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: +$(...)+
49 14. Modular build allows many features to be omitted or built as dynamic, loadable modules
50 15. Highly suitable for use in an embedded environment
51 16. Support for UDP, IPv6, Unix-Domain sockets in addition to TCP sockets
55 Changes between 0.77 and 0.78
56 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
57 1. Add serial/tty support with `aio tty`
58 2. Add support for 'jimsh -'
59 3. Add hidden '-commands' option to many commands
60 4. Add scriptable autocompletion support in interactive mode with `tcl::autocomplete`
62 6. Add scriptable autocompletion support with `history completion`
63 7. Add support for `tree delete`
64 8. Add support for `defer` and '$jim::defer'
65 9. Renamed `os.wait` to `wait`, now more Tcl-compatible and compatible with `exec ... &`
66 10. `pipe` is now a synonym for `socket pipe`
67 11. Closing a pipe open with `open |...` now returns Tcl-like status
68 12. It is now possible to used `exec` redirection with a pipe opened with `open |...`
69 13. Interactive line editing now supports multiline mode if $::history::multiline is set
71 Changes between 0.76 and 0.77
72 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
73 1. Add support for `aio sync`
74 2. Add SSL and TLS support in aio
76 4. Added support for boolean constants in `expr`
77 5. `string is` now supports 'boolean' class
78 6. Add support for `aio lock` and `aio unlock`
79 7. Add new `interp` command
81 Changes between 0.75 and 0.76
82 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
83 1. `glob` now supports the +-tails+ option
84 2. Add support for `string cat`
85 3. Allow `info source` to add source info
87 Changes between 0.74 and 0.75
88 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
89 1. `binary`, `pack` and `unpack` now support floating point
90 2. `file copy` +-force+ handles source and target as the same file
91 3. `format` now supports +%b+ for binary conversion
92 4. `lsort` now supports +-unique+ and +-real+
93 5. Add support for half-close with `aio close` +?r|w?+
94 6. Add `socket pair` for a bidirectional pipe
95 7. Add '--random-hash' to randomise hash tables for greater security
96 8. `dict` now supports 'for', 'values', 'incr', 'append', 'lappend', 'update', 'info' and 'replace'
97 9. `file stat` no longer requires the variable name
98 10. Add support for `file link`
100 Changes between 0.73 and 0.74
101 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
102 1. Numbers with leading zeros are treated as decimal, not octal
104 3. Add LFS (64 bit) support for `aio seek`, `aio tell`, `aio copyto`, `file copy`
105 4. `string compare` and `string equal` now support '-length'
106 5. `glob` now supports '-directory'
108 Changes between 0.72 and 0.73
109 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
110 1. Built-in regexp now support non-capturing parentheses: (?:...)
111 2. Add `string replace`
112 3. Add `string totitle`
113 4. Add `info statics`
114 5. Add +build-jim-ext+ for easy separate building of loadable modules (extensions)
115 6. `local` now works with any command, not just procs
116 7. Add `info alias` to access the target of an alias
117 8. UTF-8 encoding past the basic multilingual plane (BMP) is supported
120 11. Most extensions are now enabled by default
121 12. Add support for namespaces and the `namespace` command
124 Changes between 0.71 and 0.72
125 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
126 1. procs now allow 'args' and optional parameters in any position
127 2. Add Tcl-compatible expr functions, `rand()`, `srand()` and `pow()`
128 3. Add support for the '-force' option to `file delete`
129 4. Better diagnostics when `source` fails to load a script with a missing quote or bracket
130 5. New +tcl_platform(pathSeparator)+
131 6. Add support settings the modification time with `file mtime`
132 7. `exec` is now fully supported on win32 (mingw32)
133 8. `file join`, `pwd`, `glob` etc. now work for mingw32
134 9. Line editing is now supported for the win32 console (mingw32)
135 10. Add `aio listen` command
137 Changes between 0.70 and 0.71
138 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
139 1. Allow 'args' to be renamed in procs
140 2. Add +$(...)+ shorthand syntax for expressions
141 3. Add automatic reference variables in procs with +&var+ syntax
142 4. Support +jimsh --version+
143 5. Additional variables in +tcl_platform()+
144 6. `local` procs now push existing commands and `upcall` can call them
145 7. Add `loop` command (TclX compatible)
146 8. Add `aio buffering` command
147 9. `info complete` can now return the missing character
148 10. `binary format` and `binary scan` are now (optionally) supported
149 11. Add `string byterange`
150 12. Built-in regexp now support non-greedy repetition (*?, +?, ??)
154 Tcl stands for 'tool command language' and is pronounced
155 'http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/tickle[tickle]'.
156 It is actually two things: a language and a library.
158 First, Tcl is a simple textual language, intended primarily for
159 issuing commands to interactive programs such as text editors,
160 debuggers, illustrators, and shells. It has a simple syntax and is also
161 programmable, so Tcl users can write command procedures to provide more
162 powerful commands than those in the built-in set.
164 Second, Tcl is a library package that can be embedded in application
165 programs. The Tcl library consists of a parser for the Tcl language,
166 routines to implement the Tcl built-in commands, and procedures that
167 allow each application to extend Tcl with additional commands specific
168 to that application. The application program generates Tcl commands and
169 passes them to the Tcl parser for execution. Commands may be generated
170 by reading characters from an input source, or by associating command
171 strings with elements of the application's user interface, such as menu
172 entries, buttons, or keystrokes.
174 When the Tcl library receives commands it parses them into component
175 fields and executes built-in commands directly. For commands implemented
176 by the application, Tcl calls back to the application to execute the
177 commands. In many cases commands will invoke recursive invocations of the
178 Tcl interpreter by passing in additional strings to execute (procedures,
179 looping commands, and conditional commands all work in this way).
181 An application program gains three advantages by using Tcl for its command
182 language. First, Tcl provides a standard syntax: once users know Tcl,
183 they will be able to issue commands easily to any Tcl-based application.
184 Second, Tcl provides programmability. All a Tcl application needs
185 to do is to implement a few application-specific low-level commands.
186 Tcl provides many utility commands plus a general programming interface
187 for building up complex command procedures. By using Tcl, applications
188 need not re-implement these features.
190 Third, Tcl can be used as a common language for communicating between
191 applications. Inter-application communication is not built into the
192 Tcl core described here, but various add-on libraries, such as the Tk
193 toolkit, allow applications to issue commands to each other. This makes
194 it possible for applications to work together in much more powerful ways
195 than was previously possible.
197 Fourth, Jim Tcl includes a command processor, +jimsh+, which can be
198 used to run standalone Tcl scripts, or to run Tcl commands interactively.
200 This manual page focuses primarily on the Tcl language. It describes
201 the language syntax and the built-in commands that will be available
202 in any application based on Tcl. The individual library procedures are
203 described in more detail in separate manual pages, one per procedure.
205 JIMSH COMMAND INTERPRETER
206 -------------------------
207 A simple, but powerful command processor, +jimsh+, is part of Jim Tcl.
208 It may be invoked in interactive mode as:
212 or to process the Tcl script in a file with:
216 or to process the Tcl script from standard input:
220 It may also be invoked to execute an immediate script with:
226 Interactive mode reads Tcl commands from standard input, evaluates
227 those commands and prints the results.
230 Welcome to Jim version 0.73, Copyright (c) 2005-8 Salvatore Sanfilippo
233 . lsort [info commands p*]
234 package parray pid popen proc puts pwd
235 . foreach i {a b c} {
242 invalid command name "bad"
246 If +jimsh+ is configured with line editing (it is by default) and a VT-100-compatible
247 terminal is detected, Emacs-style line editing commands are available, including:
248 arrow keys, +\^W+ to erase a word, +\^U+ to erase the line, +^R+ for reverse incremental search
249 in history. Additionally, the +h+ command may be used to display the command history.
251 Command line history is automatically saved and loaded from +~/.jim_history+
253 In interactive mode, +jimsh+ automatically runs the script +~/.jimrc+ at startup
258 The central data structure in Tcl is an interpreter (C type 'Jim_Interp').
259 An interpreter consists of a set of command bindings, a set of variable
260 values, and a few other miscellaneous pieces of state. Each Tcl command
261 is interpreted in the context of a particular interpreter.
263 Some Tcl-based applications will maintain multiple interpreters
264 simultaneously, each associated with a different widget or portion of
265 the application. Interpreters are relatively lightweight structures.
266 They can be created and deleted quickly, so application programmers should
267 feel free to use multiple interpreters if that simplifies the application.
271 Tcl supports only one type of data: strings. All commands, all arguments
272 to commands, all command results, and all variable values are strings.
274 Where commands require numeric arguments or return numeric results,
275 the arguments and results are passed as strings. Many commands expect
276 their string arguments to have certain formats, but this interpretation
277 is up to the individual commands. For example, arguments often contain
278 Tcl command strings, which may get executed as part of the commands.
279 The easiest way to understand the Tcl interpreter is to remember that
280 everything is just an operation on a string. In many cases Tcl constructs
281 will look similar to more structured constructs from other languages.
282 However, the Tcl constructs are not structured at all; they are just
283 strings of characters, and this gives them a different behaviour than
284 the structures they may look like.
286 Although the exact interpretation of a Tcl string depends on who is doing
287 the interpretation, there are three common forms that strings take:
288 commands, expressions, and lists. The major sections below discuss
289 these three forms in more detail.
293 The Tcl language has syntactic similarities to both the Unix shells
294 and Lisp. However, the interpretation of commands is different
295 in Tcl than in either of those other two systems.
296 A Tcl command string consists of one or more commands separated
297 by newline characters or semi-colons.
298 Each command consists of a collection of fields separated by
299 white space (spaces or tabs).
300 The first field must be the name of a command, and the
301 additional fields, if any, are arguments that will be passed to
302 that command. For example, the command:
306 has three fields: the first, `set`, is the name of a Tcl command, and
307 the last two, 'a' and '22', will be passed as arguments to
308 the `set` command. The command name may refer either to a built-in
309 Tcl command, an application-specific command bound in with the library
310 procedure 'Jim_CreateCommand', or a command procedure defined with the
311 `proc` built-in command.
313 Arguments are passed literally as text strings. Individual commands may
314 interpret those strings in any fashion they wish. The `set` command,
315 for example, will treat its first argument as the name of a variable
316 and its second argument as a string value to assign to that variable.
317 For other commands arguments may be interpreted as integers, lists,
318 file names, or Tcl commands.
320 Command names should normally be typed completely (e.g. no abbreviations).
321 However, if the Tcl interpreter cannot locate a command it invokes a
322 special command named `unknown` which attempts to find or create the
325 For example, at many sites `unknown` will search through library
326 directories for the desired command and create it as a Tcl procedure if
327 it is found. The `unknown` command often provides automatic completion
328 of abbreviated commands, but usually only for commands that were typed
331 It's probably a bad idea to use abbreviations in command scripts and
332 other forms that will be re-used over time: changes to the command set
333 may cause abbreviations to become ambiguous, resulting in scripts that
338 If the first non-blank character in a command is +\#+, then everything
339 from the +#+ up through the next newline character is treated as
340 a comment and ignored. When comments are embedded inside nested
341 commands (e.g. fields enclosed in braces) they must have properly-matched
342 braces (this is necessary because when Tcl parses the top-level command
343 it doesn't yet know that the nested field will be used as a command so
344 it cannot process the nested comment character as a comment).
346 GROUPING ARGUMENTS WITH DOUBLE-QUOTES
347 -------------------------------------
348 Normally each argument field ends at the next white space, but
349 double-quotes may be used to create arguments with embedded space.
351 If an argument field begins with a double-quote, then the argument isn't
352 terminated by white space (including newlines) or a semi-colon (see below
353 for information on semi-colons); instead it ends at the next double-quote
354 character. The double-quotes are not included in the resulting argument.
355 For example, the command
357 set a "This is a single argument"
359 will pass two arguments to `set`: 'a' and 'This is a single argument'.
361 Within double-quotes, command substitutions, variable substitutions,
362 and backslash substitutions still occur, as described below. If the
363 first character of a command field is not a quote, then quotes receive
364 no special interpretation in the parsing of that field.
366 GROUPING ARGUMENTS WITH BRACES
367 ------------------------------
368 Curly braces may also be used for grouping arguments. They are similar
369 to quotes except for two differences. First, they nest; this makes them
370 easier to use for complicated arguments like nested Tcl command strings.
371 Second, the substitutions described below for commands, variables, and
372 backslashes do *not* occur in arguments enclosed in braces, so braces
373 can be used to prevent substitutions where they are undesirable.
375 If an argument field begins with a left brace, then the argument ends
376 at the matching right brace. Tcl will strip off the outermost layer
377 of braces and pass the information between the braces to the command
378 without any further modification. For example, in the command
380 set a {xyz a {b c d}}
382 the `set` command will receive two arguments: 'a'
385 When braces or quotes are in effect, the matching brace or quote need
386 not be on the same line as the starting quote or brace; in this case
387 the newline will be included in the argument field along with any other
388 characters up to the matching brace or quote. For example, the `eval`
389 command takes one argument, which is a command string; `eval` invokes
390 the Tcl interpreter to execute the command string. The command
397 will assign the value '22' to 'a' and '33' to 'b'.
399 If the first character of a command field is not a left
400 brace, then neither left nor right
401 braces in the field will be treated specially (except as part of
402 variable substitution; see below).
404 COMMAND SUBSTITUTION WITH BRACKETS
405 ----------------------------------
406 If an open bracket occurs in a field of a command, then command
407 substitution occurs (except for fields enclosed in braces). All of the
408 text up to the matching close bracket is treated as a Tcl command and
409 executed immediately. Then the result of that command is substituted
410 for the bracketed text. For example, consider the command
414 When the `set` command has only a single argument, it is the name of a
415 variable and `set` returns the contents of that variable. In this case,
416 if variable 'b' has the value 'foo', then the command above is equivalent
421 Brackets can be used in more complex ways. For example, if the variable
422 'b' has the value 'foo' and the variable 'c' has the value 'gorp',
425 set a xyz[set b].[set c]
427 is equivalent to the command
432 A bracketed command may contain multiple commands separated by newlines
433 or semi-colons in the usual fashion. In this case the value of the last
434 command is used for substitution. For example, the command
439 is equivalent to the command
444 If a field is enclosed in braces then the brackets and the characters
445 between them are not interpreted specially; they are passed through to
446 the argument verbatim.
448 VARIABLE SUBSTITUTION WITH $
449 ----------------------------
450 The dollar sign (+$+) may be used as a special shorthand form for
451 substituting variable values. If +$+ appears in an argument that isn't
452 enclosed in braces then variable substitution will occur. The characters
453 after the +$+, up to the first character that isn't a number, letter,
454 or underscore, are taken as a variable name and the string value of that
455 variable is substituted for the name.
457 For example, if variable 'foo' has the value 'test', then the command
461 is equivalent to the command
465 There are two special forms for variable substitution. If the next
466 character after the name of the variable is an open parenthesis, then
467 the variable is assumed to be an array name, and all of the characters
468 between the open parenthesis and the next close parenthesis are taken as
469 an index into the array. Command substitutions and variable substitutions
470 are performed on the information between the parentheses before it is
473 For example, if the variable 'x' is an array with one element named
474 'first' and value '87' and another element named '14' and value 'more',
477 set a xyz$x(first)zyx
479 is equivalent to the command
483 If the variable 'index' has the value '14', then the command
485 set a xyz$x($index)zyx
487 is equivalent to the command
491 For more information on arrays, see VARIABLES AND ARRAYS below.
493 The second special form for variables occurs when the dollar sign is
494 followed by an open curly brace. In this case the variable name consists
495 of all the characters up to the next curly brace.
