? ?max?'+
3435 Returns a random integer between +'min'+ (defaults to 0) and +'max'+
3436 (defaults to the maximum integer).
3438 If only one argument is given, it is interpreted as +'max'+.
3442 +*range* '?start? end ?step?'+
3444 Returns a list of integers starting at +'start'+ (defaults to 0)
3445 and ranging up to but not including +'end'+ in steps of +'step'+ defaults to 1).
3458 +*read* ?*-nonewline*? 'fileId'+
3460 +'fileId' *read* ?*-nonewline*?+
3462 +*read* 'fileId numBytes'+
3464 +'fileId' *read* 'numBytes'+
3467 In the first form, all of the remaining bytes are read from the file
3468 given by +'fileId'+; they are returned as the result of the command.
3469 If the +-nonewline+ switch is specified then the last
3470 character of the file is discarded if it is a newline.
3472 In the second form, the extra argument specifies how many bytes to read;
3473 exactly this many bytes will be read and returned, unless there are fewer than
3474 +'numBytes'+ bytes left in the file; in this case, all the remaining
3477 +'fileId'+ must be +stdin+ or the return value from a previous call
3478 to `open`; it must refer to a file that was opened for reading.
3482 +*regexp ?-nocase? ?-line? ?-indices? ?-start* 'offset'? *?-all? ?-inline? ?--?* 'exp string ?matchVar? ?subMatchVar subMatchVar \...?'+
3484 Determines whether the regular expression +'exp'+ matches part or
3485 all of +'string'+ and returns 1 if it does, 0 if it doesn't.
3487 See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS above for complete information on the
3488 syntax of +'exp'+ and how it is matched against +'string'+.
3490 If additional arguments are specified after +'string'+ then they
3491 are treated as the names of variables to use to return
3492 information about which part(s) of +'string'+ matched +'exp'+.
3493 +'matchVar'+ will be set to the range of +'string'+ that
3494 matched all of +'exp'+. The first +'subMatchVar'+ will contain
3495 the characters in +'string'+ that matched the leftmost parenthesized
3496 subexpression within +'exp'+, the next +'subMatchVar'+ will
3497 contain the characters that matched the next parenthesized
3498 subexpression to the right in +'exp'+, and so on.
3500 Normally, +'matchVar'+ and the each +'subMatchVar'+ are set to hold the
3501 matching characters from `string`, however see +-indices+ and
3504 If there are more values for +'subMatchVar'+ than parenthesized subexpressions
3505 within +'exp'+, or if a particular subexpression in +'exp'+ doesn't
3506 match the string (e.g. because it was in a portion of the expression
3507 that wasn't matched), then the corresponding +'subMatchVar'+ will be
3508 set to +"-1 -1"+ if +-indices+ has been specified or to an empty
3511 The following switches modify the behaviour of +'regexp'+
3514 Causes upper-case and lower-case characters to be treated as
3515 identical during the matching process.
3518 Use newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline
3519 is a completely ordinary character with no special meaning in
3520 either REs or strings. With this flag, +[^+ bracket expressions
3521 and +.+ never match newline, an +^+ anchor matches the null
3522 string after any newline in the string in addition to its normal
3523 function, and the +$+ anchor matches the null string before any
3524 newline in the string in addition to its normal function.
3527 Changes what is stored in the subMatchVars. Instead of
3528 storing the matching characters from string, each variable
3529 will contain a list of two decimal strings giving the indices
3530 in string of the first and last characters in the matching
3531 range of characters.
3533 +*-start* 'offset'+::
3534 Specifies a character index offset into the string at which to start
3535 matching the regular expression. If +-indices+ is
3536 specified, the indices will be indexed starting from the
3537 absolute beginning of the input string. +'offset'+ will be
3538 constrained to the bounds of the input string.
3541 Causes the regular expression to be matched as many times as possible
3542 in the string, returning the total number of matches found. If this
3543 is specified with match variables, they will contain information
3544 for the last match only.
3547 Causes the command to return, as a list, the data that would otherwise
3548 be placed in match variables. When using +-inline+, match variables
3549 may not be specified. If used with +-all+, the list will be concatenated
3550 at each iteration, such that a flat list is always returned. For
3551 each match iteration, the command will append the overall match
3552 data, plus one element for each subexpression in the regular
3556 Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be
3557 treated as +'exp'+ even if it starts with a +-+.
3561 +*regsub ?-nocase? ?-all? ?-line? ?-start* 'offset'? ?*--*? 'exp string subSpec ?varName?'+
3563 This command matches the regular expression +'exp'+ against
3564 +'string'+ using the rules described in REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
3567 If +'varName'+ is specified, the commands stores +'string'+ to +'varName'+
3568 with the substitutions detailed below, and returns the number of
3569 substitutions made (normally 1 unless +-all+ is specified).
3570 This is 0 if there were no matches.
3572 If +'varName'+ is not specified, the substituted string will be returned
3575 When copying +'string'+, the portion of +'string'+ that
3576 matched +'exp'+ is replaced with +'subSpec'+.
3577 If +'subSpec'+ contains a +&+ or +{backslash}0+, then it is replaced
3578 in the substitution with the portion of +'string'+ that
3581 If +'subSpec'+ contains a +{backslash}n+, where +'n'+ is a digit
3582 between 1 and 9, then it is replaced in the substitution with
3583 the portion of +'string'+ that matched the +'n'+\'-th
3584 parenthesized subexpression of +'exp'+.
3585 Additional backslashes may be used in +'subSpec'+ to prevent special
3586 interpretation of +&+ or +{backslash}0+ or +{backslash}n+ or
3589 The use of backslashes in +'subSpec'+ tends to interact badly
3590 with the Tcl parser's use of backslashes, so it's generally
3591 safest to enclose +'subSpec'+ in braces if it includes
3594 The following switches modify the behaviour of +'regsub'+
3597 Upper-case characters in +'string'+ are converted to lower-case
3598 before matching against +'exp'+; however, substitutions
3599 specified by +'subSpec'+ use the original unconverted form
3603 All ranges in +'string'+ that match +'exp'+ are found and substitution
3604 is performed for each of these ranges, rather than only the
3605 first. The +&+ and +{backslash}n+ sequences are handled for
3606 each substitution using the information from the corresponding
3610 Use newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline
3611 is a completely ordinary character with no special meaning in
3612 either REs or strings. With this flag, +[^+ bracket expressions
3613 and +.+ never match newline, an +^+ anchor matches the null
3614 string after any newline in the string in addition to its normal
3615 function, and the +$+ anchor matches the null string before any
3616 newline in the string in addition to its normal function.
3618 +*-start* 'offset'+::
3619 Specifies a character index offset into the string at which to
3620 start matching the regular expression. +'offset'+ will be
3621 constrained to the bounds of the input string.
3624 Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be
3625 treated as +'exp'+ even if it starts with a +-+.
3629 +*ref* 'string tag ?finalizer?'+
3631 Create a new reference containing +'string'+ of type +'tag'+.
3632 If +'finalizer'+ is specified, it is a command which will be invoked
3633 when the a garbage collection cycle runs and this reference is
3634 no longer accessible.
3636 The finalizer is invoked as:
3638 finalizer reference string
3640 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
3644 +*rename* 'oldName newName'+
3646 Rename the command that used to be called +'oldName'+ so that it
3647 is now called +'newName'+. If +'newName'+ is an empty string
3648 (e.g. {}) then +'oldName'+ is deleted. The `rename` command
3649 returns an empty string as result.
3653 +*return* ?*-code* 'code'? ?*-errorinfo* 'stacktrace'? ?*-errorcode* 'errorcode'? ?*-level* 'n'? ?'value'?+
3655 Return immediately from the current procedure (or top-level command
3656 or `source` command), with +'value'+ as the return value. If +'value'+
3657 is not specified, an empty string will be returned as result.
3659 If +-code+ is specified (as either a number or ok, error, break,
3660 continue, signal, return or exit), this code will be used instead
3661 of +JIM_OK+. This is generally useful when implementing flow of control
3664 If +-level+ is specified and greater than 1, it has the effect of delaying
3665 the new return code from +-code+. This is useful when rethrowing an error
3666 from `catch`. See the implementation of try/catch in tclcompat.tcl for
3667 an example of how this is done.