497 Array references are not possible in this form: the name between braces
498 is assumed to refer to a scalar variable. For example, if variable
499 'foo' has the value 'test', then the command
503 is equivalent to the command
508 Variable substitution does not occur in arguments that are enclosed in
509 braces: the dollar sign and variable name are passed through to the
512 The dollar sign abbreviation is simply a shorthand form. +$a+ is
513 completely equivalent to +[set a]+; it is provided as a convenience
516 SEPARATING COMMANDS WITH SEMI-COLONS
517 ------------------------------------
518 Normally, each command occupies one line (the command is terminated by a
519 newline character). However, semi-colon (+;+) is treated as a command
520 separator character; multiple commands may be placed on one line by
521 separating them with a semi-colon. Semi-colons are not treated as
522 command separators if they appear within curly braces or double-quotes.
524 BACKSLASH SUBSTITUTION
525 ----------------------
526 Backslashes may be used to insert non-printing characters into command
527 fields and also to insert special characters like braces and brackets
528 into fields without them being interpreted specially as described above.
530 The backslash sequences understood by the Tcl interpreter are
531 listed below. In each case, the backslash
532 sequence is replaced by the given character:
533 [[BackslashSequences]]
544 Carriage-return (0xd).
567 +{backslash}<space>+::
568 Space ( ): doesn't terminate argument.
571 Semi-colon: doesn't terminate command.
576 +{backslash}<newline>+::
577 Nothing: this joins two lines together
578 into a single line. This backslash feature is unique in that
579 it will be applied even when the sequence occurs within braces.
581 +{backslash}{backslash}+::
582 Backslash ('{backslash}').
585 The digits +'ddd'+ (one, two, or three of them) give the octal value of
586 the character. Note that Jim supports null characters in strings.
589 +{backslash}u\{nnn\}+::
590 +{backslash}Unnnnnnnn+::
591 The UTF-8 encoding of the unicode codepoint represented by the hex digits, +'nnnn'+, is inserted.
592 The 'u' form allows for one to four hex digits.
593 The 'U' form allows for one to eight hex digits.
594 The 'u\{nnn\}' form allows for one to eight hex digits, but makes it easier to insert
595 characters UTF-8 characters which are followed by a hex digit.
597 For example, in the command
601 the second argument to `set` will be +{x[ yza+.
603 If a backslash is followed by something other than one of the options
604 described above, then the backslash is transmitted to the argument
605 field without any special processing, and the Tcl scanner continues
606 normal processing with the next character. For example, in the
611 The first argument to `set` will be +{backslash}*a+ and the second
612 argument will be +{backslash}{foo+.
614 If an argument is enclosed in braces, then backslash sequences inside
615 the argument are parsed but no substitution occurs (except for
616 backslash-newline): the backslash
617 sequence is passed through to the argument as is, without making
618 any special interpretation of the characters in the backslash sequence.
619 In particular, backslashed braces are not counted in locating the
620 matching right brace that terminates the argument.
626 the second argument to `set` will be +{backslash}{abc+.
628 This backslash mechanism is not sufficient to generate absolutely
629 any argument structure; it only covers the
630 most common cases. To produce particularly complicated arguments
631 it is probably easiest to use the `format` command along with
632 command substitution.
634 STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS
635 ------------------------------------
637 Many string and list commands take one or more 'index' parameters which
638 specify a position in the string relative to the start or end of the string/list.
640 The index may be one of the following forms:
643 A simple integer, where '0' refers to the first element of the string
646 +integer+integer+ or::
648 The sum or difference of the two integers. e.g. +2+3+ refers to the 5th element.
649 This is useful when used with (e.g.) +$i+1+ rather than the more verbose
653 The last element of the string or list.
656 The 'nth-from-last' element of the string or list.
660 1. A command is just a string.
661 2. Within a string commands are separated by newlines or semi-colons
662 (unless the newline or semi-colon is within braces or brackets
664 3. A command consists of fields. The first field is the name of the command.
665 The other fields are strings that are passed to that command as arguments.
666 4. Fields are normally separated by white space.
667 5. Double-quotes allow white space and semi-colons to appear within
669 Command substitution, variable substitution, and backslash substitution
670 still occur inside quotes.
671 6. Braces defer interpretation of special characters.
672 If a field begins with a left brace, then it consists of everything
673 between the left brace and the matching right brace. The
674 braces themselves are not included in the argument.
675 No further processing is done on the information between the braces
676 except that backslash-newline sequences are eliminated.
677 7. If a field doesn't begin with a brace then backslash,
678 variable, and command substitution are done on the field. Only a
679 single level of processing is done: the results of one substitution
680 are not scanned again for further substitutions or any other
681 special treatment. Substitution can
682 occur on any field of a command, including the command name
683 as well as the arguments.
684 8. If the first non-blank character of a command is a +\#+, everything
685 from the +#+ up through the next newline is treated as a comment
690 The second major interpretation applied to strings in Tcl is
691 as expressions. Several commands, such as `expr`, `for`,
692 and `if`, treat one or more of their arguments as expressions
693 and call the Tcl expression processors ('Jim_ExprLong',
694 'Jim_ExprBoolean', etc.) to evaluate them.
696 The operators permitted in Tcl expressions are a subset of
697 the operators permitted in C expressions, and they have the
698 same meaning and precedence as the corresponding C operators.
699 Expressions almost always yield numeric results
700 (integer or floating-point values).
701 For example, the expression
707 Tcl expressions differ from C expressions in the way that
708 operands are specified, and in that Tcl expressions support
709 non-numeric operands and string comparisons.
711 A Tcl expression consists of a combination of operands, operators,
714 White space may be used between the operands and operators and
715 parentheses; it is ignored by the expression processor.
716 Where possible, operands are interpreted as integer values.
718 Integer values may be specified in decimal (the normal case) or in
719 hexadecimal (if the first two characters of the operand are '0x').
720 Note that Jim Tcl does *not* treat numbers with leading zeros as octal.
722 If an operand does not have one of the integer formats given
723 above, then it is treated as a floating-point number if that is
724 possible. Floating-point numbers may be specified in any of the
725 ways accepted by an ANSI-compliant C compiler (except that the
726 'f', 'F', 'l', and 'L' suffixes will not be permitted in
727 most installations). For example, all of the
728 following are valid floating-point numbers: 2.1, 3., 6e4, 7.91e+16.
730 If no numeric interpretation is possible, then an operand is left
731 as a string (and only a limited set of operators may be applied to
734 String constants representing boolean constants
735 (+'0'+, +'1'+, +'false'+, +'off'+, +'no'+, +'true'+, +'on'+, +'yes'+)
736 are also recognized and can be used in logical operations.
738 1. Operands may be specified in any of the following ways:
740 2. As a numeric value, either integer or floating-point.
742 3. As one of valid boolean constants
744 4. As a Tcl variable, using standard '$' notation.
745 The variable's value will be used as the operand.
747 5. As a string enclosed in double-quotes.
748 The expression parser will perform backslash, variable, and
749 command substitutions on the information between the quotes,
750 and use the resulting value as the operand
752 6. As a string enclosed in braces.
753 The characters between the open brace and matching close brace
754 will be used as the operand without any substitutions.
756 7. As a Tcl command enclosed in brackets.
757 The command will be executed and its result will be used as
760 Where substitutions occur above (e.g. inside quoted strings), they
761 are performed by the expression processor.
762 However, an additional layer of substitution may already have
763 been performed by the command parser before the expression
764 processor was called.
766 As discussed below, it is usually best to enclose expressions
767 in braces to prevent the command parser from performing substitutions
770 For some examples of simple expressions, suppose the variable 'a' has
771 the value 3 and the variable 'b' has the value 6. Then the expression
772 on the left side of each of the lines below will evaluate to the value
773 on the right side of the line:
778 {word one} < "word $a" 0
780 The valid operators are listed below, grouped in decreasing order
782 [[OperatorPrecedence]]
783 +int() double() round() abs(), rand(), srand()+::
784 Unary functions (except rand() which takes no arguments)
785 * +'int()'+ converts the numeric argument to an integer by truncating down.
786 * +'double()'+ converts the numeric argument to floating point.
787 * +'round()'+ converts the numeric argument to the closest integer value.
788 * +'abs()'+ takes the absolute value of the numeric argument.
789 * +'rand()'+ returns a pseudo-random floating-point value in the range (0,1).
790 * +'srand()'+ takes an integer argument to (re)seed the random number generator. Returns the first random number from that seed.
792 +sin() cos() tan() asin() acos() atan() sinh() cosh() tanh() ceil() floor() exp() log() log10() sqrt()+::
793 Unary math functions.
794 If Jim is compiled with math support, these functions are available.
797 Unary minus, unary plus, bit-wise NOT, logical NOT. None of these operands
798 may be applied to string operands, and bit-wise NOT may be
799 applied only to integers.
802 Power. e.g. 'x^y^'. If Jim is compiled with math support, supports doubles and
803 integers. Otherwise supports integers only. (Note that the math-function form
804 has the same highest precedence)
807 Multiply, divide, remainder. None of these operands may be
808 applied to string operands, and remainder may be applied only
812 Add and subtract. Valid for any numeric operands.
815 Left and right shift, left and right rotate. Valid for integer operands only.
818 Boolean less, greater, less than or equal, and greater than or equal.
819 Each operator produces 1 if the condition is true, 0 otherwise.
820 These operators may be applied to strings as well as numeric operands,
821 in which case string comparison is used.
824 Boolean equal and not equal. Each operator produces a zero/one result.
825 Valid for all operand types. *Note* that values will be converted to integers
826 if possible, then floating point types, and finally strings will be compared.
827 It is recommended that 'eq' and 'ne' should be used for string comparison.
830 String equal and not equal. Uses the string value directly without
831 attempting to convert to a number first.
834 String in list and not in list. For 'in', result is 1 if the left operand (as a string)
835 is contained in the right operand (as a list), or 0 otherwise. The result for
836 +{$a ni $list}+ is equivalent to +{!($a in $list)}+.
839 Bit-wise AND. Valid for integer operands only.
842 Bit-wise OR. Valid for integer operands only.
845 Bit-wise exclusive OR. Valid for integer operands only.
848 Logical AND. Produces a 1 result if both operands are non-zero, 0 otherwise.
849 Valid for numeric operands only (integers or floating-point).
852 Logical OR. Produces a 0 result if both operands are zero, 1 otherwise.
853 Valid for numeric operands only (integers or floating-point).
856 If-then-else, as in C. If +'x'+
857 evaluates to non-zero, then the result is the value of +'y'+.
858 Otherwise the result is the value of +'z'+.
859 The +'x'+ operand must have a numeric value, while +'y'+ and +'z'+ can
862 See the C manual for more details on the results
863 produced by each operator.
864 All of the binary operators group left-to-right within the same
865 precedence level. For example, the expression
871 The +&&+, +||+, and +?:+ operators have 'lazy evaluation', just as
872 in C, which means that operands are not evaluated if they are not
873 needed to determine the outcome. For example, in
877 only one of +[a]+ or +[b]+ will actually be evaluated,
878 depending on the value of +$v+.
880 All internal computations involving integers are done with the C
881 type 'long long' if available, or 'long' otherwise, and all internal
882 computations involving floating-point are done with the C type
885 When converting a string to floating-point, exponent overflow is
886 detected and results in a Tcl error.
887 For conversion to integer from string, detection of overflow depends
888 on the behaviour of some routines in the local C library, so it should
889 be regarded as unreliable.
890 In any case, overflow and underflow are generally not detected
891 reliably for intermediate results.
893 Conversion among internal representations for integer, floating-point,
894 string operands is done automatically as needed.
895 For arithmetic computations, integers are used until some
896 floating-point number is introduced, after which floating-point is used.
901 yields the result 1, while
904 5 / ( [string length "abcd"] + 0.0 )
906 both yield the result 1.25.
908 String values may be used as operands of the comparison operators,
909 although the expression evaluator tries to do comparisons as integer
910 or floating-point when it can.
911 If one of the operands of a comparison is a string and the other
912 has a numeric value, the numeric operand is converted back to
913 a string using the C 'sprintf' format specifier
914 '%d' for integers and '%g' for floating-point values.
915 For example, the expressions
920 both evaluate to 1. The first comparison is done using integer
921 comparison, and the second is done using string comparison after
922 the second operand is converted to the string '18'.
924 In general it is safest to enclose an expression in braces when
925 entering it in a command: otherwise, if the expression contains
926 any white space then the Tcl interpreter will split it
927 among several arguments. For example, the command
931 results in three arguments being passed to `expr`: +$a+,
932 \+, and +$b+. In addition, if the expression isn't in braces
933 then the Tcl interpreter will perform variable and command substitution
934 immediately (it will happen in the command parser rather than in
935 the expression parser). In many cases the expression is being
936 passed to a command that will evaluate the expression later (or
937 even many times if, for example, the expression is to be used to
938 decide when to exit a loop). Usually the desired goal is to re-do
939 the variable or command substitutions each time the expression is
940 evaluated, rather than once and for all at the beginning. For example,
943 for {set i 1} $i<=10 {incr i} {...} ** WRONG **
945 is probably intended to iterate over all values of +i+ from 1 to 10.
946 After each iteration of the body of the loop, `for` will pass
947 its second argument to the expression evaluator to see whether or not
948 to continue processing. Unfortunately, in this case the value of +i+
949 in the second argument will be substituted once and for all when the
950 `for` command is parsed. If +i+ was 0 before the `for`
951 command was invoked then the second argument of `for` will be +0\<=10+
952 which will always evaluate to 1, even though +i+ eventually
953 becomes greater than 10. In the above case the loop will never
954 terminate. Instead, the expression should be placed in braces:
956 for {set i 1} {$i<=10} {incr i} {...} ** RIGHT **
958 This causes the substitution of 'i'
959 to be delayed; it will be re-done each time the expression is
960 evaluated, which is the desired result.
964 The third major way that strings are interpreted in Tcl is as lists.
965 A list is just a string with a list-like structure
966 consisting of fields separated by white space. For example, the
971 is a list with four elements or fields.
972 Lists have the same basic structure as command strings, except
973 that a newline character in a list is treated as a field separator
974 just like space or tab. Conventions for braces and quotes
975 and backslashes are the same for lists as for commands. For example,
980 is a list with three elements: +a+, +b c+, and +d e {f g h}+.
982 Whenever an element is extracted from a list, the same rules about
983 braces and quotes and backslashes are applied as for commands. Thus in
984 the example above when the third element is extracted from the list,
989 (when the field was extracted, all that happened was to strip off
990 the outermost layer of braces). Command substitution and
991 variable substitution are never
992 made on a list (at least, not by the list-processing commands; the
993 list can always be passed to the Tcl interpreter for evaluation).
995 The Tcl commands `concat`, `foreach`, `lappend`, `lindex`, `linsert`,
996 `list`, `llength`, `lrange`, `lreplace`, `lsearch`, and `lsort` allow
997 you to build lists, extract elements from them, search them, and perform
998 other list-related functions.
1000 Advanced list commands include `lrepeat`, `lreverse`, `lmap`, `lassign`, `lset`.
1005 A new addition to Tcl 8.5 is the ability to expand a list into separate
1006 arguments. Support for this feature is also available in Jim.
1008 Consider the following attempt to exec a list:
1013 This will attempt to exec a command named "ls -l", which will clearly not
1014 work. Typically eval and concat are required to solve this problem, however
1015 it can be solved much more easily with +\{*\}+.
1019 This will expand the following argument into individual elements and then evaluate
1020 the resulting command.
1022 Note that the official Tcl syntax is +\{*\}+, however +\{expand\}+ is retained
1023 for backward compatibility with experimental versions of this feature.