3669 Note: The following options are only used when +-code+ is JIM_ERR.
3671 If +-errorinfo+ is specified (as returned from `info stacktrace`)
3672 it is used to initialize the stacktrace.
3674 If +-errorcode+ is specified, it is used to set the global variable $::errorCode.
3678 +*scan* 'string format varName1 ?varName2 \...?'+
3680 This command parses fields from an input string in the same fashion
3681 as the C 'sscanf' procedure. +'string'+ gives the input to be parsed
3682 and +'format'+ indicates how to parse it, using '%' fields as in
3683 'sscanf'. All of the 'sscanf' options are valid; see the 'sscanf'
3684 man page for details. Each +'varName'+ gives the name of a variable;
3685 when a field is scanned from +'string'+, the result is converted back
3686 into a string and assigned to the corresponding +'varName'+. The
3687 only unusual conversion is for '%c'. For '%c' conversions a single
3688 character value is converted to a decimal string, which is then
3689 assigned to the corresponding +'varName'+; no field width may be
3690 specified for this conversion.
3694 +*seek* 'fileId offset ?origin?'+
3696 +'fileId' *seek* 'offset ?origin?'+
3698 Change the current access position for +'fileId'+.
3699 The +'offset'+ and +'origin'+ arguments specify the position at
3700 which the next read or write will occur for +'fileId'+.
3701 +'offset'+ must be a number (which may be negative) and +'origin'+
3702 must be one of the following:
3705 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the start
3709 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the current
3710 access position; a negative +'offset'+ moves the access position
3711 backwards in the file.
3714 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the end of
3715 the file. A negative +'offset'+ places the access position before
3716 the end-of-file, and a positive +'offset'+ places the access position
3717 after the end-of-file.
3719 The +'origin'+ argument defaults to +start+.
3721 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to
3722 `open`, or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one
3723 of the standard I/O channels.
3725 This command returns an empty string.
3729 +*set* 'varName ?value?'+
3731 Returns the value of variable +'varName'+.
3733 If +'value'+ is specified, then set the value of +'varName'+ to +'value'+,
3734 creating a new variable if one doesn't already exist, and return
3737 If +'varName'+ contains an open parenthesis and ends with a
3738 close parenthesis, then it refers to an array element: the characters
3739 before the open parenthesis are the name of the array, and the characters
3740 between the parentheses are the index within the array.
3741 Otherwise +'varName'+ refers to a scalar variable.
3743 If no procedure is active, then +'varName'+ refers to a global
3746 If a procedure is active, then +'varName'+ refers to a parameter
3747 or local variable of the procedure, unless the +'global'+ command
3748 has been invoked to declare +'varName'+ to be global.
3750 The +::+ prefix may also be used to explicitly reference a variable
3751 in the global scope.
3755 +*setref* 'reference string'+
3757 Store a new string in +'reference'+, replacing the existing string.
3758 The reference must be a valid reference create with the `ref`
3761 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
3765 Command for signal handling.
3767 See `kill` for the different forms which may be used to specify signals.
3769 Commands which return a list of signal names do so using the canonical form:
3772 +*signal handle* ?'signals \...'?+::
3773 If no signals are given, returns a list of all signals which are currently
3775 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals currently
3778 +*signal ignore* ?'signals \...'?+::
3779 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which are currently
3781 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals
3782 currently being ignored. These signals are still delivered, but
3783 are not considered by `catch -signal` or `try -signal`. Use
3784 `signal check` to determine which signals have occurred but
3787 +*signal default* ?'signals \...'?+::
3788 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which are currently have
3789 the default behaviour.
3790 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals which have
3791 the default behaviour.
3793 +*signal check ?-clear?* ?'signals \...'?+::
3794 Returns a list of signals which have been delivered to the process
3795 but are 'ignored'. If signals are specified, only that set of signals will
3796 be checked, otherwise all signals will be checked.
3797 If +-clear+ is specified, any signals returned are removed and will not be
3798 returned by subsequent calls to `signal check` unless delivered again.
3800 +*signal throw* ?'signal'?+::
3801 Raises the given signal, which defaults to +SIGINT+ if not specified.
3802 The behaviour is identical to:
3806 Note that `signal handle` and `signal ignore` represent two forms of signal
3807 handling. `signal handle` is used in conjunction with `catch -signal` or `try -signal`
3808 to immediately abort execution when the signal is delivered. Alternatively, `signal ignore`
3809 is used in conjunction with `signal check` to handle signal synchronously. Consider the
3812 Prevent a processing from taking too long
3814 signal handle SIGALRM
3817 .. possibly long running process ..
3820 puts stderr "Process took too long"
3823 Handle SIGHUP to reconfigure:
3825 signal ignore SIGHUP
3827 ... handle configuration/reconfiguration ...
3828 while {[signal check -clear SIGHUP] eq ""} {
3829 ... do processing ..
3831 # Received SIGHUP, so reconfigure
3834 Note: signal handling is currently not supported in child interpreters.
3835 In these interpreters, the signal command does not exist.
3841 Pauses for the given number of seconds, which may be a floating
3842 point value less than one to sleep for less than a second, or an
3843 integer to sleep for one or more seconds.
3847 +*source* 'fileName'+
3849 Read file +'fileName'+ and pass the contents to the Tcl interpreter
3850 as a sequence of commands to execute in the normal fashion. The return
3851 value of `source` is the return value of the last command executed
3852 from the file. If an error occurs in executing the contents of the
3853 file, then the `source` command will return that error.
3855 If a `return` command is invoked from within the file, the remainder of
3856 the file will be skipped and the `source` command will return
3857 normally with the result from the `return` command.
3861 +*split* 'string ?splitChars?'+
3863 Returns a list created by splitting +'string'+ at each character
3864 that is in the +'splitChars'+ argument.
3866 Each element of the result list will consist of the
3867 characters from +'string'+ between instances of the
3868 characters in +'splitChars'+.
3870 Empty list elements will be generated if +'string'+ contains
3871 adjacent characters in +'splitChars'+, or if the first or last
3872 character of +'string'+ is in +'splitChars'+.
3874 If +'splitChars'+ is an empty string then each character of
3875 +'string'+ becomes a separate element of the result list.
3877 +'splitChars'+ defaults to the standard white-space characters.
3880 split "comp.unix.misc" .
3882 returns +'"comp unix misc"'+ and
3884 split "Hello world" {}
3886 returns +'"H e l l o { } w o r l d"'+.
3891 +*stackdump* 'stacktrace'+
3893 Creates a human readable representation of a stack trace.
3900 Returns a live stack trace as a list of +proc file line proc file line \...+.
3901 Iteratively uses `info frame` to create the stack trace. This stack trace is in the
3902 same form as produced by `catch` and `info stacktrace`
3904 See also `stackdump`.
3909 +*string* 'option arg ?arg \...?'+
3911 Perform one of several string operations, depending on +'option'+.
3912 The legal options (which may be abbreviated) are:
3914 +*string bytelength* 'string'+::
3915 Returns the length of the string in bytes. This will return
3916 the same value as `string length` if UTF-8 support is not enabled,
3917 or if the string is composed entirely of ASCII characters.
3918 See UTF-8 AND UNICODE.
3920 +*string byterange* 'string first last'+::
3921 Like `string range` except works on bytes rather than characters.
3922 These commands are identical if UTF-8 support is not enabled.
3924 +*string cat* '?string1 string2 \...?'+::
3925 Concatenates the given strings into a single string.
3927 +*string compare ?-nocase?* ?*-length* 'len? string1 string2'+::
3928 Perform a character-by-character comparison of strings +'string1'+ and
3929 +'string2'+ in the same way as the C 'strcmp' procedure. Return
3930 -1, 0, or 1, depending on whether +'string1'+ is lexicographically
3931 less than, equal to, or greater than +'string2'+. If +-length+
3932 is specified, then only the first +'len'+ characters are used
3933 in the comparison. If +'len'+ is negative, it is ignored.