1027 Tcl provides two commands that support string matching using regular
1028 expressions, `regexp` and `regsub`, as well as `switch -regexp` and
1031 Regular expressions may be implemented one of two ways. Either using the system's C library
1032 POSIX regular expression support, or using the built-in regular expression engine.
1033 The differences between these are described below.
1035 *NOTE* Tcl 7.x and 8.x use perl-style Advanced Regular Expressions (+ARE+).
1037 POSIX Regular Expressions
1038 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1039 If the system supports POSIX regular expressions, and UTF-8 support is not enabled,
1040 this support will be used by default. The type of regular expressions supported are
1041 Extended Regular Expressions (+ERE+) rather than Basic Regular Expressions (+BRE+).
1042 See REG_EXTENDED in the documentation.
1044 Using the system-supported POSIX regular expressions will typically
1045 make for the smallest code size, but some features such as UTF-8
1046 and +{backslash}w+, +{backslash}d+, +{backslash}s+ are not supported, and null characters
1047 in strings are not supported.
1049 See regex(3) and regex(7) for full details.
1051 Jim built-in Regular Expressions
1052 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1053 The Jim built-in regular expression engine may be selected with +./configure --with-jim-regexp+
1054 or it will be selected automatically if UTF-8 support is enabled.
1056 This engine supports UTF-8 as well as some +ARE+ features. The differences with both Tcl 7.x/8.x
1057 and POSIX are highlighted below.
1059 1. UTF-8 strings and patterns are both supported
1060 2. All Tcl character classes are supported (e.g. +[:alnum:]+, +[:digit:]+, +[:space:]+), but...
1061 3. Character classes apply to ASCII characters only
1062 4. Supported shorthand character classes: +{backslash}w+ = +[:alnum:]+, +{backslash}W+ = +^[:alnum:]+, +{backslash}d+ = +[:digit:],+ +{backslash}D+ = +^[:digit:],+ +{backslash}s+ = +[:space:]+, + +{backslash}S+ = +^[:space:]+
1063 5. Supported constraint escapes: +{backslash}m+ = +{backslash}<+ = start of word, +{backslash}M+ = +{backslash}>+ = end of word
1064 6. Backslash escapes may be used within regular expressions, such as +{backslash}n+ = newline, +{backslash}uNNNN+ = unicode
1065 7. Partially supported constraint escapes: +{backslash}A+ = start of string, +{backslash}Z+ = end of string
1066 8. Support for the +?+ non-greedy quantifier. e.g. +*?+
1067 9. Support for non-capturing parentheses +(?:...)+
1068 10. Jim Tcl considers that both patterns and strings end at a null character (+\x00+)
1072 Each command produces two results: a code and a string. The
1073 code indicates whether the command completed successfully or not,
1074 and the string gives additional information. The valid codes are
1075 defined in jim.h, and are:
1078 This is the normal return code, and indicates that the command completed
1079 successfully. The string gives the command's return value.
1082 Indicates that an error occurred; the string gives a message describing
1086 Indicates that the `return` command has been invoked, and that the
1087 current procedure (or top-level command or `source` command)
1088 should return immediately. The
1089 string gives the return value for the procedure or command.
1092 Indicates that the `break` command has been invoked, so the
1093 innermost loop should abort immediately. The string should always
1097 Indicates that the `continue` command has been invoked, so the
1098 innermost loop should go on to the next iteration. The string
1099 should always be empty.
1102 Indicates that a signal was caught while executing a commands.
1103 The string contains the name of the signal caught.
1104 See the `signal` and `catch` commands.
1107 Indicates that the command called the `exit` command.
1108 The string contains the exit code.
1110 Tcl programmers do not normally need to think about return codes,
1111 since +JIM_OK+ is almost always returned. If anything else is returned
1112 by a command, then the Tcl interpreter immediately stops processing
1113 commands and returns to its caller. If there are several nested
1114 invocations of the Tcl interpreter in progress, then each nested
1115 command will usually return the error to its caller, until eventually
1116 the error is reported to the top-level application code. The
1117 application will then display the error message for the user.
1119 In a few cases, some commands will handle certain `error` conditions
1120 themselves and not return them upwards. For example, the `for`
1121 command checks for the +JIM_BREAK+ code; if it occurs, then `for`
1122 stops executing the body of the loop and returns +JIM_OK+ to its
1123 caller. The `for` command also handles +JIM_CONTINUE+ codes and the
1124 procedure interpreter handles +JIM_RETURN+ codes. The `catch`
1125 command allows Tcl programs to catch errors and handle them without
1126 aborting command interpretation any further.
1128 The `info returncodes` command may be used to programmatically map between
1129 return codes and names.
1133 Tcl allows you to extend the command interface by defining
1134 procedures. A Tcl procedure can be invoked just like any other Tcl
1135 command (it has a name and it receives one or more arguments).
1136 The only difference is that its body isn't a piece of C code linked
1137 into the program; it is a string containing one or more other
1140 The `proc` command is used to create a new Tcl command procedure:
1142 +*proc* 'name arglist ?statics? body'+
1144 The new command is named +'name'+, and it replaces any existing command
1145 there may have been by that name. Whenever the new command is
1146 invoked, the contents of +'body'+ will be executed by the Tcl
1149 +'arglist'+ specifies the formal arguments to the procedure.
1150 It consists of a list, possibly empty, of the following
1151 argument specifiers:
1154 Required Argument - A simple argument name.
1157 Optional Argument - A two-element list consisting of the
1158 argument name, followed by the default value, which will
1159 be used if the corresponding argument is not supplied.
1162 Reference Argument - The caller is expected to pass the name of
1163 an existing variable. An implicit +`upvar` 1 origname name+ is done
1164 to make the variable available in the proc scope.
1167 Variable Argument - The special name +'args'+, which is
1168 assigned all remaining arguments (including none) as a list. The
1169 variable argument may only be specified once. Note that
1170 the syntax +{args newname}+ may be used to retain the special
1171 behaviour of +'args'+ with a different local name. In this case,
1172 the variable is named +'newname'+ rather than +'args'+.
1174 When the command is invoked, a local variable will be created for each of
1175 the formal arguments to the procedure; its value will be the value
1176 of corresponding argument in the invoking command or the argument's
1179 Arguments with default values need not be specified in a procedure
1180 invocation. However, there must be enough actual arguments for all
1181 required arguments, and there must not be any extra actual arguments
1182 (unless the Variable Argument is specified).
1184 Actual arguments are assigned to formal arguments as in left-to-right
1185 order with the following precedence.
1187 1. Required Arguments (including Reference Arguments)
1188 2. Optional Arguments
1189 3. Variable Argument
1191 The following example illustrates precedence. Assume a procedure declaration:
1193 proc p {{a A} args b {c C} d} {...}
1195 This procedure requires at least two arguments, but can accept an unlimited number.
1196 The following table shows how various numbers of arguments are assigned.
1197 Values marked as +-+ are assigned the default value.
1199 [width="40%",frame="topbot",options="header"]
1201 |Number of arguments|a|args|b|c|d
1209 When +'body'+ is being executed, variable names normally refer to local
1210 variables, which are created automatically when referenced and deleted
1211 when the procedure returns. One local variable is automatically created
1212 for each of the procedure's arguments. Global variables can be
1213 accessed by invoking the `global` command or via the +::+ prefix.
1217 In addition to procedure arguments, Jim procedures may declare static variables.
1218 These variables scoped to the procedure and initialised at procedure definition.
1219 Either from the static variable definition, or from the enclosing scope.
1221 Consider the following example:
1224 jim> proc a {} {a {b 2}} {
1236 The static variable +'a'+ has no initialiser, so it is initialised from
1237 the enclosing scope with the value 1. (Note that it is an error if there
1238 is no variable with the same name in the enclosing scope). However +'b'+
1239 has an initialiser, so it is initialised to 2.
1241 Unlike a local variable, the value of a static variable is retained across
1242 invocations of the procedure.
1244 See the `proc` command for information on how to define procedures
1245 and what happens when they are invoked. See also NAMESPACES.
1247 VARIABLES - SCALARS AND ARRAYS
1248 ------------------------------
1249 Tcl allows the definition of variables and the use of their values
1250 either through '$'-style variable substitution, the `set`
1251 command, or a few other mechanisms.
1253 Variables need not be declared: a new variable will automatically
1254 be created each time a new variable name is used.
1256 Tcl supports two types of variables: scalars and arrays.
1257 A scalar variable has a single value, whereas an array variable
1258 can have any number of elements, each with a name (called
1259 its 'index') and a value.
1261 Array indexes may be arbitrary strings; they need not be numeric.
1262 Parentheses are used refer to array elements in Tcl commands.
1263 For example, the command
1267 will modify the element of 'x' whose index is 'first'
1268 so that its new value is '44'.
1270 Two-dimensional arrays can be simulated in Tcl by using indexes
1271 that contain multiple concatenated values.
1272 For example, the commands
1277 set the elements of 'a' whose indexes are '2,3' and '3,6'.
1279 In general, array elements may be used anywhere in Tcl that scalar
1280 variables may be used.
1282 If an array is defined with a particular name, then there may
1283 not be a scalar variable with the same name.
1285 Similarly, if there is a scalar variable with a particular
1286 name then it is not possible to make array references to the
1289 To convert a scalar variable to an array or vice versa, remove
1290 the existing variable with the `unset` command.
1292 The `array` command provides several features for dealing
1293 with arrays, such as querying the names of all the elements of
1294 the array and converting between an array and a list.
1296 Variables may be either global or local. If a variable
1297 name is used when a procedure isn't being executed, then it
1298 automatically refers to a global variable. Variable names used
1299 within a procedure normally refer to local variables associated with that
1300 invocation of the procedure. Local variables are deleted whenever
1301 a procedure exits. Either `global` command may be used to request
1302 that a name refer to a global variable for the duration of the current
1303 procedure (this is somewhat analogous to 'extern' in C), or the variable
1304 may be explicitly scoped with the +::+ prefix. For example
1320 ARRAYS AS LISTS IN JIM
1321 ----------------------
1322 Unlike Tcl, Jim can automatically convert between a list (with an even
1323 number of elements) and an array value. This is similar to the way Tcl
1324 can convert between a string and a list.
1335 Thus `array set` is equivalent to `set` when the variable does not
1338 The reverse is also true where an array will be converted into
1341 set a(1) one; set a(2) two
1350 Tcl 8.5 introduced the dict command, and Jim Tcl has added a version
1351 of this command. Dictionaries provide efficient access to key-value
1352 pairs, just like arrays, but dictionaries are pure values. This
1353 means that you can pass them to a procedure just as a list or a
1354 string. Tcl dictionaries are therefore much more like Tcl lists,
1355 except that they represent a mapping from keys to values, rather
1356 than an ordered sequence.
1358 You can nest dictionaries, so that the value for a particular key
1359 consists of another dictionary. That way you can elegantly build
1360 complicated data structures, such as hierarchical databases. You
1361 can also combine dictionaries with other Tcl data structures. For
1362 instance, you can build a list of dictionaries that themselves
1365 Dictionaries are values that contain an efficient, order-preserving
1366 mapping from arbitrary keys to arbitrary values. Each key in the
1367 dictionary maps to a single value. They have a textual format that
1368 is exactly that of any list with an even number of elements, with
1369 each mapping in the dictionary being represented as two items in
1370 the list. When a command takes a dictionary and produces a new
1371 dictionary based on it (either returning it or writing it back into
1372 the variable that the starting dictionary was read from) the new
1373 dictionary will have the same order of keys, modulo any deleted
1374 keys and with new keys added on to the end. When a string is
1375 interpreted as a dictionary and it would otherwise have duplicate
1376 keys, only the last value for a particular key is used; the others
1377 are ignored, meaning that, "apple banana" and "apple carrot apple
1378 banana" are equivalent dictionaries (with different string
1381 Note that in Jim, arrays are implemented as dictionaries.
1382 Thus automatic conversion between lists and dictionaries applies
1383 as it does for arrays.
1385 jim> dict set a 1 one
1387 jim> dict set a 2 two
1393 jim> dict set a 3 T three
1394 1 one 2 two 3 {T three}
1396 See the `dict` command for more details.
1400 Tcl added namespaces as a mechanism avoiding name clashes, especially in applications
1401 including a number of 3rd party components. While there is less need for namespaces
1402 in Jim Tcl (which does not strive to support large applications), it is convenient to
1403 provide a subset of the support for namespaces to easy porting code from Tcl.
1405 Jim Tcl currently supports "light-weight" namespaces which should be adequate for most
1406 purposes. This feature is currently experimental. See README.namespaces for more information
1407 and the documentation of the `namespace` command.
1409 GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION
1410 -----------------------------------------------
1411 Unlike Tcl, Jim has some sophisticated support for functional programming.
1412 These are described briefly below.
1414 More information may be found at http://wiki.tcl.tk/13847
1418 A reference can be thought of as holding a value with one level of indirection,
1419 where the value may be garbage collected when unreferenced.
1420 Consider the following example:
1422 jim> set r [ref "One String" test]
1423 <reference.<test___>.00000000000000000000>
1427 The operation `ref` creates a references to the value specified by the
1428 first argument. (The second argument is a "type" used for documentation purposes).
1430 The operation `getref` is the dereferencing operation which retrieves the value
1431 stored in the reference.
1433 jim> setref $r "New String"
1438 The operation `setref` replaces the value stored by the reference. If the old value
1439 is no longer accessible by any reference, it will eventually be automatically be garbage
1444 Normally, all values in Tcl are passed by value. As such values are copied and released
1445 automatically as necessary.
1447 With the introduction of references, it is possible to create values whose lifetime
1448 transcend their scope. To support this, case, the Jim system will periodically identify
1449 and discard objects which are no longer accessible by any reference.
1451 The `collect` command may be used to force garbage collection. Consider a reference created
1454 jim> proc f {ref value} { puts "Finaliser called for $ref,$value" }
1455 jim> set r [ref "One String" test f]
1456 <reference.<test___>.00000000000
1461 Finaliser called for <reference.<test___>.00000000000,One String
1464 Note that once the reference, 'r', was modified so that it no longer
1465 contained a reference to the value, the garbage collector discarded
1466 the value (after calling the finalizer).
1468 The finalizer for a reference may be examined or changed with the `finalize` command
1472 jim> finalize $r newf
1477 Jim provides a garbage collected `lambda` function. This is a procedure
1478 which is able to create an anonymous procedure. Consider:
1480 jim> set f [lambda {a} {{x 0}} { incr x $a }]
1487 This create an anonymous procedure (with the name stored in 'f'), with a static variable
1488 which is incremented by the supplied value and the result returned.
1490 Once the procedure name is no longer accessible, it will automatically be deleted
1491 when the garbage collector runs.
1493 The procedure may also be delete immediately by renaming it "". e.g.
1499 If Jim is built with UTF-8 support enabled (configure --enable-utf),
1500 then most string-related commands become UTF-8 aware. These include,
1501 but are not limited to, `string match`, `split`, `glob`, `scan` and
1504 UTF-8 encoding has many advantages, but one of the complications is that
1505 characters can take a variable number of bytes. Thus the addition of
1506 `string bytelength` which returns the number of bytes in a string,
1507 while `string length` returns the number of characters.
1509 If UTF-8 support is not enabled, all commands treat bytes as characters
1510 and `string bytelength` returns the same value as `string length`.
1512 Note that even if UTF-8 support is not enabled, the +{backslash}uNNNN+ and related syntax
1513 is still available to embed UTF-8 sequences.
1515 Jim Tcl supports all currently defined unicode codepoints. That is 21 bits, up to +'U+1FFFFF'.
1519 Commands such as `string match`, `lsearch -glob`, `array names` and others use string
1520 pattern matching rules. These commands support UTF-8. For example:
1522 string match a\[\ua0-\ubf\]b "a\u00a3b"
1526 +format %c+ allows a unicode codepoint to be be encoded. For example, the following will return
1527 a string with two bytes and one character. The same as +{backslash}ub5+
1531 `format` respects widths as character widths, not byte widths. For example, the following will
1532 return a string with three characters, not three bytes.