3934 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
3936 +*string equal ?-nocase?* '?*-length* len?' 'string1 string2'+::
3937 Returns 1 if the strings are equal, or 0 otherwise. If +-length+
3938 is specified, then only the first +'len'+ characters are used
3939 in the comparison. If +'len'+ is negative, it is ignored.
3940 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
3942 +*string first* 'string1 string2 ?firstIndex?'+::
3943 Search +'string2'+ for a sequence of characters that exactly match
3944 the characters in +'string1'+. If found, return the index of the
3945 first character in the first such match within +'string2'+. If not
3946 found, return -1. If +'firstIndex'+ is specified, matching will start
3947 from +'firstIndex'+ of +'string1'+.
3949 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'firstIndex'+.
3951 +*string index* 'string charIndex'+::
3952 Returns the +'charIndex'+'th character of the +'string'+
3953 argument. A +'charIndex'+ of 0 corresponds to the first
3954 character of the string.
3955 If +'charIndex'+ is less than 0 or greater than
3956 or equal to the length of the string then an empty string is
3959 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'charIndex'+.
3961 +*string is* 'class' ?*-strict*? 'string'+::
3962 Returns 1 if +'string'+ is a valid member of the specified character
3963 class, otherwise returns 0. If +-strict+ is specified, then an
3964 empty string returns 0, otherwise an empty string will return 1
3965 on any class. The following character classes are recognized
3966 (the class name can be abbreviated):
3968 +alnum+;; Any alphabet or digit character.
3969 +alpha+;; Any alphabet character.
3970 +ascii+;; Any character with a value less than 128 (those that are in the 7-bit ascii range).
3971 +boolean+;; Any of the valid string formats for a boolean value in Tcl (0, false, no, off, 1, true, yes, on)
3972 +control+;; Any control character.
3973 +digit+;; Any digit character.
3974 +double+;; Any of the valid forms for a double in Tcl, with optional surrounding whitespace.
3975 In case of under/overflow in the value, 0 is returned.
3976 +graph+;; Any printing character, except space.
3977 +integer+;; Any of the valid string formats for an integer value in Tcl, with optional surrounding whitespace.
3978 +lower+;; Any lower case alphabet character.
3979 +print+;; Any printing character, including space.
3980 +punct+;; Any punctuation character.
3981 +space+;; Any space character.
3982 +upper+;; Any upper case alphabet character.
3983 +xdigit+;; Any hexadecimal digit character ([0-9A-Fa-f]).
3985 Note that string classification does +'not'+ respect UTF-8. See UTF-8 AND UNICODE
3987 Note that only +'lowercase'+ boolean values are recognized (Tcl accepts any case).
3989 +*string last* 'string1 string2 ?lastIndex?'+::
3990 Search +'string2'+ for a sequence of characters that exactly match
3991 the characters in +'string1'+. If found, return the index of the
3992 first character in the last such match within +'string2'+. If there
3993 is no match, then return -1. If +'lastIndex'+ is specified, only characters
3994 up to +'lastIndex'+ of +'string2'+ will be considered in the match.
3996 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'lastIndex'+.
3998 +*string length* 'string'+::
3999 Returns a decimal string giving the number of characters in +'string'+.
4000 If UTF-8 support is enabled, this may be different than the number of bytes.
4001 See UTF-8 AND UNICODE
4003 +*string map ?-nocase?* 'mapping string'+::
4004 Replaces substrings in +'string'+ based on the key-value pairs in
4005 +'mapping'+, which is a list of +key value key value \...+ as in the form
4006 returned by `array get`. Each instance of a key in the string will be
4007 replaced with its corresponding value. If +-nocase+ is specified, then
4008 matching is done without regard to case differences. Both key and value may
4009 be multiple characters. Replacement is done in an ordered manner, so the
4010 key appearing first in the list will be checked first, and so on. +'string'+ is
4011 only iterated over once, so earlier key replacements will have no affect for
4012 later key matches. For example,
4014 string map {abc 1 ab 2 a 3 1 0} 1abcaababcabababc
4017 will return the string +01321221+.
4019 Note that if an earlier key is a prefix of a later one, it will completely mask the later
4020 one. So if the previous example is reordered like this,
4022 string map {1 0 ab 2 a 3 abc 1} 1abcaababcabababc
4025 it will return the string +02c322c222c+.
4027 +*string match ?-nocase?* 'pattern string'+::
4028 See if +'pattern'+ matches +'string'+; return 1 if it does, 0
4029 if it doesn't. Matching is done in a fashion similar to that
4030 used by the C-shell. For the two strings to match, their contents
4031 must be identical except that the following special sequences
4032 may appear in +'pattern'+:
4035 Matches any sequence of characters in +'string'+,
4036 including a null string.
4039 Matches any single character in +'string'+.
4042 Matches any character in the set given by +'chars'+.
4043 If a sequence of the form +'x-y'+ appears in +'chars'+,
4044 then any character between +'x'+ and +'y'+, inclusive,
4048 Matches the single character +'x'+. This provides a way of
4049 avoiding the special interpretation of the characters +{backslash}*?[]+
4052 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
4054 +*string range* 'string first last'+::
4055 Returns a range of consecutive characters from +'string'+, starting
4056 with the character whose index is +'first'+ and ending with the
4057 character whose index is +'last'+. An index of 0 refers to the
4058 first character of the string.
4060 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
4062 If +'first'+ is less than zero then it is treated as if it were zero, and
4063 if +'last'+ is greater than or equal to the length of the string then
4064 it is treated as if it were +end+. If +'first'+ is greater than
4065 +'last'+ then an empty string is returned.
4067 +*string repeat* 'string count'+::
4068 Returns a new string consisting of +'string'+ repeated +'count'+ times.
4070 +*string replace* 'string first last ?newstring?'+::
4071 Removes a range of consecutive characters from +'string'+, starting
4072 with the character whose index is +'first'+ and ending with the
4073 character whose index is +'last'+. If +'newstring'+ is specified,
4074 then it is placed in the removed character range. If +'first'+ is
4075 less than zero then it is treated as if it were zero, and if +'last'+
4076 is greater than or equal to the length of the string then it is
4077 treated as if it were +end+. If +'first'+ is greater than +'last'+
4078 or the length of the initial string, or +'last'+ is less than 0,
4079 then the initial string is returned untouched.
4081 +*string reverse* 'string'+::
4082 Returns a string that is the same length as +'string'+ but
4083 with its characters in the reverse order.
4085 +*string tolower* 'string'+::
4086 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that all upper case
4087 letters have been converted to lower case.
4089 +*string totitle* 'string'+::
4090 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that the first character
4091 is converted to title case (or upper case if there is no UTF-8 titlecase variant)
4092 and all remaining characters have been converted to lower case.
4094 +*string toupper* 'string'+::
4095 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that all lower case
4096 letters have been converted to upper case.
4098 +*string trim* 'string ?chars?'+::
4099 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any leading
4100 or trailing characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4102 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4103 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4105 +*string trimleft* 'string ?chars?'+::
4106 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any
4107 leading characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4109 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4110 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4112 +*string trimright* 'string ?chars?'+::
4113 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any
4114 trailing characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4116 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4117 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4118 Null characters are always removed.
4122 +*subst ?-nobackslashes? ?-nocommands? ?-novariables?* 'string'+
4124 This command performs variable substitutions, command substitutions,
4125 and backslash substitutions on its string argument and returns the
4126 fully-substituted result. The substitutions are performed in exactly
4127 the same way as for Tcl commands. As a result, the string argument
4128 is actually substituted twice, once by the Tcl parser in the usual
4129 fashion for Tcl commands, and again by the subst command.
4131 If any of the +-nobackslashes+, +-nocommands+, or +-novariables+ are
4132 specified, then the corresponding substitutions are not performed.
4133 For example, if +-nocommands+ is specified, no command substitution
4134 is performed: open and close brackets are treated as ordinary
4135 characters with no special interpretation.
4137 *Note*: when it performs its substitutions, subst does not give any
4138 special treatment to double quotes or curly braces. For example,
4139 the following script returns +xyz \{44\}+, not +xyz \{$a\}+.
4147 +*switch* '?options? string pattern body ?pattern body \...?'+
4149 +*switch* '?options? string {pattern body ?pattern body \...?}'+
4151 The `switch` command matches its string argument against each of
4152 the pattern arguments in order. As soon as it finds a pattern that
4153 matches string it evaluates the following body and returns the
4154 result of that evaluation. If the last pattern argument is default
4155 then it matches anything. If no pattern argument matches string and
4156 no default is given, then the `switch` command returns an empty string.
4157 If the initial arguments to switch start with - then they are treated
4158 as options. The following options are currently supported:
4161 Use exact matching when comparing string to a
4162 pattern. This is the default.
4165 When matching string to the patterns, use glob-style
4166 matching (i.e. the same as implemented by the string
4170 When matching string to the patterns, use regular
4171 expression matching (i.e. the same as implemented
4172 by the regexp command).
4174 +-command 'commandname'+::
4175 When matching string to the patterns, use the given command, which
4176 must be a single word. The command is invoked as
4177 'commandname pattern string', or 'commandname -nocase pattern string'
4178 and must return 1 if matched, or 0 if not.
4181 Marks the end of options. The argument following
4182 this one will be treated as string even if it starts
4185 Two syntaxes are provided for the pattern and body arguments. The
4186 first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands;
4187 this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the
4188 patterns or commands. The second form places all of the patterns
4189 and commands together into a single argument; the argument must
4190 have proper list structure, with the elements of the list being the
4191 patterns and commands. The second form makes it easy to construct
4192 multi-line `switch` commands, since the braces around the whole list
4193 make it unnecessary to include a backslash at the end of each line.
4194 Since the pattern arguments are in braces in the second form, no
4195 command or variable substitutions are performed on them; this makes
4196 the behaviour of the second form different than the first form in
4199 If a body is specified as +-+ it means that the body for the next
4200 pattern should also be used as the body for this pattern (if the
4201 next pattern also has a body of +-+ then the body after that is
4202 used, and so on). This feature makes it possible to share a single
4203 body among several patterns.
4205 Below are some examples of `switch` commands:
4207 switch abc a - b {format 1} abc {format 2} default {format 3}
4211 switch -regexp aaab {
4231 +*tailcall* 'cmd ?arg\...?'+
4233 The `tailcall` command provides an optimised way of invoking a command whilst replacing
4234 the current call frame. This is similar to 'exec' in Bourne Shell.
4236 The following are identical except the first immediately replaces the current call frame.
4240 return [uplevel 1 [list a b c]]
4242 `tailcall` is useful as a dispatch mechanism:
4245 tailcall sub_$cmd {*}$args
4256 Returns a decimal string giving the current access position in
4259 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to
4260 `open`, or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one
4261 of the standard I/O channels.
4265 +*throw* 'code ?msg?'+
4267 This command throws an exception (return) code along with an optional message.
4268 This command is mostly for convenient usage with `try`.
4270 The command +throw break+ is equivalent to +break+.
4271 The command +throw 20 message+ can be caught with an +on 20 \...+ clause to `try`.
4275 +*time* 'command ?count?'+
4277 This command will call the Tcl interpreter +'count'+
4278 times to execute +'command'+ (or once if +'count'+ isn't
4279 specified). It will then return a string of the form
4281 503 microseconds per iteration
4283 which indicates the average amount of time required per iteration,
4286 Time is measured in elapsed time, not CPU time.
4290 +*try* '?catchopts? tryscript' ?*on* 'returncodes {?resultvar? ?optsvar?} handlerscript \...'? ?*finally* 'finalscript'?+
4292 The `try` command is provided as a convenience for exception handling.
4294 This interpeter first evaluates +'tryscript'+ under the effect of the catch
4295 options +'catchopts'+ (e.g. +-signal -noexit --+, see `catch`).
4297 It then evaluates the script for the first matching 'on' handler
4298 (there many be zero or more) based on the return code from the `try`
4299 section. For example a normal +JIM_ERR+ error will be matched by
4300 an 'on error' handler.
4302 Finally, any +'finalscript'+ is evaluated.
4304 The result of this command is the result of +'tryscript'+, except in the
4305 case where an exception occurs in a matching 'on' handler script or the 'finally' script,
4306 in which case the result is this new exception.
4308 The specified +'returncodes'+ is a list of return codes either as names ('ok', 'error', 'break', etc.)
4311 If +'resultvar'+ and +'optsvar'+ are specified, they are set as for `catch` before evaluating
4312 the matching handler.
4319 } on {continue break} {} {
4320 error "Unexpected break/continue"
4321 } on error {msg opts} {
4322 puts "Dealing with error"
4323 return {*}$opts $msg
4325 puts "Got signal: $sig"
4330 If break, continue or error are raised, they are dealt with by the matching
4333 In any case, the file will be closed via the 'finally' clause.
4335 See also `throw`, `catch`, `return`, `error`.
4339 +*unknown* 'cmdName ?arg arg ...?'+
4341 This command doesn't actually exist as part of Tcl, but Tcl will
4342 invoke it if it does exist.
4344 If the Tcl interpreter encounters a command name for which there
4345 is not a defined command, then Tcl checks for the existence of
4346 a command named `unknown`.
4348 If there is no such command, then the interpreter returns an
4351 If the `unknown` command exists, then it is invoked with
4352 arguments consisting of the fully-substituted name and arguments
4353 for the original non-existent command.
4355 The `unknown` command typically does things like searching
4356 through library directories for a command procedure with the name
4357 +'cmdName'+, or expanding abbreviated command names to full-length,
4358 or automatically executing unknown commands as UNIX sub-processes.
4360 In some cases (such as expanding abbreviations) `unknown` will
4361 change the original command slightly and then (re-)execute it.
4362 The result of the `unknown` command is used as the result for
4363 the original non-existent command.
4367 +*unset ?-nocomplain? ?--?* '?name name ...?'+
4370 Each +'name'+ is a variable name, specified in any of the
4371 ways acceptable to the `set` command.
4373 If a +'name'+ refers to an element of an array, then that
4374 element is removed without affecting the rest of the array.
4376 If a +'name'+ consists of an array name with no parenthesized
4377 index, then the entire array is deleted.
4379 The `unset` command returns an empty string as result.
4381 An error occurs if any of the variables doesn't exist, unless '-nocomplain'
4382 is specified. The '--' argument may be specified to stop option processing
4383 in case the variable name may be '-nocomplain'.
4387 +*upcall* 'command ?args ...?'+
4389 May be used from within a proc defined as `local` `proc` in order to call
4390 the previous, hidden version of the same command.
4392 If there is no previous definition of the command, an error is returned.
4396 +*uplevel* '?level? command ?command ...?'+
4398 All of the +'command'+ arguments are concatenated as if they had
4399 been passed to `concat`; the result is then evaluated in the
4400 variable context indicated by +'level'+. `uplevel` returns
4401 the result of that evaluation. If +'level'+ is an integer, then
4402 it gives a distance (up the procedure calling stack) to move before
4403 executing the command. If +'level'+ consists of +\#+ followed by
4404 a number then the number gives an absolute level number. If +'level'+
4405 is omitted then it defaults to +1+. +'level'+ cannot be
4406 defaulted if the first +'command'+ argument starts with a digit or +#+.
4408 For example, suppose that procedure 'a' was invoked
4409 from top-level, and that it called 'b', and that 'b' called 'c'.
4410 Suppose that 'c' invokes the `uplevel` command. If +'level'+
4411 is +1+ or +#2+ or omitted, then the command will be executed
4412 in the variable context of 'b'. If +'level'+ is +2+ or +#1+
4413 then the command will be executed in the variable context of 'a'.
4415 If +'level'+ is '3' or +#0+ then the command will be executed
4416 at top-level (only global variables will be visible).
4417 The `uplevel` command causes the invoking procedure to disappear
4418 from the procedure calling stack while the command is being executed.
4419 In the above example, suppose 'c' invokes the command
4421 uplevel 1 {set x 43; d}
4423 where 'd' is another Tcl procedure. The `set` command will
4424 modify the variable 'x' in 'b's context, and 'd' will execute
4425 at level 3, as if called from 'b'. If it in turn executes
4430 then the `set` command will modify the same variable 'x' in 'b's
4431 context: the procedure 'c' does not appear to be on the call stack
4432 when 'd' is executing. The command `info level` may
4433 be used to obtain the level of the current procedure.