1534 format %.3s \ub5\ub6\ub7\ub8
1536 Similarly, +scan ... %c+ allows a UTF-8 to be decoded to a unicode codepoint. The following will set
1537 +'a'+ to 181 (0xb5) and +'b'+ to 65 (0x41).
1539 scan \u00b5A %c%c a b
1541 `scan %s` will also accept a character class, including unicode ranges.
1545 `string is` has *not* been extended to classify UTF-8 characters. Therefore, the following
1546 will return 0, even though the string may be considered to be alphabetic.
1548 string is alpha \ub5Test
1550 This does not affect the string classes 'ascii', 'control', 'digit', 'double', 'integer' or 'xdigit'.
1552 Case Mapping and Conversion
1553 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1554 Jim provides a simplified unicode case mapping. This means that case conversion
1555 and comparison will not increase or decrease the number of characters in a string.
1556 (Although it may change the number of bytes).
1558 `string toupper` will convert any lowercase letters to their uppercase equivalent.
1559 Any character which is not a letter or has no uppercase equivalent is left unchanged.
1560 Similarly for `string tolower` and `string totitle`.
1562 Commands which perform case insensitive matches, such as `string compare -nocase`
1563 and `lsearch -nocase` fold both strings to uppercase before comparison.
1565 Invalid UTF-8 Sequences
1566 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1567 Some UTF-8 character sequences are invalid, such as those beginning with '0xff',
1568 those which represent character sequences longer than 3 bytes (greater than U+FFFF),
1569 and those which end prematurely, such as a lone '0xc2'.
1571 In these situations, the offending bytes are treated as single characters. For example,
1572 the following returns 2.
1574 string bytelength \xff\xff
1578 If UTF-8 support is enabled, the built-in regular expression engine will be
1579 selected which supports UTF-8 strings and patterns.
1581 See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
1585 The Tcl library provides the following built-in commands, which will
1586 be available in any application using Tcl. In addition to these
1587 built-in commands, there may be additional commands defined by each
1588 application, plus commands defined as Tcl procedures.
1590 In the command syntax descriptions below, words in +*boldface*+ are
1591 literals that you type verbatim to Tcl.
1593 Words in +'italics'+ are meta-symbols; they serve as names for any of
1594 a range of values that you can type.
1596 Optional arguments or groups of arguments are indicated by enclosing them
1597 in +?question-marks?+.
1599 Ellipses (+\...+) indicate that any number of additional
1600 arguments or groups of arguments may appear, in the same format
1601 as the preceding argument(s).
1612 Delivers the +SIGALRM+ signal to the process after the given
1613 number of seconds. If the platform supports 'ualarm(3)' then
1614 the argument may be a floating point value. Otherwise it must
1617 Note that unless a signal handler for +SIGALRM+ has been installed
1618 (see `signal`), the process will exit on this signal.
1622 +*alias* 'name args\...'+
1624 Creates a single word alias (command) for one or more words. For example,
1625 the following creates an alias for the command `info exists`.
1632 `alias` returns +'name'+, allowing it to be used with `local`.
1634 See also `proc`, `curry`, `lambda`, `local`, `info alias`, `exists -alias`
1638 +*append* 'varName value ?value value ...?'+
1640 Append all of the +'value'+ arguments to the current value
1641 of variable +'varName'+. If +'varName'+ doesn't exist,
1642 it is given a value equal to the concatenation of all the
1643 +'value'+ arguments.
1645 This command provides an efficient way to build up long
1646 variables incrementally.
1647 For example, "`append a $b`" is much more efficient than
1648 "`set a $a$b`" if +$a+ is long.
1652 +*apply* 'lambdaExpr ?arg1 arg2 \...?'+
1654 The command `apply` provides for anonymous procedure calls,
1655 similar to `lambda`, but without command name being created, even temporarily.
1657 The function +'lambdaExpr'+ is a two element list +{args body}+
1658 or a three element list +{args body namespace}+. The first element
1659 args specifies the formal arguments, in the same form as the `proc` and `lambda` commands.
1663 +*array* 'option arrayName ?arg\...?'+
1665 This command performs one of several operations on the
1666 variable given by +'arrayName'+.
1668 Note that in general, if the named array does not exist, the +'array'+ command behaves
1669 as though the array exists but is empty.
1671 The +'option'+ argument determines what action is carried out by the
1672 command. The legal +'options'+ (which may be abbreviated) are:
1674 +*array exists* 'arrayName'+::
1675 Returns 1 if arrayName is an array variable, 0 if there is
1676 no variable by that name.
1678 +*array get* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1679 Returns a list containing pairs of elements. The first
1680 element in each pair is the name of an element in arrayName
1681 and the second element of each pair is the value of the
1682 array element. The order of the pairs is undefined. If
1683 pattern is not specified, then all of the elements of the
1684 array are included in the result. If pattern is specified,
1685 then only those elements whose names match pattern (using
1686 the matching rules of string match) are included. If arrayName
1687 isn't the name of an array variable, or if the array contains
1688 no elements, then an empty list is returned.
1690 +*array names* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1691 Returns a list containing the names of all of the elements
1692 in the array that match pattern. If pattern is omitted then
1693 the command returns all of the element names in the array.
1694 If pattern is specified, then only those elements whose
1695 names match pattern (using the matching rules of string
1696 match) are included. If there are no (matching) elements
1697 in the array, or if arrayName isn't the name of an array
1698 variable, then an empty string is returned.
1700 +*array set* 'arrayName list'+::
1701 Sets the values of one or more elements in arrayName. list
1702 must have a form like that returned by array get, consisting
1703 of an even number of elements. Each odd-numbered element
1704 in list is treated as an element name within arrayName, and
1705 the following element in list is used as a new value for
1706 that array element. If the variable arrayName does not
1707 already exist and list is empty, arrayName is created with
1708 an empty array value.
1710 +*array size* 'arrayName'+::
1711 Returns the number of elements in the array. If arrayName
1712 isn't the name of an array then 0 is returned.
1714 +*array unset* 'arrayName ?pattern?'+::
1715 Unsets all of the elements in the array that match pattern
1716 (using the matching rules of string match). If arrayName
1717 isn't the name of an array variable or there are no matching
1718 elements in the array, no error will be raised. If pattern
1719 is omitted and arrayName is an array variable, then the
1720 command unsets the entire array. The command always returns
1727 This command may be invoked only inside the body of a loop command
1728 such as `for` or `foreach` or `while`. It returns a +JIM_BREAK+ code
1729 to signal the innermost containing loop command to return immediately.
1733 +*case* 'string' ?in? 'patList body ?patList body ...?'+
1735 +*case* 'string' ?in? {'patList body ?patList body ...?'}+
1737 *Note* that the `switch` command should generally be preferred unless compatibility
1738 with Tcl 6.x is desired.
1740 Match +'string'+ against each of the +'patList'+ arguments
1741 in order. If one matches, then evaluate the following +'body'+ argument
1742 by passing it recursively to the Tcl interpreter, and return the result
1743 of that evaluation. Each +'patList'+ argument consists of a single
1744 pattern or list of patterns. Each pattern may contain any of the wild-cards
1745 described under `string match`.
1747 If a +'patList'+ argument is +default+, the corresponding body will be
1748 evaluated if no +'patList'+ matches +'string'+. If no +'patList'+ argument
1749 matches +'string'+ and no default is given, then the `case` command returns
1752 Two syntaxes are provided.
1754 The first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands;
1755 this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the
1756 patterns or commands.
1758 The second form places all of the patterns and commands together into
1759 a single argument; the argument must have proper list structure, with
1760 the elements of the list being the patterns and commands.
1762 The second form makes it easy to construct multi-line case commands,
1763 since the braces around the whole list make it unnecessary to include a
1764 backslash at the end of each line.
1766 Since the +'patList'+ arguments are in braces in the second form,
1767 no command or variable substitutions are performed on them; this makes
1768 the behaviour of the second form different than the first form in some
1771 Below are some examples of `case` commands:
1773 case abc in {a b} {format 1} default {format 2} a* {format 3}
1783 will return '1', and
1798 +*catch* ?-?no?'code \...'? ?--? 'command ?resultVarName? ?optionsVarName?'+
1800 The `catch` command may be used to prevent errors from aborting
1801 command interpretation. `catch` evaluates +'command'+, and returns a
1802 +JIM_OK+ code, regardless of any errors that might occur while
1803 executing +'command'+ (with the possible exception of +JIM_SIGNAL+ -
1806 The return value from `catch` is a decimal string giving the code
1807 returned by the Tcl interpreter after executing +'command'+. This
1808 will be '0' (+JIM_OK+) if there were no errors in +'command'+; otherwise
1809 it will have a non-zero value corresponding to one of the exceptional
1810 return codes (see jim.h for the definitions of code values, or the
1811 `info returncodes` command).
1813 If the +'resultVarName'+ argument is given, then it gives the name
1814 of a variable; `catch` will set the value of the variable to the
1815 string returned from +'command'+ (either a result or an error message).
1817 If the +'optionsVarName'+ argument is given, then it gives the name
1818 of a variable; `catch` will set the value of the variable to a
1819 dictionary. For any return code other than +JIM_RETURN+, the value
1820 for the key +-code+ will be set to the return code. For +JIM_RETURN+
1821 it will be set to the code given in `return -code`. Additionally,
1822 for the return code +JIM_ERR+, the value of the key +-errorinfo+
1823 will contain the current stack trace (the same result as `info stacktrace`),
1824 the value of the key +-errorcode+ will contain the
1825 same value as the global variable $::errorCode, and the value of
1826 the key +-level+ will be the current return level (see `return -level`).
1827 This can be useful to rethrow an error:
1829 if {[catch {...} msg opts]} {
1830 ...maybe do something with the error...
1832 return {*}$opts $msg
1835 Normally `catch` will +'not'+ catch any of the codes +JIM_EXIT+, +JIM_EVAL+ or +JIM_SIGNAL+.
1836 The set of codes which will be caught may be modified by specifying the one more codes before
1839 e.g. To catch +JIM_EXIT+ but not +JIM_BREAK+ or +JIM_CONTINUE+
1841 catch -exit -nobreak -nocontinue -- { ... }
1843 The use of +--+ is optional. It signifies that no more return code options follow.
1845 Note that if a signal marked as `signal handle` is caught with `catch -signal`, the return value
1846 (stored in +'resultVarName'+) is name of the signal caught.
1852 Change the current working directory to +'dirName'+.
1854 Returns an empty string.
1856 This command can potentially be disruptive to an application, so it may
1857 be removed in some applications.
1862 Returns the current time as seconds since the epoch.
1865 Returns the current time in `clicks'.
1867 +*clock microseconds*+::
1868 Returns the current time in microseconds.
1870 +*clock milliseconds*+::
1871 Returns the current time in milliseconds.
1873 +*clock format* 'seconds' ?*-format* 'format?'+::
1874 Format the given time (seconds since the epoch) according to the given
1875 format. See strftime(3) for supported formats.
1876 If no format is supplied, "%c" is used.
1878 +*clock scan* 'str' *-format* 'format'+::
1879 Scan the given time string using the given format string.
1880 See strptime(3) for supported formats.
1888 Closes the file given by +'fileId'+.
1889 +'fileId'+ must be the return value from a previous invocation
1890 of the `open` command; after this command, it should not be
1897 Normally reference garbage collection is automatically performed periodically.
1898 However it may be run immediately with the `collect` command.
1900 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
1904 +*concat* 'arg ?arg \...?'+
1906 This command treats each argument as a list and concatenates them
1907 into a single list. It permits any number of arguments. For example,
1910 concat a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
1922 This command may be invoked only inside the body of a loop command such
1923 as `for` or `foreach` or `while`. It returns a +JIM_CONTINUE+ code to
1924 signal the innermost containing loop command to skip the remainder of
1925 the loop's body but continue with the next iteration of the loop.
1929 +*alias* 'args\...'+
1931 Similar to `alias` except it creates an anonymous procedure (lambda) instead of
1934 the following creates a local, unnamed alias for the command `info exists`.
1936 set e [local curry info exists]
1941 `curry` returns the name of the procedure.
1943 See also `proc`, `alias`, `lambda`, `local`.
1947 +*dict* 'option ?arg\...?'+
1949 Performs one of several operations on dictionary values.
1951 The +'option'+ argument determines what action is carried out by the
1952 command. The legal +'options'+ are:
1954 +*dict create* '?key value \...?'+::
1955 Create and return a new dictionary value that contains each of
1956 the key/value mappings listed as arguments (keys and values
1957 alternating, with each key being followed by its associated
1960 +*dict exists* 'dictionary key ?key \...?'+::
1961 Returns a boolean value indicating whether the given key (or path
1962 of keys through a set of nested dictionaries) exists in the given
1963 dictionary value. This returns a true value exactly when `dict get`
1964 on that path will succeed.
1966 +*dict get* 'dictionary ?key \...?'+::
1967 Given a dictionary value (first argument) and a key (second argument),
1968 this will retrieve the value for that key. Where several keys are
1969 supplied, the behaviour of the command shall be as if the result
1970 of "`dict get $dictVal $key`" was passed as the first argument to
1971 dict get with the remaining arguments as second (and possibly
1972 subsequent) arguments. This facilitates lookups in nested dictionaries.
1973 If no keys are provided, dict would return a list containing pairs
1974 of elements in a manner similar to array get. That is, the first
1975 element of each pair would be the key and the second element would
1976 be the value for that key. It is an error to attempt to retrieve
1977 a value for a key that is not present in the dictionary.
1979 +*dict keys* 'dictionary ?pattern?'+::
1980 Returns a list of the keys in the dictionary.
1981 If pattern is specified, then only those keys whose
1982 names match +'pattern'+ (using the matching rules of string
1983 match) are included.
1985 +*dict merge* ?'dictionary \...'?+::
1986 Return a dictionary that contains the contents of each of the
1987 +'dictionary'+ arguments. Where two (or more) dictionaries
1988 contain a mapping for the same key, the resulting dictionary
1989 maps that key to the value according to the last dictionary on
1990 the command line containing a mapping for that key.
1992 +*dict set* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? value'+::
1993 This operation takes the +'name'+ of a variable containing a dictionary
1994 value and places an updated dictionary value in that variable
1995 containing a mapping from the given key to the given value. When
1996 multiple keys are present, this operation creates or updates a chain
1997 of nested dictionaries.
1999 +*dict size* 'dictionary'+::
2000 Return the number of key/value mappings in the given dictionary value.
2002 +*dict unset* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? value'+::
2003 This operation (the companion to `dict set`) takes the name of a
2004 variable containing a dictionary value and places an updated
2005 dictionary value in that variable that does not contain a mapping
2006 for the given key. Where multiple keys are present, this describes
2007 a path through nested dictionaries to the mapping to remove. At
2008 least one key must be specified, but the last key on the key-path
2009 need not exist. All other components on the path must exist.
2011 +*dict with* 'dictionaryName key ?key \...? script'+::
2012 Execute the Tcl script in +'script'+ with the value for each
2013 key in +'dictionaryName'+ mapped to a variable with the same
2014 name. Where one or more keys are given, these indicate a chain
2015 of nested dictionaries, with the innermost dictionary being the
2016 one opened out for the execution of body. Making +'dictionaryName'+
2017 unreadable will make the updates to the dictionary be discarded,
2018 and this also happens if the contents of +'dictionaryName'+ are
2019 adjusted so that the chain of dictionaries no longer exists.
2020 The result of `dict with` is (unless some kind of error occurs)
2021 the result of the evaluation of body.