4435 `uplevel` makes it possible to implement new control
4436 constructs as Tcl procedures (for example, `uplevel` could
4437 be used to implement the `while` construct as a Tcl procedure).
4441 +*upvar* '?level? otherVar myVar ?otherVar myVar ...?'+
4443 This command arranges for one or more local variables in the current
4444 procedure to refer to variables in an enclosing procedure call or
4445 to global variables.
4447 +'level'+ may have any of the forms permitted for the `uplevel`
4448 command, and may be omitted if the first letter of the first +'otherVar'+
4449 isn't +#+ or a digit (it defaults to '1').
4451 For each +'otherVar'+ argument, `upvar` makes the variable
4452 by that name in the procedure frame given by +'level'+ (or at
4453 global level, if +'level'+ is +#0+) accessible
4454 in the current procedure by the name given in the corresponding
4457 The variable named by +'otherVar'+ need not exist at the time of the
4458 call; it will be created the first time +'myVar'+ is referenced, just like
4459 an ordinary variable.
4461 `upvar` may only be invoked from within procedures.
4463 `upvar` returns an empty string.
4465 The `upvar` command simplifies the implementation of call-by-name
4466 procedure calling and also makes it easier to build new control constructs
4468 For example, consider the following procedure:
4475 'add2' is invoked with an argument giving the name of a variable,
4476 and it adds two to the value of that variable.
4477 Although 'add2' could have been implemented using `uplevel`
4478 instead of `upvar`, `upvar` makes it simpler for 'add2'
4479 to access the variable in the caller's procedure frame.
4485 +*wait -nohang* 'pid'+
4487 With no arguments, cleans up any processes started by `exec ... &` that have completed
4488 (reaps zombie processes).
4490 With one or two arguments, waits for a process by id, either returned by `exec ... &`
4491 or by `os.fork` (if supported).
4493 Waits for the process to complete, unless +-nohang+ is specified, in which case returns
4494 immediately if the process is still running.
4496 Returns a list of 3 elements.
4498 +{NONE x x}+ if the process does not exist or has already been waited for, or
4499 if -nohang is specified, and the process is still alive.
4501 +{CHILDSTATUS <pid> <exit-status>}+ if the process exited normally.
4503 +{CHILDKILLED <pid> <signal>}+ if the process terminated on a signal.
4505 +{CHILDSUSP <pid> none}+ if the process terminated for some other reason.
4507 Note that on platforms supporting waitpid(2), +pid+ can also be given special values such
4508 as 0 or -1. See waitpid(2) for more detail.
4512 +*while* 'test body'+
4514 The +'while'+ command evaluates +'test'+ as an expression
4515 (in the same way that `expr` evaluates its argument).
4516 The value of the expression must be numeric; if it is non-zero
4517 then +'body'+ is executed by passing it to the Tcl interpreter.
4519 Once +'body'+ has been executed then +'test'+ is evaluated
4520 again, and the process repeats until eventually +'test'+
4521 evaluates to a zero numeric value. `continue`
4522 commands may be executed inside +'body'+ to terminate the current
4523 iteration of the loop, and `break`
4524 commands may be executed inside +'body'+ to cause immediate
4525 termination of the `while` command.
4527 The `while` command always returns an empty string.
4532 The following extensions may or may not be available depending upon
4533 what options were selected when Jim Tcl was built.
4537 posix: os.fork, os.gethostname, os.getids, os.uptime
4538 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4540 Invokes 'fork(2)' and returns the result.
4542 +*os.gethostname*+::
4543 Invokes 'gethostname(3)' and returns the result.
4546 Returns the various user/group ids for the current process.
4549 uid 1000 euid 1000 gid 100 egid 100
4552 Returns the number of seconds since system boot. See description of 'uptime' in 'sysinfo(2)'.
4554 ANSI I/O (aio) and EVENTLOOP API
4555 --------------------------------
4556 Jim provides an alternative object-based API for I/O.
4558 See `open` and `socket` for commands which return an I/O handle.
4562 +$handle *accept* ?addrvar?+::
4563 Server socket only: Accept a connection and return stream.
4564 If +'addrvar'+ is specified, the address of the connected client is stored
4565 in the named variable in the form 'addr:port'. See `socket` for details.
4567 +$handle *buffering none|line|full*+::
4568 Sets the buffering mode of the stream.
4570 +$handle *close* ?r(ead)|w(rite)?+::
4572 The two-argument form is a "half-close" on a socket. See the +shutdown(2)+ man page.
4574 +$handle *copyto* 'tofd ?size?'+::
4575 Copy bytes to the file descriptor +'tofd'+. If +'size'+ is specified, at most
4576 that many bytes will be copied. Otherwise copying continues until the end
4577 of the input file. Returns the number of bytes actually copied.
4580 Returns 1 if stream is at eof
4582 +$handle *filename*+::
4583 Returns the original filename associated with the handle.
4584 Handles returned by `socket` give the socket type instead of a filename.
4589 +$handle *gets* '?var?'+::
4590 Read one line and return it or store it in the var
4592 +$handle *isatty*+::
4593 Returns 1 if the stream is a tty device.
4596 Apply a POSIX lock to the open file associated with the handle using
4598 The handle must be open for write access.
4599 Returns 1 if the lock was successfully obtained, 0 otherwise.
4600 An error occurs if the handle is not suitable for locking (e.g.
4601 if it is not open for write)
4603 +$handle *ndelay ?0|1?*+::
4604 Set O_NDELAY (if arg). Returns current/new setting.
4605 Note that in general ANSI I/O interacts badly with non-blocking I/O.
4608 +$handle *puts ?-nonewline?* 'str'+::
4609 Write the string, with newline unless -nonewline
4611 +$handle *read ?-nonewline?* '?len?'+::
4612 Read and return bytes from the stream. To eof if no len.
4614 +$handle *recvfrom* 'maxlen ?addrvar?'+::
4615 Receives a message from the handle via recvfrom(2) and returns it.
4616 At most +'maxlen'+ bytes are read.
4617 If +'addrvar'+ is specified, the sending address of the message is stored in
4618 the named variable in the form 'addr:port'. See `socket` for details.
4620 +$handle *seek* 'offset' *?start|current|end?*+::
4621 Seeks in the stream (default 'current')
4623 +$handle *sendto* 'str ?addr:?port'+::
4624 Sends the string, +'str'+, to the given address via the socket using sendto(2).
4625 This is intended for udp/dgram sockets and may give an error or behave in unintended
4626 ways for other handle types.
4627 Returns the number of bytes written.
4629 +$handle *sockopt* '?name value?'+::
4630 With no arguments, returns a dictionary of socket options currently set for the handle
4631 (will be empty for a non-socket). With +'name'+ and +'value'+, sets the socket option
4632 to the given value. Currently supports the following boolean socket options:
4633 +broadcast, debug, keepalive, nosigpipe, oobinline, tcp_nodelay+, and the following
4634 integer socket options: +sndbuf, rcvbuf+
4637 Flush the stream, then fsync(2) to commit any changes to storage.
4638 Only available on platforms that support fsync(2).
4641 Returns the current seek position
4643 +$handle *tty* ?settings?+::
4644 If no arguments are given, returns a dictionary containing the tty settings for the stream.
4645 If arguments are given, they must either be a dictionary, or +setting value \...+
4646 Abbrevations are supported for both settings and values, so the following is acceptable:
4647 +$f tty parity e input c out raw+.
4648 Only available on platforms that support termios(3). Supported settings are:
4651 Baud rate. e.g. 115200
4659 +*parity even|odd|none*+;;
4662 +*handshake xonxoff|rtscts|none*+;;
4665 +*input raw|cooked*+;;
4666 Input character processing. In raw mode, the usual key sequences such as ^C do
4667 not generate signals.
4669 +*output raw|cooked*+;;
4670 Output character processing. Typically CR -> CRNL is disabled in raw mode.
4672 +*vmin* 'numchars'+;;
4673 Minimum number of characters to read.
4676 Timeout for noncanonical read (units of 0.1 seconds)
4678 +$handle *ssl* *?-server cert priv?*+::
4679 Upgrades the stream to a SSL/TLS session and returns the handle.
4681 +$handle *unlock*+::
4682 Release a POSIX lock previously acquired by `aio lock`.
4684 +$handle *verify*+::
4685 Verifies the certificate of a SSL/TLS stream peer
4687 +*load_ssl_certs* 'dir'+::
4688 Loads SSL/TLS CA certificates for use during verification
4692 +*fconfigure* 'handle' *?-blocking 0|1? ?-buffering noneline|full? ?-translation* 'mode'?+::
4693 For compatibility with Tcl, a limited form of the `fconfigure`
4694 command is supported.
4695 * `fconfigure ... -blocking` maps to `aio ndelay`
4696 * `fconfigure ... -buffering` maps to `aio buffering`
4697 * `fconfigure ... -translation` is accepted but ignored
4700 eventloop: after, vwait, update
4701 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4703 The following commands allow a script to be invoked when the given condition occurs.
4704 If no script is given, returns the current script. If the given script is the empty, the
4707 +$handle *readable* '?readable-script?'+::
4708 Sets or returns the script for when the socket is readable.
4710 +$handle *writable* '?writable-script?'+::
4711 Sets or returns the script for when the socket is writable.
4713 +$handle *onexception* '?exception-script?'+::
4714 Sets or returns the script for when oob data received.
4716 For compatibility with 'Tcl', these may be prefixed with `fileevent`. e.g.
4719 +fileevent $handle *readable* '\...'+
4721 Time-based execution is also available via the eventloop API.
4724 Sleeps for the given number of milliseconds. No events are
4725 processed during this time.
4727 +*after* 'ms'|*idle* 'script ?script \...?'+::
4728 The scripts are concatenated and executed after the given
4729 number of milliseconds have elapsed. If 'idle' is specified,
4730 the script will run the next time the event loop is processed
4731 with `vwait` or `update`. The script is only run once and
4732 then removed. Returns an event id.
4734 +*after cancel* 'id|command'+::
4735 Cancels an `after` event with the given event id or matching
4736 command (script). Returns the number of milliseconds
4737 remaining until the event would have fired. Returns the
4738 empty string if no matching event is found.
4740 +*after info* '?id?'+::
4741 If +'id'+ is not given, returns a list of current `after`
4742 events. If +'id'+ is given, returns a list containing the
4743 associated script and either 'timer' or 'idle' to indicated
4744 the type of the event. An error occurs if +'id'+ does not
4747 +*vwait* 'variable'+::
4748 A call to `vwait` enters the eventloop. `vwait` processes
4749 events until the named (global) variable changes or all
4750 event handlers are removed. The variable need not exist
4751 beforehand. If there are no event handlers defined, `vwait`
4752 returns immediately.
4754 +*update ?idletasks?*+::
4755 A call to `update` enters the eventloop to process expired events, but
4756 no new events. If 'idletasks' is specified, only expired time events are handled,
4758 Returns once handlers have been run for all expired events.
4760 Scripts are executed at the global scope. If an error occurs during a handler script,
4761 an attempt is made to call (the user-defined command) `bgerror` with the details of the error.
4762 If the `bgerror` command does not exist, the error message details are printed to stderr instead.
4764 If a file event handler script generates an error, the handler is automatically removed
4765 to prevent infinite errors. (A time event handler is always removed after execution).
4768 Called when an event handler script generates an error. Note that the normal command resolution
4769 rules are used for bgerror. First the name is resolved in the current namespace, then in the
4774 Various socket types may be created.
4776 +*socket unix* 'path'+::
4777 A unix domain socket client.
4779 +*socket unix.server* 'path'+::
4780 A unix domain socket server.
4782 +*socket ?-ipv6? stream* 'addr:port'+::
4783 A TCP socket client. (See the forms for +'addr'+ below)
4785 +*socket ?-ipv6? stream.server* '?addr:?port'+::
4786 A TCP socket server (+'addr'+ defaults to +0.0.0.0+ for IPv4 or +[::]+ for IPv6).
4788 +*socket ?-ipv6? dgram* ?'addr:port'?+::
4789 A UDP socket client. If the address is not specified,
4790 the client socket will be unbound and 'sendto' must be used
4791 to indicated the destination.
4793 +*socket ?-ipv6? dgram.server* 'addr:port'+::
4794 A UDP socket server.
4797 A synonym for `pipe`
4800 A socketpair (see socketpair(2)). Like `pipe`, this command returns
4801 a list of two channels: {s1 s2}. These channels are both readable and writable.
4803 This command creates a socket connected (client) or bound (server) to the given
4806 The returned value is channel and may generally be used with the various file I/O
4807 commands (gets, puts, read, etc.), either as object-based syntax or Tcl-compatible syntax.
4809 . set f [socket stream www.google.com:80]
4811 . $f puts -nonewline "GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n"
4816 Server sockets, however support only 'accept', which is most useful in conjunction with
4819 set f [socket stream.server 80]
4821 set client [$f accept]
4824 $client puts -nonewline "HTTP/1.1 404 Not found\r\n"
4829 The address, +'addr'+, can be given in one of the following forms:
4831 1. For IPv4 socket types, an IPv4 address such as 192.168.1.1
4832 2. For IPv6 socket types, an IPv6 address such as [fe80::1234] or [::]
4835 Note that on many systems, listening on an IPv6 address such as [::] will
4836 also accept requests via IPv4.
4838 Where a hostname is specified, the +'first'+ returned address is used
4839 which matches the socket type is used.
4841 The special type 'pipe' isn't really a socket.
4843 lassign [socket pipe] r w
4845 # Must close $w after exec
4853 +*syslog* '?options? ?priority? message'+
4855 This command sends message to system syslog facility with given
4856 priority. Valid priorities are:
4858 emerg, alert, crit, err, error, warning, notice, info, debug
4860 If a message is specified, but no priority is specified, then a
4861 priority of info is used.
4863 By default, facility user is used and the value of global tcl variable
4864 argv0 is used as ident string. However, any of the following options
4865 may be specified before priority to control these parameters:
4867 +*-facility* 'value'+::
4868 Use specified facility instead of user. The following
4869 values for facility are recognized:
4871 authpriv, cron, daemon, kernel, lpr, mail, news, syslog, user,
4874 +*-ident* 'string'+::
4875 Use given string instead of argv0 variable for ident string.
4877 +*-options* 'integer'+::
4878 Set syslog options such as +LOG_CONS+, +LOG_NDELAY+. You should
4879 use numeric values of those from your system syslog.h file,
4880 because I haven't got time to implement yet another hash
4885 The optional 'pack' extension provides commands to encode and decode binary strings.
4887 +*pack* 'varName value' *-intle|-intbe|-floatle|-floatbe|-str* 'bitwidth ?bitoffset?'+::
4888 Packs the binary representation of +'value'+ into the variable
4889 +'varName'+. The value is packed according to the given type
4890 (integer/floating point/string, big-endian/little-endian), width and bit offset.
4891 The variable is created if necessary (like `append`).
4892 The variable is expanded if necessary.
4894 +*unpack* 'binvalue' *-intbe|-intle|-uintbe|-uintle|-floatbe|-floatle|-str* 'bitpos bitwidth'+::
4895 Unpacks bits from +'binvalue'+ at bit position +'bitpos'+ and with +'bitwidth'+.
4896 Interprets the value according to the type (integer/floating point/string, big-endian/little-endian
4897 and signed/unsigned) and returns it. For integer types, +'bitwidth'+
4898 may be up to the size of a Jim Tcl integer (typically 64 bits). For floating point types,
4899 +'bitwidth'+ may be 32 bits (for single precision numbers) or 64 bits (for double precision).
4900 For the string type, both the width and the offset must be on a byte boundary (multiple of 8). Attempting to
4901 access outside the length of the value will return 0 for integer types, 0.0 for floating point types
4902 or the empty string for the string type.