2023 The variables are mapped in the scope enclosing the `dict with`;
2024 it is recommended that this command only be used in a local
2025 scope (procedure). Because of this, the variables set by
2026 `dict with` will continue to exist after the command finishes (unless
2027 explicitly unset). Note that changes to the contents of +'dictionaryName'+
2028 only happen when +'script'+ terminates.
2030 +*dict for, values, incr, append, lappend, update, info, replace*+ to be documented...
2034 +*env* '?name? ?default?'+
2036 If +'name'+ is supplied, returns the value of +'name'+ from the initial
2037 environment (see getenv(3)). An error is returned if +'name'+ does not
2038 exist in the environment, unless +'default'+ is supplied - in which case
2039 that value is returned instead.
2041 If no arguments are supplied, returns a list of all environment variables
2042 and their values as +{name value \...}+
2044 See also the global variable +::env+
2052 Returns 1 if an end-of-file condition has occurred on +'fileId'+,
2055 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to `open`,
2056 or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one of the
2057 standard I/O channels.
2061 +*error* 'message ?stacktrace?'+
2063 Returns a +JIM_ERR+ code, which causes command interpretation to be
2064 unwound. +'message'+ is a string that is returned to the application
2065 to indicate what went wrong.
2067 If the +'stacktrace'+ argument is provided and is non-empty,
2068 it is used to initialize the stacktrace.
2070 This feature is most useful in conjunction with the `catch` command:
2071 if a caught error cannot be handled successfully, +'stacktrace'+ can be used
2072 to return a stack trace reflecting the original point of occurrence
2077 error $errMsg [info stacktrace]
2079 See also `errorInfo`, `info stacktrace`, `catch` and `return`
2083 +*errorInfo* 'error ?stacktrace?'+
2085 Returns a human-readable representation of the given error message and stack trace.
2088 if {[catch {...} error]} {
2089 puts stderr [errorInfo $error [info stacktrace]]
2097 +*eval* 'arg ?arg\...?'+
2099 `eval` takes one or more arguments, which together comprise a Tcl
2100 command (or collection of Tcl commands separated by newlines in the
2101 usual way). `eval` concatenates all its arguments in the same
2102 fashion as the `concat` command, passes the concatenated string to the
2103 Tcl interpreter recursively, and returns the result of that
2104 evaluation (or any error generated by it).
2108 +*exec* 'arg ?arg\...?'+
2110 This command treats its arguments as the specification
2111 of one or more UNIX commands to execute as subprocesses.
2112 The commands take the form of a standard shell pipeline;
2113 +|+ arguments separate commands in the
2114 pipeline and cause standard output of the preceding command
2115 to be piped into standard input of the next command (or +|&+ for
2116 both standard output and standard error).
2118 Under normal conditions the result of the `exec` command
2119 consists of the standard output produced by the last command
2120 in the pipeline followed by the standard error output.
2122 If any of the commands writes to its standard error file,
2123 then this will be included in the result after the standard output
2124 of the last command.
2126 Note that unlike Tcl, data written to standard error does not cause
2127 `exec` to return an error.
2129 If any of the commands in the pipeline exit abnormally or
2130 are killed or suspended, then `exec` will return an error.
2131 If no standard error output was produced, or is redirected,
2132 the error message will include the normal result, as above,
2133 followed by error messages describing the abnormal terminations.
2135 If any standard error output was produced, these abnormal termination
2136 messages are suppressed.
2138 If the last character of the result or error message
2139 is a newline then that character is deleted from the result
2140 or error message for consistency with normal
2143 An +'arg'+ may have one of the following special forms:
2146 The standard output of the last command in the pipeline
2147 is redirected to the file. In this situation `exec`
2148 will normally return an empty string.
2151 As above, but append to the file.
2154 The standard output of the last command in the pipeline is
2155 redirected to the given (writable) file descriptor (e.g. stdout,
2156 stderr, or the result of `open`). In this situation `exec`
2157 will normally return an empty string.
2160 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline
2161 is redirected to the file.
2164 As above, but append to the file.
2167 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline is
2168 redirected to the given (writable) file descriptor.
2171 The standard error of the last command in the pipeline is
2172 redirected to the same file descriptor as the standard output.
2175 Both the standard output and standard error of the last command
2176 in the pipeline is redirected to the file.
2179 As above, but append to the file.
2182 The standard input of the first command in the pipeline
2183 is taken from the file.
2186 The standard input of the first command is taken as the
2187 given immediate value.
2190 The standard input of the first command in the pipeline
2191 is taken from the given (readable) file descriptor.
2193 If there is no redirection of standard input, standard error
2194 or standard output, these are connected to the corresponding
2195 input or output of the application.
2197 If the last +'arg'+ is +&+ then the command will be
2198 executed in background.
2199 In this case the standard output from the last command
2200 in the pipeline will
2201 go to the application's standard output unless
2202 redirected in the command, and error output from all
2203 the commands in the pipeline will go to the application's
2204 standard error file. The return value of exec in this case
2205 is a list of process ids (pids) in the pipeline.
2207 Each +'arg'+ becomes one word for a command, except for
2208 +|+, +<+, +<<+, +>+, and +&+ arguments, and the
2209 arguments that follow +<+, +<<+, and +>+.
2211 The first word in each command is taken as the command name;
2212 the directories in the PATH environment variable are searched for
2213 an executable by the given name.
2215 No `glob` expansion or other shell-like substitutions
2216 are performed on the arguments to commands.
2218 If the command fails, the global $::errorCode (and the -errorcode
2219 option in `catch`) will be set to a list, as follows:
2221 +*CHILDKILLED* 'pid sigName msg'+::
2222 This format is used when a child process has been killed
2223 because of a signal. The pid element will be the process's
2224 identifier (in decimal). The sigName element will be the
2225 symbolic name of the signal that caused the process to
2226 terminate; it will be one of the names from the include
2227 file signal.h, such as SIGPIPE. The msg element will be a
2228 short human-readable message describing the signal, such
2229 as "write on pipe with no readers" for SIGPIPE.
2231 +*CHILDSUSP* 'pid sigName msg'+::
2232 This format is used when a child process has been suspended
2233 because of a signal. The pid element will be the process's
2234 identifier, in decimal. The sigName element will be the
2235 symbolic name of the signal that caused the process to
2236 suspend; this will be one of the names from the include
2237 file signal.h, such as SIGTTIN. The msg element will be a
2238 short human-readable message describing the signal, such
2239 as "background tty read" for SIGTTIN.
2241 +*CHILDSTATUS* 'pid code'+::
2242 This format is used when a child process has exited with a
2243 non-zero exit status. The pid element will be the process's
2244 identifier (in decimal) and the code element will be the
2245 exit code returned by the process (also in decimal).
2247 The environment for the executed command is set from $::env (unless
2248 this variable is unset, in which case the original environment is used).
2252 +*exists ?-var|-proc|-command|-alias?* 'name'+
2254 Checks the existence of the given variable, procedure, command
2255 or alias respectively and returns 1 if it exists or 0 if not. This command
2256 provides a more simplified/convenient version of `info exists`,
2257 `info procs` and `info commands`.
2259 If the type is omitted, a type of '-var' is used. The type may be abbreviated.
2263 +*exit* '?returnCode?'+
2265 Terminate the process, returning +'returnCode'+ to the
2266 parent as the exit status.
2268 If +'returnCode'+ isn't specified then it defaults
2271 Note that exit can be caught with `catch`.
2277 Calls the expression processor to evaluate +'arg'+, and returns
2278 the result as a string. See the section EXPRESSIONS above.
2280 Note that Jim supports a shorthand syntax for `expr` as +$(\...)+
2281 The following two are identical.
2283 set x [expr {3 * 2 + 1}]
2288 +*file* 'option name ?arg\...?'+
2290 Operate on a file or a file name. +'name'+ is the name of a file.
2292 +'option'+ indicates what to do with the file name. Any unique
2293 abbreviation for +'option'+ is acceptable. The valid options are:
2295 +*file atime* 'name'+::
2296 Return a decimal string giving the time at which file +'name'+
2297 was last accessed. The time is measured in the standard UNIX
2298 fashion as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1, 1970).
2299 If the file doesn't exist or its access time cannot be queried then an
2302 +*file copy ?-force?* 'source target'+::
2303 Copies file +'source'+ to file +'target'+. The source file must exist.
2304 The target file must not exist, unless +-force+ is specified.
2306 +*file delete ?-force? ?--?* 'name\...'+::
2307 Deletes file or directory +'name'+. If the file or directory doesn't exist, nothing happens.
2308 If it can't be deleted, an error is generated. Non-empty directories will not be deleted
2309 unless the +-force+ options is given. In this case no errors will be generated, even
2310 if the file/directory can't be deleted. Use +'--'+ if there is any possibility of
2311 the first name being +'-force'+.
2313 +*file dirname* 'name'+::
2314 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ up to but not including
2315 the last slash character. If there are no slashes in +'name'+
2316 then return +.+ (a single dot). If the last slash in +'name'+ is its first
2317 character, then return +/+.
2319 +*file executable* 'name'+::
2320 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is executable by
2321 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2323 +*file exists* 'name'+::
2324 Return '1' if file +'name'+ exists and the current user has
2325 search privileges for the directories leading to it, '0' otherwise.
2327 +*file extension* 'name'+::
2328 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ after and including the
2329 last dot in +'name'+. If there is no dot in +'name'+ then return
2332 +*file isdirectory* 'name'+::
2333 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is a directory,
2336 +*file isfile* 'name'+::
2337 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is a regular file,
2340 +*file join* 'arg\...'+::
2341 Joins multiple path components. Note that if any components is
2342 an absolute path, the preceding components are ignored.
2343 Thus +"`file` join /tmp /root"+ returns +"/root"+.
2345 +*file link* ?*-hard|-symbolic*? 'newname target'+::
2346 Creates a hard link (default) or symbolic link from +'newname'+ to +'target'+.
2347 Note that the sense of this command is the opposite of `file rename` and `file copy`
2348 and also of `ln`, but this is compatible with Tcl.
2349 An error is returned if +'target'+ doesn't exist or +'newname'+ already exists.
2351 +*file lstat* 'name varName'+::
2352 Same as 'stat' option (see below) except uses the +'lstat'+
2353 kernel call instead of +'stat'+. This means that if +'name'+
2354 refers to a symbolic link the information returned in +'varName'+
2355 is for the link rather than the file it refers to. On systems that
2356 don't support symbolic links this option behaves exactly the same
2357 as the 'stat' option.
2359 +*file mkdir* 'dir1 ?dir2\...?'+::
2360 Creates each directory specified. For each pathname +'dir'+ specified,
2361 this command will create all non-existing parent directories
2362 as well as +'dir'+ itself. If an existing directory is specified,
2363 then no action is taken and no error is returned. Trying to
2364 overwrite an existing file with a directory will result in an
2365 error. Arguments are processed in the order specified, halting
2366 at the first error, if any.
2368 +*file mtime* 'name ?time?'+::
2369 Return a decimal string giving the time at which file +'name'+
2370 was last modified. The time is measured in the standard UNIX
2371 fashion as seconds from a fixed starting time (often January 1, 1970).
2372 If the file doesn't exist or its modified time cannot be queried then an
2373 error is generated. If +'time'+ is given, sets the modification time
2374 of the file to the given value.
2376 +*file normalize* 'name'+::
2377 Return the normalized path of +'name'+. See 'realpath(3)'.
2379 +*file owned* 'name'+::
2380 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is owned by the current user,
2383 +*file readable* 'name'+::
2384 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is readable by
2385 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2387 +*file readlink* 'name'+::
2388 Returns the value of the symbolic link given by +'name'+ (i.e. the
2389 name of the file it points to). If
2390 +'name'+ isn't a symbolic link or its value cannot be read, then
2391 an error is returned. On systems that don't support symbolic links
2392 this option is undefined.
2394 +*file rename* ?*-force*? 'oldname' 'newname'+::
2395 Renames the file from the old name to the new name.
2396 If +'newname'+ already exists, an error is returned unless +'-force'+ is
2399 +*file rootname* 'name'+::
2400 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ up to but not including
2401 the last '.' character in the name. If +'name'+ doesn't contain
2402 a dot, then return +'name'+.
2404 +*file size* 'name'+::
2405 Return a decimal string giving the size of file +'name'+ in bytes.
2406 If the file doesn't exist or its size cannot be queried then an
2409 +*file stat* 'name ?varName?'+::
2410 Invoke the 'stat' kernel call on +'name'+, and return the result
2411 as a dictionary with the following keys: 'atime',
2412 'ctime', 'dev', 'gid', 'ino', 'mode', 'mtime',
2413 'nlink', 'size', 'type', 'uid'.
2414 Each element except 'type' is a decimal string with the value of
2415 the corresponding field from the 'stat' return structure; see the
2416 manual entry for 'stat' for details on the meanings of the values.
2417 The 'type' element gives the type of the file in the same form
2418 returned by the command `file type`.
2419 If +'varName'+ is specified, it is taken to be the name of an array
2420 variable and the values are also stored into the array.
2422 +*file tail* 'name'+::
2423 Return all of the characters in +'name'+ after the last slash.
2424 If +'name'+ contains no slashes then return +'name'+.
2426 +*file tempfile* '?template?'+::
2427 Creates and returns the name of a unique temporary file. If +'template'+ is omitted, a
2428 default template will be used to place the file in /tmp. See 'mkstemp(3)' for
2429 the format of the template and security concerns.
2431 +*file type* 'name'+::
2432 Returns a string giving the type of file +'name'+, which will be
2433 one of +file+, +directory+, +characterSpecial+,
2434 +blockSpecial+, +fifo+, +link+, or +socket+.
2436 +*file writable* 'name'+::
2437 Return '1' if file +'name'+ is writable by
2438 the current user, '0' otherwise.
2440 The `file` commands that return 0/1 results are often used in
2441 conditional or looping commands, for example:
2443 if {![file exists foo]} {
2444 error {bad file name}
2451 +*finalize* 'reference ?command?'+
2453 If +'command'+ is omitted, returns the finalizer command for the given reference.
2455 Otherwise, sets a new finalizer command for the given reference. +'command'+ may be
2456 the empty string to remove the current finalizer.
2458 The reference must be a valid reference create with the `ref`
2461 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2469 Flushes any output that has been buffered for +'fileId'+. +'fileId'+ must
2470 have been the return value from a previous call to `open`, or it may be
2471 +stdout+ or +stderr+ to access one of the standard I/O streams; it must
2472 refer to a file that was opened for writing. This command returns an
2477 +*for* 'start test next body'+
2479 `for` is a looping command, similar in structure to the C `for` statement.
2480 The +'start'+, +'next'+, and +'body'+ arguments must be Tcl command strings,
2481 and +'test'+ is an expression string.
2483 The `for` command first invokes the Tcl interpreter to execute +'start'+.
2484 Then it repeatedly evaluates +'test'+ as an expression; if the result is
2485 non-zero it invokes the Tcl interpreter on +'body'+, then invokes the Tcl
2486 interpreter on +'next'+, then repeats the loop. The command terminates
2487 when +'test'+ evaluates to 0.
2489 If a `continue` command is invoked within +'body'+ then any remaining
2490 commands in the current execution of +'body'+ are skipped; processing
2491 continues by invoking the Tcl interpreter on +'next'+, then evaluating
2492 +'test'+, and so on.
2494 If a `break` command is invoked within +'body'+ or +'next'+, then the `for`
2495 command will return immediately.
2497 The operation of `break` and `continue` are similar to the corresponding
2500 `for` returns an empty string.
2504 +*foreach* 'varName list body'+
2506 +*foreach* 'varList list ?varList2 list2 \...? body'+
2508 In this command, +'varName'+ is the name of a variable, +'list'+
2509 is a list of values to assign to +'varName'+, and +'body'+ is a
2510 collection of Tcl commands.