4906 The optional 'zlib' extension provides a Tcl-compatible subset of the `zlib` command.
4908 +*crc32* 'data' '?startValue?'+::
4909 Returns the CRC32 checksum of a buffer. Optionally, an initial value may be specified; this is most useful
4910 for calculating the checksum of chunked data read from a stream (for instance, a pipe).
4912 +*deflate* 'string' '?level?'+::
4913 Compresses a buffer and outputs a raw, Deflate-compressed stream. Optionally, a compression level (1-9) may
4914 be specified to choose the desired speed vs. compression rate ratio.
4916 +*inflate* 'data' '?bufferSize?'+::
4917 Decompresses a raw, Deflate-compressed stream. When the uncompressed data size is known and specified, memory
4918 allocation is more efficient. Otherwise, decomperssion is chunked and therefore slower.
4920 +*gzip* 'string' '?-level level?'+::
4921 Compresses a buffer and adds a gzip header.
4923 +*gunzip* 'data' '?-buffersize size?'+::
4924 Decompresses a gzip-compressed buffer. Decompression is chunked, with a default, small buffer size of 64K
4925 which guarantees lower memory footprint at the cost of speed. It is recommended to use a bigger size, on
4926 systems without a severe memory constraint.
4930 The optional, pure-Tcl 'binary' extension provides the Tcl-compatible `binary scan` and `binary format`
4931 commands based on the low-level `pack` and `unpack` commands.
4933 See the Tcl documentation at: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TclCmd/binary.htm
4935 Note that 'binary format' with f/r/R specifiers (single-precision float) uses the value of Infinity
4936 in case of overflow.
4940 The optional, pure-Tcl 'oo' extension provides object-oriented (OO) support for Jim Tcl.
4942 See the online documentation (http://jim.tcl.tk/index.html/doc/www/www/documentation/oo/) for more details.
4944 +*class* 'classname ?baseclasses? classvars'+::
4945 Create a new class, +'classname'+, with the given dictionary
4946 (+'classvars'+) as class variables. These are the initial variables
4947 which all newly created objects of this class are initialised with.
4948 If a list of baseclasses is given, methods and instance variables
4951 +*super* 'method ?args \...?'+::
4952 From within a method, invokes the given method on the base class.
4953 Note that this will only call the last baseclass given.
4957 The optional, pure-Tcl 'tree' extension implements an OO, general purpose tree structure
4958 similar to that provided by tcllib ::struct::tree (http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/doc/trunk/embedded/www/tcllib/files/modules/struct/struct_tree.html)
4960 A tree is a collection of nodes, where each node (except the root node) has a single parent
4961 and zero or more child nodes (ordered), as well as zero or more attribute/value pairs.
4964 Creates and returns a new tree object with a single node named "root".
4965 All operations on the tree are invoked through this object.
4968 Destroy the tree and all it's nodes. (Note that the tree will also
4969 be automatically garbage collected once it goes out of scope).
4971 +$tree *set* 'nodename key value'+::
4972 Set the value for the given attribute key.
4974 +$tree *lappend* 'nodename key value \...'+::
4975 Append to the (list) value(s) for the given attribute key, or set if not yet set.
4977 +$tree *keyexists* 'nodename key'+::
4978 Returns 1 if the given attribute key exists.
4980 +$tree *get* 'nodename key'+::
4981 Returns the value associated with the given attribute key.
4983 +$tree *getall* 'nodename'+::
4984 Returns the entire attribute dictionary associated with the given key.
4986 +$tree *depth* 'nodename'+::
4987 Returns the depth of the given node. The depth of "root" is 0.
4989 +$tree *parent* 'nodename'+::
4990 Returns the node name of the parent node, or "" for the root node.
4992 +$tree *numchildren* 'nodename'+::
4993 Returns the number of child nodes.
4995 +$tree *children* 'nodename'+::
4996 Returns a list of the child nodes.
4998 +$tree *next* 'nodename'+::
4999 Returns the next sibling node, or "" if none.
5001 +$tree *insert* 'nodename ?index?'+::
5002 Add a new child node to the given node. The index is a list index
5003 such as +3+ or +end-2+. The default index is +end+.
5004 Returns the name of the newly added node.
5006 +$tree *walk* 'nodename' *dfs|bfs* {'actionvar nodevar'} 'script'+::
5007 Walks the tree starting from the given node, either breadth first (+bfs+)
5008 depth first (+dfs+).
5009 The value +"enter"+ or +"exit"+ is stored in variable +'actionvar'+.
5010 The name of each node is stored in +'nodevar'+.
5011 The script is evaluated twice for each node, on entry and exit.
5014 Dumps the tree contents to stdout
5018 The optional tclprefix extension provides the Tcl8.6-compatible `tcl::prefix` command
5019 (http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/prefix.htm) for matching strings against a table
5020 of possible values (typically commands or options).
5022 +*tcl::prefix all* 'table string'+::
5023 Returns a list of all elements in +'table'+ that begin with the prefix +'string'+.
5025 +*tcl::prefix longest* 'table string'+::
5026 Returns the longest common prefix of all elements in +'table'+ that begin with the prefix +'string'+.
5028 +*tcl::prefix match* '?options? table string'+::
5029 If +'string'+ equals one element in +'table'+ or is a prefix to
5030 exactly one element, the matched element is returned. If not, the
5031 result depends on the +-error+ option.
5033 * +*-exact*+ Accept only exact matches.
5034 * +*-message* 'string'+ Use +'string'+ in the error message at a mismatch. Default is "option".
5035 * +*-error* 'options'+ The options are used when no match is found. If +'options'+ is
5036 empty, no error is generated and an empty string is returned.
5037 Otherwise the options are used as return options when
5038 generating the error message. The default corresponds to
5043 Scriptable command line completion is supported in the interactive shell, 'jimsh', through
5044 the `tcl::autocomplete` callback. A simple implementation is provided, however this may
5045 be replaced with a custom command instead if desired.
5047 In the interactive shell, press <TAB> to activate command line completion.
5049 +*tcl::autocomplete* 'commandline'+::
5050 This command is called with the current command line when the user presses <TAB>.
5051 The command should return a list of all possible command lines that match the current command line.
5052 For example if +*pr*+ is the current command line, the list +*{prefix proc}*+ may be returned.
5056 The optional history extension provides script access to the command line editing
5057 and history support available in 'jimsh'. See 'examples/jtclsh.tcl' for an example.
5058 Note: if line editing support is not available, `history getline` acts like `gets` and
5059 the remaining subcommands do nothing.
5061 +*history load* 'filename'+::
5062 Load history from a (text) file. If the file does not exist or is not readable,
5065 +*history getline* 'prompt ?varname?'+::
5066 Displays the given prompt and allows a line to be entered. Similarly to `gets`,
5067 if +'varname'+ is given, it receives the line and the length of the line is returned,
5068 or -1 on EOF. If +'varname'+ is not given, the line is returned directly.
5070 +*history completion* 'command'+::
5071 Sets an autocompletion command (see `tcl::autocomplete`) that is active during `history getline`.
5072 If the command is empty, autocompletion is disabled.
5074 +*history add* 'line'+::
5075 Adds the given line to the history buffer.
5077 +*history save* 'filename'+::
5078 Saves the current history buffer to the given file.
5081 Displays the current history buffer to standard output.
5085 Provides namespace-related functions. See also: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/namespace.htm
5087 +*namespace code* 'script'+::
5088 Captures the current namespace context for later execution of
5089 the script +'script'+. It returns a new script in which script has
5090 been wrapped in a +*namespace inscope*+ command.
5092 +*namespace current*+::
5093 Returns the fully-qualified name for the current namespace.
5095 +*namespace delete* '?namespace ...?'+::
5096 Deletes all commands and variables with the given namespace prefixes.
5098 +*namespace eval* 'namespace arg ?arg...?'+::
5099 Activates a namespace called +'namespace'+ and evaluates some code in that context.
5101 +*namespace origin* 'command'+::
5102 Returns the fully-qualified name of the original command to which the imported command +'command'+ refers.
5104 +*namespace parent* ?namespace?+::
5105 Returns the fully-qualified name of the parent namespace for namespace +'namespace'+, if given, otherwise
5106 for the current namespace.