2512 For each field in +'list'+ (in order from left to right), `foreach` assigns
2513 the contents of the field to +'varName'+ (as if the `lindex` command
2514 had been used to extract the field), then calls the Tcl interpreter to
2517 If instead of being a simple name, +'varList'+ is used, multiple assignments
2518 are made each time through the loop, one for each element of +'varList'+.
2520 For example, if there are two elements in +'varList'+ and six elements in
2521 the list, the loop will be executed three times.
2523 If the length of the list doesn't evenly divide by the number of elements
2524 in +'varList'+, the value of the remaining variables in the last iteration
2525 of the loop are undefined.
2527 The `break` and `continue` statements may be invoked inside +'body'+,
2528 with the same effect as in the `for` command.
2530 `foreach` returns an empty string.
2534 +*format* 'formatString ?arg \...?'+
2536 This command generates a formatted string in the same way as the
2537 C 'sprintf' procedure (it uses 'sprintf' in its
2538 implementation). +'formatString'+ indicates how to format
2539 the result, using +%+ fields as in 'sprintf', and the additional
2540 arguments, if any, provide values to be substituted into the result.
2542 All of the 'sprintf' options are valid; see the 'sprintf'
2543 man page for details. Each +'arg'+ must match the expected type
2544 from the +%+ field in +'formatString'+; the `format` command
2545 converts each argument to the correct type (floating, integer, etc.)
2546 before passing it to 'sprintf' for formatting.
2548 The only unusual conversion is for +%c+; in this case the argument
2549 must be a decimal string, which will then be converted to the corresponding
2550 ASCII (or UTF-8) character value.
2552 In addition, Jim Tcl provides basic support for conversion to binary with +%b+.
2554 `format` does backslash substitution on its +'formatString'+
2555 argument, so backslash sequences in +'formatString'+ will be handled
2556 correctly even if the argument is in braces.
2558 The return value from `format` is the formatted string.
2562 +*getref* 'reference'+
2564 Returns the string associated with +'reference'+. The reference must
2565 be a valid reference create with the `ref` command.
2567 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2571 +*gets* 'fileId ?varName?'+
2573 +'fileId' *gets* '?varName?'+
2575 Reads the next line from the file given by +'fileId'+ and discards
2576 the terminating newline character.
2578 If +'varName'+ is specified, then the line is placed in the variable
2579 by that name and the return value is a count of the number of characters
2580 read (not including the newline).
2582 If the end of the file is reached before reading
2583 any characters then -1 is returned and +'varName'+ is set to an
2586 If +'varName'+ is not specified then the return value will be
2587 the line (minus the newline character) or an empty string if
2588 the end of the file is reached before reading any characters.
2590 An empty string will also be returned if a line contains no characters
2591 except the newline, so `eof` may have to be used to determine
2592 what really happened.
2594 If the last character in the file is not a newline character, then
2595 `gets` behaves as if there were an additional newline character
2596 at the end of the file.
2598 +'fileId'+ must be +stdin+ or the return value from a previous
2599 call to `open`; it must refer to a file that was opened
2604 +*glob* ?*-nocomplain*? ?*-directory* 'dir'? ?*-tails*? ?*--*? 'pattern ?pattern \...?'+
2606 This command performs filename globbing, using csh rules. The returned
2607 value from `glob` is the list of expanded filenames.
2609 If +-nocomplain+ is specified as the first argument then an empty
2610 list may be returned; otherwise an error is returned if the expanded
2611 list is empty. The +-nocomplain+ argument must be provided
2612 exactly: an abbreviation will not be accepted.
2614 If +-directory+ is given, the +'dir'+ is understood to contain a
2615 directory name to search in. This allows globbing inside directories
2616 whose names may contain glob-sensitive characters. The returned names
2617 include the directory name unless +'-tails'+ is specified.
2619 If +'-tails'+ is specified, along with +-directory+, the returned names
2620 are relative to the given directory.
2625 +*global* 'varName ?varName \...?'+
2627 This command is ignored unless a Tcl procedure is being interpreted.
2628 If so, then it declares each given +'varName'+ to be a global variable
2629 rather than a local one. For the duration of the current procedure
2630 (and only while executing in the current procedure), any reference to
2631 +'varName'+ will be bound to a global variable instead
2634 An alternative to using `global` is to use the +::+ prefix
2635 to explicitly name a variable in the global scope.
2639 +*if* 'expr1' ?*then*? 'body1' *elseif* 'expr2' ?*then*? 'body2' *elseif* \... ?*else*? ?'bodyN'?+
2641 The `if` command evaluates +'expr1'+ as an expression (in the same way
2642 that `expr` evaluates its argument). The value of the expression must
2643 be numeric; if it is non-zero then +'body1'+ is executed by passing it to
2644 the Tcl interpreter.
2646 Otherwise +'expr2'+ is evaluated as an expression and if it is non-zero
2647 then +'body2'+ is executed, and so on.
2649 If none of the expressions evaluates to non-zero then +'bodyN'+ is executed.
2651 The +then+ and +else+ arguments are optional "noise words" to make the
2652 command easier to read.
2654 There may be any number of +elseif+ clauses, including zero. +'bodyN'+
2655 may also be omitted as long as +else+ is omitted too.
2657 The return value from the command is the result of the body script that
2658 was executed, or an empty string if none of the expressions was non-zero
2659 and there was no +'bodyN'+.
2663 +*incr* 'varName ?increment?'+
2665 Increment the value stored in the variable whose name is +'varName'+.
2666 The value of the variable must be integral.
2668 If +'increment'+ is supplied then its value (which must be an
2669 integer) is added to the value of variable +'varName'+; otherwise
2670 1 is added to +'varName'+.
2672 The new value is stored as a decimal string in variable +'varName'+
2673 and also returned as result.
2675 If the variable does not exist, the variable is implicitly created
2676 and set to +0+ first.
2681 +*info* 'option ?arg\...?'+::
2683 Provide information about various internals to the Tcl interpreter.
2684 The legal +'option'+'s (which may be abbreviated) are:
2686 +*info args* 'procname'+::
2687 Returns a list containing the names of the arguments to procedure
2688 +'procname'+, in order. +'procname'+ must be the name of a
2689 Tcl command procedure.
2691 +*info alias* 'command'+::
2692 +'command'+ must be an alias created with `alias`. In which case the target
2693 command and arguments, as passed to `alias` are returned. See `exists -alias`
2695 +*info body* 'procname'+::
2696 Returns the body of procedure +'procname'+. +'procname'+ must be
2697 the name of a Tcl command procedure.
2700 Returns a list of all open file handles from `open` or `socket`
2702 +*info commands* ?'pattern'?+::
2703 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of names of all the
2704 Tcl commands, including both the built-in commands written in C and
2705 the command procedures defined using the `proc` command.
2706 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2707 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2710 +*info complete* 'command' ?'missing'?+::
2711 Returns 1 if +'command'+ is a complete Tcl command in the sense of
2712 having no unclosed quotes, braces, brackets or array element names,
2713 If the command doesn't appear to be complete then 0 is returned.
2714 This command is typically used in line-oriented input environments
2715 to allow users to type in commands that span multiple lines; if the
2716 command isn't complete, the script can delay evaluating it until additional
2717 lines have been typed to complete the command. If +'varName'+ is specified, the
2718 missing character is stored in the variable with that name.
2720 +*info exists* 'varName'+::
2721 Returns '1' if the variable named +'varName'+ exists in the
2722 current context (either as a global or local variable), returns '0'
2725 +*info frame* ?'number'?+::
2726 If +'number'+ is not specified, this command returns a number
2727 which is the same result as `info level` - the current stack frame level.
2728 If +'number'+ is specified, then the result is a list consisting of the procedure,
2729 filename and line number for the procedure call at level +'number'+ on the stack.
2730 If +'number'+ is positive then it selects a particular stack level (1 refers
2731 to the top-most active procedure, 2 to the procedure it called, and
2732 so on); otherwise it gives a level relative to the current level
2733 (0 refers to the current procedure, -1 to its caller, and so on).
2734 The level has an identical meaning to `info level`.
2736 +*info globals* ?'pattern'?+::
2737 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the names
2738 of currently-defined global variables.
2739 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2740 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2744 An alias for `os.gethostname` for compatibility with Tcl 6.x
2746 +*info level* ?'number'?+::
2747 If +'number'+ is not specified, this command returns a number
2748 giving the stack level of the invoking procedure, or 0 if the
2749 command is invoked at top-level. If +'number'+ is specified,
2750 then the result is a list consisting of the name and arguments for the
2751 procedure call at level +'number'+ on the stack. If +'number'+
2752 is positive then it selects a particular stack level (1 refers
2753 to the top-most active procedure, 2 to the procedure it called, and
2754 so on); otherwise it gives a level relative to the current level
2755 (0 refers to the current procedure, -1 to its caller, and so on).
2756 See the `uplevel` command for more information on what stack
2759 +*info locals* ?'pattern'?+::
2760 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the names
2761 of currently-defined local variables, including arguments to the
2762 current procedure, if any. Variables defined with the `global`
2763 and `upvar` commands will not be returned. If +'pattern'+ is
2764 specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+ are returned.
2765 Matching is determined using the same rules as for `string match`.
2767 +*info nameofexecutable*+::
2768 Returns the name of the binary file from which the application
2769 was invoked. A full path will be returned, unless the path
2770 can't be determined, in which case the empty string will be returned.
2772 +*info procs* ?'pattern'?+::
2773 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified, returns a list of all the
2774 names of Tcl command procedures.
2775 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2776 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2779 +*info references*+::
2780 Returns a list of all references which have not yet been garbage
2783 +*info returncodes* ?'code'?+::
2784 Returns a list representing the mapping of standard return codes
2785 to names. e.g. +{0 ok 1 error 2 return \...}+. If a code is given,
2786 instead returns the name for the given code.
2789 If a Tcl script file is currently being evaluated (i.e. there is a
2790 call to 'Jim_EvalFile' active or there is an active invocation
2791 of the `source` command), then this command returns the name
2792 of the innermost file being processed. Otherwise the command returns an
2795 +*info source* 'script ?filename line?'+::
2796 With a single argument, returns the original source location of the given script as a list of
2797 +{filename linenumber}+. If the source location can't be determined, the
2798 list +{{} 0}+ is returned. If +'filename'+ and +'line'+ are given, returns a copy
2799 of +'script'+ with the associate source information. This can be useful to produce
2800 useful messages from `eval`, etc. if the original source information may be lost.
2802 +*info stacktrace*+::
2803 After an error is caught with `catch`, returns the stack trace as a list
2804 of +{procedure filename line \...}+.
2806 +*info statics* 'procname'+::
2807 Returns a dictionary of the static variables of procedure
2808 +'procname'+. +'procname'+ must be the name of a Tcl command
2809 procedure. An empty dictionary is returned if the procedure has
2810 no static variables.
2813 Returns the version number for this version of Jim in the form +*x.yy*+.
2815 +*info vars* ?'pattern'?+::
2816 If +'pattern'+ isn't specified,
2817 returns a list of all the names of currently-visible variables, including
2818 both locals and currently-visible globals.
2819 If +'pattern'+ is specified, only those names matching +'pattern'+
2820 are returned. Matching is determined using the same rules as for
2825 +*join* 'list ?joinString?'+
2827 The +'list'+ argument must be a valid Tcl list. This command returns the
2828 string formed by joining all of the elements of +'list'+ together with
2829 +'joinString'+ separating each adjacent pair of elements.
2831 The +'joinString'+ argument defaults to a space character.
2835 +*kill* ?'SIG'|*-0*? 'pid'+
2837 Sends the given signal to the process identified by +'pid'+.
2839 The signal may be specified by name or number in one of the following forms:
2847 The signal name may be in either upper or lower case.
2849 The special signal name +-0+ simply checks that a signal +'could'+ be sent.
2851 If no signal is specified, SIGTERM is used.
2853 An error is raised if the signal could not be delivered.
2857 +*lambda* 'args ?statics? body'+
2859 The `lambda` command is identical to `proc`, except rather than
2860 creating a named procedure, it creates an anonymous procedure and returns
2861 the name of the procedure.
2863 See `proc` and GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
2867 +*lappend* 'varName value ?value value \...?'+
2869 Treat the variable given by +'varName'+ as a list and append each of
2870 the +'value'+ arguments to that list as a separate element, with spaces
2873 If +'varName'+ doesn't exist, it is created as a list with elements given
2874 by the +'value'+ arguments. `lappend` is similar to `append` except that
2875 each +'value'+ is appended as a list element rather than raw text.
2877 This command provides a relatively efficient way to build up large lists.
2882 is much more efficient than
2884 set a [concat $a [list $b]]
2890 +*lassign* 'list varName ?varName \...?'+
2892 This command treats the value +'list'+ as a list and assigns successive elements from that list to
2893 the variables given by the +'varName'+ arguments in order. If there are more variable names than
2894 list elements, the remaining variables are set to the empty string. If there are more list elements
2895 than variables, a list of unassigned elements is returned.
2897 jim> lassign {1 2 3} a b; puts a=$a,b=$b
2903 +*local* 'cmd ?arg\...?'+
2905 First, `local` evaluates +'cmd'+ with the given arguments. The return value must
2906 be the name of an existing command, which is marked as having local scope.
2907 This means that when the current procedure exits, the specified
2908 command is deleted. This can be useful with `lambda`, local procedures or
2909 to automatically close a filehandle.
2911 In addition, if a command already exists with the same name,
2912 the existing command will be kept rather than deleted, and may be called
2913 via `upcall`. The previous command will be restored when the current
2914 procedure exits. See `upcall` for more details.
2916 In this example, a local procedure is created. Note that the procedure
2917 continues to have global scope while it is active.
2920 # proc ... returns "inner" which is marked local
2921 local proc inner {} {
2922 # will be deleted when 'outer' exits
2929 In this example, the lambda is deleted at the end of the procedure rather
2930 than waiting until garbage collection.
2933 set x [lambda inner {args} {
2934 # will be deleted when 'outer' exits
2936 # Use 'function' here which simply returns $x
2945 +*loop* 'var first limit ?incr? body'+
2947 Similar to `for` except simpler and possibly more efficient.
2948 With a positive increment, equivalent to:
2950 for {set var $first} {$var < $limit} {incr var $incr} $body
2952 If +'incr'+ is not specified, 1 is used.
2953 Note that setting the loop variable inside the loop does not
2954 affect the loop count.
2958 +*lindex* 'list ?index ...?'+
2960 Treats +'list'+ as a Tcl list and returns element +'index'+ from it
2961 (0 refers to the first element of the list).
2962 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
2964 In extracting the element, +'lindex'+ observes the same rules concerning
2965 braces and quotes and backslashes as the Tcl command interpreter; however,
2966 variable substitution and command substitution do not occur.
2968 If no index values are given, simply returns +'list'+
2970 If +'index'+ is negative or greater than or equal to the number of elements
2971 in +'list'+, then an empty string is returned.
2973 If additional index arguments are supplied, then each argument is
2974 used in turn to select an element from the previous indexing
2975 operation, allowing the script to select elements from sublists.
2979 +*linsert* 'list index element ?element element \...?'+
2981 This command produces a new list from +'list'+ by inserting all
2982 of the +'element'+ arguments just before the element +'index'+
2983 of +'list'+. Each +'element'+ argument will become
2984 a separate element of the new list. If +'index'+ is less than
2985 or equal to zero, then the new elements are inserted at the
2986 beginning of the list. If +'index'+ is greater than or equal
2987 to the number of elements in the list, then the new elements are
2988 appended to the list.