5108 +*namespace qualifiers* 'string'+::
5109 Returns any leading namespace qualifiers for +'string'+
5111 +*namespace tail* 'string'+::
5112 Returns the simple name at the end of a qualified string.
5114 +*namespace upvar* 'namespace ?arg...?'+::
5115 This command arranges for zero or more local variables in the current procedure to refer to variables in +'namespace'+
5117 +*namespace which* '?-command|-variable? name'+::
5118 Looks up +'name'+ as either a command (the default) or variable and returns its fully-qualified name.
5122 The optional 'interp' command allows sub-interpreters to be created where commands may be run
5123 independently (but synchronously) of the main interpreter.
5126 Creates and returns a new interpreter object (command).
5127 The created interpeter contains any built-in commands along with static extensions,
5128 but does not include any dynamically loaded commands (package require, load).
5129 These must be reloaded in the child interpreter if required.
5131 +*$interp delete*+::
5132 Deletes the interpeter object.
5134 +*$interp eval* 'script' ...+::
5135 Evaluates a script in the context for the child interpreter, in the same way as 'eval'.
5137 +*$interp alias* 'alias childcmd parentcmd ?arg ...?'+::
5138 Similar to 'alias', but creates a command, +'childcmd'+, in the child interpreter that is an
5139 alias for +'parentcmd'+ in the parent interpreter, with the given, fixed arguments.
5140 The alias may be deleted in the child with 'rename'.
5142 [[BuiltinVariables]]
5146 The following global variables are created automatically
5150 This variable is set by Jim as an array
5151 whose elements are the environment variables for the process.
5152 Reading an element will return the value of the corresponding
5153 environment variable.
5154 This array is initialised at startup from the `env` command.
5155 It may be modified and will affect the environment passed to
5156 commands invoked with `exec`.
5159 This variable is set by Jim as an array containing information
5160 about the platform on which Jim was built. Currently this includes
5161 'os' and 'platform'.
5164 This variable contains a list of paths to search for packages.
5165 It defaults to a location based on where jim is installed
5166 (e.g. +/usr/local/lib/jim+), but may be changed by +jimsh+
5167 or the embedding application. Note that +jimsh+ will consider
5168 the environment variable +$JIMLIB+ to be a list of colon-separated
5169 list of paths to add to +*auto_path*+.
5172 This variable holds the value of the -errorcode return
5173 option set by the most recent error that occurred in this
5174 interpreter. This list value represents additional information
5175 about the error in a form that is easy to process with
5176 programs. The first element of the list identifies a general
5177 class of errors, and determines the format of the rest of
5178 the list. The following formats for -errorcode return options
5179 are used by the Tcl core; individual applications may define
5180 additional formats. Currently only `exec` sets this variable.
5181 Otherwise it will be +NONE+.
5183 The following global variables are set by jimsh.
5185 +*tcl_interactive*+::
5186 This variable is set to 1 if jimsh is started in interactive mode
5190 This variable is set by Jim as an array containing information
5191 about the platform upon which Jim was built. The following is an
5192 example of the contents of this array.
5194 tcl_platform(byteOrder) = littleEndian
5195 tcl_platform(engine) = Jim
5196 tcl_platform(os) = Darwin
5197 tcl_platform(platform) = unix
5198 tcl_platform(pointerSize) = 8
5199 tcl_platform(threaded) = 0
5200 tcl_platform(wordSize) = 8
5201 tcl_platform(pathSeparator) = :
5204 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains the name
5208 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains a list
5209 of any arguments supplied to the script.
5212 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains the number
5213 of arguments supplied to the script.
5216 The value of argv[0] when jimsh was invoked.
5218 The following variables have special meaning to Jim Tcl:
5221 If this variable is set, it is considered to be a list of scripts to evaluate
5222 when the current proc exits (local variables), or the interpreter exits (global variable).
5225 +*history::multiline*+::
5226 If this variable is set to "1", interactive line editing operates in multiline mode.
5227 That is, long lines will wrap across multiple lines rather than scrolling within a
5230 CHANGES IN PREVIOUS RELEASES
5231 ----------------------------
5235 1. +platform_tcl()+ settings are now automatically determined
5236 2. Add aio `$handle filename`
5237 3. Add `info channels`
5238 4. The 'bio' extension is gone. Now `aio` supports 'copyto'.
5239 5. Add `exists` command
5240 6. Add the pure-Tcl 'oo' extension
5241 7. The `exec` command now only uses vfork(), not fork()
5242 8. Unit test framework is less verbose and more Tcl-compatible
5243 9. Optional UTF-8 support
5244 10. Optional built-in regexp engine for better Tcl compatibility and UTF-8 support
5245 11. Command line editing in interactive mode, e.g. 'jimsh'
5249 1. `source` now checks that a script is complete (.i.e. not missing a brace)
5250 2. 'info complete' now uses the real parser and so is 100% accurate
5251 3. Better access to live stack frames with 'info frame', `stacktrace` and `stackdump`
5252 4. `tailcall` no longer loses stack trace information
5253 5. Add `alias` and `curry`
5254 6. `lambda`, `alias` and `curry` are implemented via `tailcall` for efficiency
5255 7. `local` allows procedures to be deleted automatically at the end of the current procedure
5256 8. udp sockets are now supported for both clients and servers.
5257 9. vfork-based exec is now working correctly
5258 10. Add 'file tempfile'
5259 11. Add 'socket pipe'
5260 12. Enhance 'try ... on ... finally' to be more Tcl 8.6 compatible
5261 13. It is now possible to `return` from within `try`
5262 14. IPv6 support is now included
5264 16. Event handlers works better if an error occurs. eof handler has been removed.
5265 17. `exec` now sets $::errorCode, and catch sets opts(-errorcode) for exit status
5266 18. Command pipelines via open "|..." are now supported
5267 19. `pid` can now return pids of a command pipeline
5268 20. Add 'info references'
5269 21. Add support for 'after +'ms'+', 'after idle', 'after info', `update`
5270 22. `exec` now sets environment based on $::env
5272 24. Add support for 'lsort -index'
5276 1. Add support to `exec` for '>&', '>>&', '|&', '2>@1'
5277 2. Fix `exec` error messages when special token (e.g. '>') is the last token
5278 3. Fix `subst` handling of backslash escapes.
5279 4. Allow abbreviated options for `subst`
5280 5. Add support for `return`, `break`, `continue` in subst
5281 6. Many `expr` bug fixes
5282 7. Add support for functions in `expr` (e.g. int(), abs()), and also 'in', 'ni' list operations
5283 8. The variable name argument to `regsub` is now optional
5284 9. Add support for 'unset -nocomplain'
5285 10. Add support for list commands: `lassign`, `lrepeat`
5286 11. Fully-functional `lsearch` is now implemented
5287 12. Add 'info nameofexecutable' and 'info returncodes'
5288 13. Allow `catch` to determine what return codes are caught
5289 14. Allow `incr` to increment an unset variable by first setting to 0
5290 15. Allow 'args' and optional arguments to the left or required arguments in `proc`
5292 17. Add 'try ... finally' command
5298 Copyright 2005 Salvatore Sanfilippo <antirez@invece.org>
5299 Copyright 2005 Clemens Hintze <c.hintze@gmx.net>
5300 Copyright 2005 patthoyts - Pat Thoyts <patthoyts@users.sf.net>
5301 Copyright 2008 oharboe - Oyvind Harboe - oyvind.harboe@zylin.com
5302 Copyright 2008 Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
5303 Copyright 2008 Duane Ellis <openocd@duaneellis.com>
5304 Copyright 2008 Uwe Klein <uklein@klein-messgeraete.de>
5305 Copyright 2009 Steve Bennett <steveb@workware.net.au>
5308 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5309 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
5311 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
5312 notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
5313 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
5314 copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
5315 disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
5316 provided with the distribution.
5318 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE JIM TCL PROJECT ``AS IS'' AND ANY
5319 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
5320 THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
5321 PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
5322 JIM TCL PROJECT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
5323 INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
5324 (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
5325 OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
5326 HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
5327 STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
5328 ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
5329 ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
5331 The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation
5332 are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing
5333 official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Jim Tcl Project.