2990 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
2995 +*list* 'arg ?arg \...?'+
2997 This command returns a list comprised of all the arguments, +'arg'+. Braces
2998 and backslashes get added as necessary, so that the `lindex` command
2999 may be used on the result to re-extract the original arguments, and also
3000 so that `eval` may be used to execute the resulting list, with
3001 +'arg1'+ comprising the command's name and the other args comprising
3002 its arguments. `list` produces slightly different results than
3003 `concat`: `concat` removes one level of grouping before forming
3004 the list, while `list` works directly from the original arguments.
3005 For example, the command
3007 list a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
3011 a b {c d e} {f {g h}}
3013 while `concat` with the same arguments will return
3021 Treats +'list'+ as a list and returns a decimal string giving
3022 the number of elements in it.
3026 +*lset* 'varName ?index ..? newValue'+
3028 Sets an element in a list.
3030 The `lset` command accepts a parameter, +'varName'+, which it interprets
3031 as the name of a variable containing a Tcl list. It also accepts
3032 zero or more indices into the list. Finally, it accepts a new value
3033 for an element of varName. If no indices are presented, the command
3036 lset varName newValue
3038 In this case, newValue replaces the old value of the variable
3041 When presented with a single index, the `lset` command
3042 treats the content of the varName variable as a Tcl list. It addresses
3043 the index'th element in it (0 refers to the first element of the
3044 list). When interpreting the list, `lset` observes the same rules
3045 concerning braces and quotes and backslashes as the Tcl command
3046 interpreter; however, variable substitution and command substitution
3047 do not occur. The command constructs a new list in which the
3048 designated element is replaced with newValue. This new list is
3049 stored in the variable varName, and is also the return value from
3052 If index is negative or greater than or equal to the number of
3053 elements in $varName, then an error occurs.
3055 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'index'+.
3057 If additional index arguments are supplied, then each argument is
3058 used in turn to address an element within a sublist designated by
3059 the previous indexing operation, allowing the script to alter
3060 elements in sublists. The command,
3064 replaces element 2 of sublist 1 with +'newValue'+.
3066 The integer appearing in each index argument must be greater than
3067 or equal to zero. The integer appearing in each index argument must
3068 be strictly less than the length of the corresponding list. In other
3069 words, the `lset` command cannot change the size of a list. If an
3070 index is outside the permitted range, an error is reported.
3075 +*lmap* 'varName list body'+
3077 +*lmap* 'varList list ?varList2 list2 \...? body'+
3079 `lmap` is a "collecting" `foreach` which returns a list of its results.
3083 jim> lmap i {1 2 3 4 5} {expr $i*$i}
3085 jim> lmap a {1 2 3} b {A B C} {list $a $b}
3088 If the body invokes `continue`, no value is added for this iteration.
3089 If the body invokes `break`, the loop ends and no more values are added.
3095 Loads the dynamic extension, +'filename'+. Generally the filename should have
3096 the extension +.so+. The initialisation function for the module must be based
3097 on the name of the file. For example loading +hwaccess.so+ will invoke
3098 the initialisation function, +Jim_hwaccessInit+. Normally the `load` command
3099 should not be used directly. Instead it is invoked automatically by `package require`.
3103 +*lrange* 'list first last'+
3105 +'list'+ must be a valid Tcl list. This command will return a new
3106 list consisting of elements +'first'+ through +'last'+, inclusive.
3108 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
3110 If +'last'+ is greater than or equal to the number of elements
3111 in the list, then it is treated as if it were +end+.
3113 If +'first'+ is greater than +'last'+ then an empty string
3116 Note: +"`lrange` 'list first first'"+ does not always produce the
3117 same result as +"`lindex` 'list first'"+ (although it often does
3118 for simple fields that aren't enclosed in braces); it does, however,
3119 produce exactly the same results as +"`list` [`lindex` 'list first']"+
3124 +*lreplace* 'list first last ?element element \...?'+
3126 Returns a new list formed by replacing one or more elements of
3127 +'list'+ with the +'element'+ arguments.
3129 +'first'+ gives the index in +'list'+ of the first element
3132 If +'first'+ is less than zero then it refers to the first
3133 element of +'list'+; the element indicated by +'first'+
3134 must exist in the list.
3136 +'last'+ gives the index in +'list'+ of the last element
3137 to be replaced; it must be greater than or equal to +'first'+.
3139 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
3141 The +'element'+ arguments specify zero or more new arguments to
3142 be added to the list in place of those that were deleted.
3144 Each +'element'+ argument will become a separate element of
3147 If no +'element'+ arguments are specified, then the elements
3148 between +'first'+ and +'last'+ are simply deleted.
3152 +*lrepeat* 'number element1 ?element2 \...?'+
3154 Build a list by repeating elements +'number'+ times (which must be
3155 a positive integer).
3164 Returns the list in reverse order.
3166 jim> lreverse {1 2 3}
3171 +*lsearch* '?options? list pattern'+
3173 This command searches the elements +'list'+ to see if one of them matches +'pattern'+. If so, the
3174 command returns the index of the first matching element (unless the options +-all+, +-inline+ or +-bool+ are
3175 specified.) If not, the command returns -1. The option arguments indicates how the elements of
3176 the list are to be matched against pattern and must have one of the values below:
3178 *Note* that this command is different from Tcl in that default match type is +-exact+ rather than +-glob+.
3181 +'pattern'+ is a literal string that is compared for exact equality against each list element.
3182 This is the default.
3185 +'pattern'+ is a glob-style pattern which is matched against each list element using the same
3186 rules as the string match command.
3189 +'pattern'+ is treated as a regular expression and matched against each list element using
3190 the rules described by `regexp`.
3192 +*-command* 'cmdname'+::
3193 +'cmdname'+ is a command which is used to match the pattern against each element of the
3194 list. It is invoked as +'cmdname' ?*-nocase*? 'pattern listvalue'+ and should return 1
3195 for a match, or 0 for no match.
3198 Changes the result to be the list of all matching indices (or all matching values if
3199 +-inline+ is specified as well). If indices are returned, the indices will be in numeric
3200 order. If values are returned, the order of the values will be the order of those values
3201 within the input list.
3204 The matching value is returned instead of its index (or an empty string if no value
3205 matches). If +-all+ is also specified, then the result of the command is the list of all
3206 values that matched. The +-inline+ and +-bool+ options are mutually exclusive.
3209 Changes the result to '1' if a match was found, or '0' otherwise. If +-all+ is also specified,
3210 the result will be a list of '0' and '1' for each element of the list depending upon whether
3211 the corresponding element matches. The +-inline+ and +-bool+ options are mutually exclusive.
3214 This negates the sense of the match, returning the index (or value
3215 if +-inline+ is specified) of the first non-matching value in the
3216 list. If +-bool+ is also specified, the '0' will be returned if a
3217 match is found, or '1' otherwise. If +-all+ is also specified,
3218 non-matches will be returned rather than matches.
3221 Causes comparisons to be handled in a case-insensitive manner.
3225 +*lsort* ?*-index* 'listindex'? ?*-nocase|-integer|-real|-command* 'cmdname'? ?*-unique*? ?*-decreasing*|*-increasing*? 'list'+
3227 Sort the elements of +'list'+, returning a new list in sorted order.
3228 By default, ASCII (or UTF-8) sorting is used, with the result in increasing order.
3230 If +-nocase+ is specified, comparisons are case-insensitive.
3232 If +-integer+ is specified, numeric sorting is used.
3234 If +-real+ is specified, floating point number sorting is used.
3236 If +-command 'cmdname'+ is specified, +'cmdname'+ is treated as a command
3237 name. For each comparison, +'cmdname $value1 $value2+' is called which
3238 should compare the values and return an integer less than, equal
3239 to, or greater than zero if the +'$value1'+ is to be considered less
3240 than, equal to, or greater than +'$value2'+, respectively.
3242 If +-decreasing+ is specified, the resulting list is in the opposite
3243 order to what it would be otherwise. +-increasing+ is the default.
3245 If +-unique+ is specified, then only the last set of duplicate elements found in the list will be retained.
3246 Note that duplicates are determined relative to the comparison used in the sort. Thus if +-index 0+ is used,
3247 +{1 a}+ and +{1 b}+ would be considered duplicates and only the second element, +{1 b}+, would be retained.
3249 If +-index 'listindex'+ is specified, each element of the list is treated as a list and
3250 the given index is extracted from the list for comparison. The list index may
3251 be any valid list index, such as +1+, +end+ or +end-2+.
3257 This command is a simple helper command to add a script to the '+$jim::defer+' variable
3258 that will run when the current proc or interpreter exits. For example:
3260 jim> proc a {} { defer {puts "Leaving a"}; puts "Exit" }
3265 If the '+$jim::defer+' variable exists, it is treated as a list of scripts to run
3266 when the proc or interpreter exits.
3270 +*open* 'fileName ?access?'+
3272 +*open* '|command-pipeline ?access?'+
3274 Opens a file and returns an identifier
3275 that may be used in future invocations
3276 of commands like `read`, `puts`, and `close`.
3277 +'fileName'+ gives the name of the file to open.
3279 The +'access'+ argument indicates the way in which the file is to be accessed.
3280 It may have any of the following values:
3283 Open the file for reading only; the file must already exist.
3286 Open the file for both reading and writing; the file must
3290 Open the file for writing only. Truncate it if it exists. If it doesn't
3291 exist, create a new file.
3294 Open the file for reading and writing. Truncate it if it exists.
3295 If it doesn't exist, create a new file.
3298 Open the file for writing only. The file must already exist, and the file
3299 is positioned so that new data is appended to the file.
3302 Open the file for reading and writing. If the file doesn't
3303 exist, create a new empty file. Set the initial access position
3304 to the end of the file.
3306 +'access'+ defaults to 'r'.
3308 If a file is opened for both reading and writing, then `seek`
3309 must be invoked between a read and a write, or vice versa.
3311 If the first character of +'fileName'+ is "|" then the remaining
3312 characters of +'fileName'+ are treated as a list of arguments that
3313 describe a command pipeline to invoke, in the same style as the
3314 arguments for exec. In this case, the channel identifier returned
3315 by open may be used to write to the command's input pipe or read
3316 from its output pipe, depending on the value of +'access'+. If write-only
3317 access is used (e.g. +'access'+ is 'w'), then standard output for the
3318 pipeline is directed to the current standard output unless overridden
3319 by the command. If read-only access is used (e.g. +'access'+ is r),
3320 standard input for the pipeline is taken from the current standard
3321 input unless overridden by the command.
3323 The `pid` command may be used to return the process ids of the commands
3324 forming the command pipeline.
3326 See also `socket`, `pid`, `exec`
3330 +*package provide* 'name ?version?'+
3332 Indicates that the current script provides the package named +'name'+.
3333 If no version is specified, '1.0' is used.
3335 Any script which provides a package may include this statement
3336 as the first statement, although it is not required.
3338 +*package require* 'name ?version?'*+
3340 Searches for the package with the given +'name'+ by examining each path
3341 in '$::auto_path' and trying to load '$path/$name.so' as a dynamic extension,
3342 or '$path/$name.tcl' as a script package.
3344 The first such file which is found is considered to provide the package.
3345 (The version number is ignored).
3347 If '$name.so' exists, it is loaded with the `load` command,
3348 otherwise if '$name.tcl' exists it is loaded with the `source` command.
3350 If `load` or `source` fails, `package require` will fail immediately.
3351 No further attempt will be made to locate the file.
3359 The first form returns the process identifier of the current process.
3361 The second form accepts a handle returned by `open` and returns a list
3362 of the process ids forming the pipeline in the same form as `exec ... &`.
3363 If 'fileId' represents a regular file handle rather than a command pipeline,
3364 the empty string is returned instead.
3366 See also `open`, `exec`
3370 +*proc* 'name args ?statics? body'+
3372 The `proc` command creates a new Tcl command procedure, +'name'+.
3373 When the new command is invoked, the contents of +'body'+ will be executed.
3374 Tcl interpreter. +'args'+ specifies the formal arguments to the procedure.
3375 If specified, +'statics'+, declares static variables which are bound to the
3378 See PROCEDURES for detailed information about Tcl procedures.
3380 The `proc` command returns +'name'+ (which is useful with `local`).
3382 When a procedure is invoked, the procedure's return value is the
3383 value specified in a `return` command. If the procedure doesn't
3384 execute an explicit `return`, then its return value is the value
3385 of the last command executed in the procedure's body.
3387 If an error occurs while executing the procedure body, then the
3388 procedure-as-a-whole will return that same error.
3392 +*puts* ?*-nonewline*? '?fileId? string'+
3394 +'fileId' *puts* ?*-nonewline*? 'string'+
3396 Writes the characters given by +'string'+ to the file given
3397 by +'fileId'+. +'fileId'+ must have been the return
3398 value from a previous call to `open`, or it may be
3399 +stdout+ or +stderr+ to refer to one of the standard I/O
3400 channels; it must refer to a file that was opened for
3403 In the first form, if no +'fileId'+ is specified then it defaults to +stdout+.
3404 `puts` normally outputs a newline character after +'string'+,
3405 but this feature may be suppressed by specifying the +-nonewline+
3408 Output to files is buffered internally by Tcl; the `flush`
3409 command may be used to force buffered characters to be output.
3413 Creates a pair of `aio` channels and returns the handles as a list: +{read write}+
3419 Returns the path name of the current working directory.
3423 +*rand* '?min? ?max?'+
3425 Returns a random integer between +'min'+ (defaults to 0) and +'max'+
3426 (defaults to the maximum integer).
3428 If only one argument is given, it is interpreted as +'max'+.
3432 +*range* '?start? end ?step?'+
3434 Returns a list of integers starting at +'start'+ (defaults to 0)
3435 and ranging up to but not including +'end'+ in steps of +'step'+ defaults to 1).
3448 +*read* ?*-nonewline*? 'fileId'+
3450 +'fileId' *read* ?*-nonewline*?+
3452 +*read* 'fileId numBytes'+
3454 +'fileId' *read* 'numBytes'+
3457 In the first form, all of the remaining bytes are read from the file
3458 given by +'fileId'+; they are returned as the result of the command.
3459 If the +-nonewline+ switch is specified then the last
3460 character of the file is discarded if it is a newline.
3462 In the second form, the extra argument specifies how many bytes to read;
3463 exactly this many bytes will be read and returned, unless there are fewer than
3464 +'numBytes'+ bytes left in the file; in this case, all the remaining
3467 +'fileId'+ must be +stdin+ or the return value from a previous call
3468 to `open`; it must refer to a file that was opened for reading.
3472 +*regexp ?-nocase? ?-line? ?-indices? ?-start* 'offset'? *?-all? ?-inline? ?--?* 'exp string ?matchVar? ?subMatchVar subMatchVar \...?'+
3474 Determines whether the regular expression +'exp'+ matches part or
3475 all of +'string'+ and returns 1 if it does, 0 if it doesn't.
3477 See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS above for complete information on the
3478 syntax of +'exp'+ and how it is matched against +'string'+.
3480 If additional arguments are specified after +'string'+ then they
3481 are treated as the names of variables to use to return
3482 information about which part(s) of +'string'+ matched +'exp'+.
3483 +'matchVar'+ will be set to the range of +'string'+ that
3484 matched all of +'exp'+. The first +'subMatchVar'+ will contain
3485 the characters in +'string'+ that matched the leftmost parenthesized
3486 subexpression within +'exp'+, the next +'subMatchVar'+ will
3487 contain the characters that matched the next parenthesized
3488 subexpression to the right in +'exp'+, and so on.
3490 Normally, +'matchVar'+ and the each +'subMatchVar'+ are set to hold the
3491 matching characters from `string`, however see +-indices+ and
3494 If there are more values for +'subMatchVar'+ than parenthesized subexpressions
3495 within +'exp'+, or if a particular subexpression in +'exp'+ doesn't
3496 match the string (e.g. because it was in a portion of the expression
3497 that wasn't matched), then the corresponding +'subMatchVar'+ will be
3498 set to +"-1 -1"+ if +-indices+ has been specified or to an empty
3501 The following switches modify the behaviour of +'regexp'+
3504 Causes upper-case and lower-case characters to be treated as
3505 identical during the matching process.
3508 Use newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline
3509 is a completely ordinary character with no special meaning in
3510 either REs or strings. With this flag, +[^+ bracket expressions
3511 and +.+ never match newline, an +^+ anchor matches the null
3512 string after any newline in the string in addition to its normal
3513 function, and the +$+ anchor matches the null string before any
3514 newline in the string in addition to its normal function.
3517 Changes what is stored in the subMatchVars. Instead of
3518 storing the matching characters from string, each variable
3519 will contain a list of two decimal strings giving the indices
3520 in string of the first and last characters in the matching
3521 range of characters.
3523 +*-start* 'offset'+::
3524 Specifies a character index offset into the string at which to start
3525 matching the regular expression. If +-indices+ is
3526 specified, the indices will be indexed starting from the
3527 absolute beginning of the input string. +'offset'+ will be
3528 constrained to the bounds of the input string.
3531 Causes the regular expression to be matched as many times as possible
3532 in the string, returning the total number of matches found. If this
3533 is specified with match variables, they will contain information
3534 for the last match only.
3537 Causes the command to return, as a list, the data that would otherwise
3538 be placed in match variables. When using +-inline+, match variables
3539 may not be specified. If used with +-all+, the list will be concatenated
3540 at each iteration, such that a flat list is always returned. For
3541 each match iteration, the command will append the overall match
3542 data, plus one element for each subexpression in the regular
3546 Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be
3547 treated as +'exp'+ even if it starts with a +-+.
3551 +*regsub ?-nocase? ?-all? ?-line? ?-start* 'offset'? ?*--*? 'exp string subSpec ?varName?'+
3553 This command matches the regular expression +'exp'+ against
3554 +'string'+ using the rules described in REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
3557 If +'varName'+ is specified, the commands stores +'string'+ to +'varName'+
3558 with the substitutions detailed below, and returns the number of
3559 substitutions made (normally 1 unless +-all+ is specified).
3560 This is 0 if there were no matches.
3562 If +'varName'+ is not specified, the substituted string will be returned
3565 When copying +'string'+, the portion of +'string'+ that
3566 matched +'exp'+ is replaced with +'subSpec'+.
3567 If +'subSpec'+ contains a +&+ or +{backslash}0+, then it is replaced
3568 in the substitution with the portion of +'string'+ that
3571 If +'subSpec'+ contains a +{backslash}n+, where +'n'+ is a digit
3572 between 1 and 9, then it is replaced in the substitution with
3573 the portion of +'string'+ that matched the +'n'+\'-th
3574 parenthesized subexpression of +'exp'+.
3575 Additional backslashes may be used in +'subSpec'+ to prevent special
3576 interpretation of +&+ or +{backslash}0+ or +{backslash}n+ or
3579 The use of backslashes in +'subSpec'+ tends to interact badly
3580 with the Tcl parser's use of backslashes, so it's generally
3581 safest to enclose +'subSpec'+ in braces if it includes
3584 The following switches modify the behaviour of +'regsub'+
3587 Upper-case characters in +'string'+ are converted to lower-case
3588 before matching against +'exp'+; however, substitutions
3589 specified by +'subSpec'+ use the original unconverted form
3593 All ranges in +'string'+ that match +'exp'+ are found and substitution
3594 is performed for each of these ranges, rather than only the
3595 first. The +&+ and +{backslash}n+ sequences are handled for
3596 each substitution using the information from the corresponding
3600 Use newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline
3601 is a completely ordinary character with no special meaning in
3602 either REs or strings. With this flag, +[^+ bracket expressions
3603 and +.+ never match newline, an +^+ anchor matches the null
3604 string after any newline in the string in addition to its normal
3605 function, and the +$+ anchor matches the null string before any
3606 newline in the string in addition to its normal function.
3608 +*-start* 'offset'+::
3609 Specifies a character index offset into the string at which to
3610 start matching the regular expression. +'offset'+ will be
3611 constrained to the bounds of the input string.
3614 Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be
3615 treated as +'exp'+ even if it starts with a +-+.
3619 +*ref* 'string tag ?finalizer?'+
3621 Create a new reference containing +'string'+ of type +'tag'+.
3622 If +'finalizer'+ is specified, it is a command which will be invoked
3623 when the a garbage collection cycle runs and this reference is
3624 no longer accessible.
3626 The finalizer is invoked as:
3628 finalizer reference string
3630 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
3634 +*rename* 'oldName newName'+
3636 Rename the command that used to be called +'oldName'+ so that it
3637 is now called +'newName'+. If +'newName'+ is an empty string
3638 (e.g. {}) then +'oldName'+ is deleted. The `rename` command
3639 returns an empty string as result.
3643 +*return* ?*-code* 'code'? ?*-errorinfo* 'stacktrace'? ?*-errorcode* 'errorcode'? ?*-level* 'n'? ?'value'?+
3645 Return immediately from the current procedure (or top-level command
3646 or `source` command), with +'value'+ as the return value. If +'value'+
3647 is not specified, an empty string will be returned as result.
3649 If +-code+ is specified (as either a number or ok, error, break,
3650 continue, signal, return or exit), this code will be used instead
3651 of +JIM_OK+. This is generally useful when implementing flow of control
3654 If +-level+ is specified and greater than 1, it has the effect of delaying
3655 the new return code from +-code+. This is useful when rethrowing an error
3656 from `catch`. See the implementation of try/catch in tclcompat.tcl for
3657 an example of how this is done.
3659 Note: The following options are only used when +-code+ is JIM_ERR.
3661 If +-errorinfo+ is specified (as returned from `info stacktrace`)
3662 it is used to initialize the stacktrace.
3664 If +-errorcode+ is specified, it is used to set the global variable $::errorCode.
3668 +*scan* 'string format varName1 ?varName2 \...?'+
3670 This command parses fields from an input string in the same fashion
3671 as the C 'sscanf' procedure. +'string'+ gives the input to be parsed
3672 and +'format'+ indicates how to parse it, using '%' fields as in
3673 'sscanf'. All of the 'sscanf' options are valid; see the 'sscanf'
3674 man page for details. Each +'varName'+ gives the name of a variable;
3675 when a field is scanned from +'string'+, the result is converted back
3676 into a string and assigned to the corresponding +'varName'+. The
3677 only unusual conversion is for '%c'. For '%c' conversions a single
3678 character value is converted to a decimal string, which is then
3679 assigned to the corresponding +'varName'+; no field width may be
3680 specified for this conversion.
3684 +*seek* 'fileId offset ?origin?'+
3686 +'fileId' *seek* 'offset ?origin?'+
3688 Change the current access position for +'fileId'+.
3689 The +'offset'+ and +'origin'+ arguments specify the position at
3690 which the next read or write will occur for +'fileId'+.
3691 +'offset'+ must be a number (which may be negative) and +'origin'+
3692 must be one of the following:
3695 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the start
3699 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the current
3700 access position; a negative +'offset'+ moves the access position
3701 backwards in the file.
3704 The new access position will be +'offset'+ bytes from the end of
3705 the file. A negative +'offset'+ places the access position before
3706 the end-of-file, and a positive +'offset'+ places the access position
3707 after the end-of-file.
3709 The +'origin'+ argument defaults to +start+.
3711 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to
3712 `open`, or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one
3713 of the standard I/O channels.
3715 This command returns an empty string.
3719 +*set* 'varName ?value?'+
3721 Returns the value of variable +'varName'+.
3723 If +'value'+ is specified, then set the value of +'varName'+ to +'value'+,
3724 creating a new variable if one doesn't already exist, and return
3727 If +'varName'+ contains an open parenthesis and ends with a
3728 close parenthesis, then it refers to an array element: the characters
3729 before the open parenthesis are the name of the array, and the characters
3730 between the parentheses are the index within the array.
3731 Otherwise +'varName'+ refers to a scalar variable.
3733 If no procedure is active, then +'varName'+ refers to a global
3736 If a procedure is active, then +'varName'+ refers to a parameter
3737 or local variable of the procedure, unless the +'global'+ command
3738 has been invoked to declare +'varName'+ to be global.
3740 The +::+ prefix may also be used to explicitly reference a variable
3741 in the global scope.
3745 +*setref* 'reference string'+
3747 Store a new string in +'reference'+, replacing the existing string.
3748 The reference must be a valid reference create with the `ref`
3751 See GARBAGE COLLECTION, REFERENCES, LAMBDA FUNCTION for more detail.
3755 Command for signal handling.
3757 See `kill` for the different forms which may be used to specify signals.
3759 Commands which return a list of signal names do so using the canonical form:
3762 +*signal handle* ?'signals \...'?+::
3763 If no signals are given, returns a list of all signals which are currently
3765 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals currently
3768 +*signal ignore* ?'signals \...'?+::
3769 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which are currently
3771 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals
3772 currently being ignored. These signals are still delivered, but
3773 are not considered by `catch -signal` or `try -signal`. Use
3774 `signal check` to determine which signals have occurred but
3777 +*signal default* ?'signals \...'?+::
3778 If no signals are given, returns a lists all signals which are currently have
3779 the default behaviour.
3780 If signals are specified, these are added to the list of signals which have
3781 the default behaviour.
3783 +*signal check ?-clear?* ?'signals \...'?+::
3784 Returns a list of signals which have been delivered to the process
3785 but are 'ignored'. If signals are specified, only that set of signals will
3786 be checked, otherwise all signals will be checked.
3787 If +-clear+ is specified, any signals returned are removed and will not be
3788 returned by subsequent calls to `signal check` unless delivered again.
3790 +*signal throw* ?'signal'?+::
3791 Raises the given signal, which defaults to +SIGINT+ if not specified.
3792 The behaviour is identical to:
3796 Note that `signal handle` and `signal ignore` represent two forms of signal
3797 handling. `signal handle` is used in conjunction with `catch -signal` or `try -signal`
3798 to immediately abort execution when the signal is delivered. Alternatively, `signal ignore`
3799 is used in conjunction with `signal check` to handle signal synchronously. Consider the
3802 Prevent a processing from taking too long
3804 signal handle SIGALRM
3807 .. possibly long running process ..
3810 puts stderr "Process took too long"
3813 Handle SIGHUP to reconfigure:
3815 signal ignore SIGHUP
3817 ... handle configuration/reconfiguration ...
3818 while {[signal check -clear SIGHUP] eq ""} {
3819 ... do processing ..
3821 # Received SIGHUP, so reconfigure
3824 Note: signal handling is currently not supported in child interpreters.
3825 In these interpreters, the signal command does not exist.
3831 Pauses for the given number of seconds, which may be a floating
3832 point value less than one to sleep for less than a second, or an
3833 integer to sleep for one or more seconds.
3837 +*source* 'fileName'+
3839 Read file +'fileName'+ and pass the contents to the Tcl interpreter
3840 as a sequence of commands to execute in the normal fashion. The return
3841 value of `source` is the return value of the last command executed
3842 from the file. If an error occurs in executing the contents of the
3843 file, then the `source` command will return that error.
3845 If a `return` command is invoked from within the file, the remainder of
3846 the file will be skipped and the `source` command will return
3847 normally with the result from the `return` command.
3851 +*split* 'string ?splitChars?'+
3853 Returns a list created by splitting +'string'+ at each character
3854 that is in the +'splitChars'+ argument.
3856 Each element of the result list will consist of the
3857 characters from +'string'+ between instances of the
3858 characters in +'splitChars'+.
3860 Empty list elements will be generated if +'string'+ contains
3861 adjacent characters in +'splitChars'+, or if the first or last
3862 character of +'string'+ is in +'splitChars'+.
3864 If +'splitChars'+ is an empty string then each character of
3865 +'string'+ becomes a separate element of the result list.
3867 +'splitChars'+ defaults to the standard white-space characters.
3870 split "comp.unix.misc" .
3872 returns +'"comp unix misc"'+ and
3874 split "Hello world" {}
3876 returns +'"H e l l o { } w o r l d"'+.
3881 +*stackdump* 'stacktrace'+
3883 Creates a human readable representation of a stack trace.
3890 Returns a live stack trace as a list of +proc file line proc file line \...+.
3891 Iteratively uses `info frame` to create the stack trace. This stack trace is in the
3892 same form as produced by `catch` and `info stacktrace`
3894 See also `stackdump`.
3899 +*string* 'option arg ?arg \...?'+
3901 Perform one of several string operations, depending on +'option'+.
3902 The legal options (which may be abbreviated) are:
3904 +*string bytelength* 'string'+::
3905 Returns the length of the string in bytes. This will return
3906 the same value as `string length` if UTF-8 support is not enabled,
3907 or if the string is composed entirely of ASCII characters.
3908 See UTF-8 AND UNICODE.
3910 +*string byterange* 'string first last'+::
3911 Like `string range` except works on bytes rather than characters.
3912 These commands are identical if UTF-8 support is not enabled.
3914 +*string cat* '?string1 string2 \...?'+::
3915 Concatenates the given strings into a single string.
3917 +*string compare ?-nocase?* ?*-length* 'len? string1 string2'+::
3918 Perform a character-by-character comparison of strings +'string1'+ and
3919 +'string2'+ in the same way as the C 'strcmp' procedure. Return
3920 -1, 0, or 1, depending on whether +'string1'+ is lexicographically
3921 less than, equal to, or greater than +'string2'+. If +-length+
3922 is specified, then only the first +'len'+ characters are used
3923 in the comparison. If +'len'+ is negative, it is ignored.
3924 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
3926 +*string equal ?-nocase?* '?*-length* len?' 'string1 string2'+::
3927 Returns 1 if the strings are equal, or 0 otherwise. If +-length+
3928 is specified, then only the first +'len'+ characters are used
3929 in the comparison. If +'len'+ is negative, it is ignored.
3930 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
3932 +*string first* 'string1 string2 ?firstIndex?'+::
3933 Search +'string2'+ for a sequence of characters that exactly match
3934 the characters in +'string1'+. If found, return the index of the
3935 first character in the first such match within +'string2'+. If not
3936 found, return -1. If +'firstIndex'+ is specified, matching will start
3937 from +'firstIndex'+ of +'string1'+.
3939 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'firstIndex'+.
3941 +*string index* 'string charIndex'+::
3942 Returns the +'charIndex'+'th character of the +'string'+
3943 argument. A +'charIndex'+ of 0 corresponds to the first
3944 character of the string.
3945 If +'charIndex'+ is less than 0 or greater than
3946 or equal to the length of the string then an empty string is
3949 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'charIndex'+.
3951 +*string is* 'class' ?*-strict*? 'string'+::
3952 Returns 1 if +'string'+ is a valid member of the specified character
3953 class, otherwise returns 0. If +-strict+ is specified, then an
3954 empty string returns 0, otherwise an empty string will return 1
3955 on any class. The following character classes are recognized
3956 (the class name can be abbreviated):
3958 +alnum+;; Any alphabet or digit character.
3959 +alpha+;; Any alphabet character.
3960 +ascii+;; Any character with a value less than 128 (those that are in the 7-bit ascii range).
3961 +boolean+;; Any of the valid string formats for a boolean value in Tcl (0, false, no, off, 1, true, yes, on)
3962 +control+;; Any control character.
3963 +digit+;; Any digit character.
3964 +double+;; Any of the valid forms for a double in Tcl, with optional surrounding whitespace.
3965 In case of under/overflow in the value, 0 is returned.
3966 +graph+;; Any printing character, except space.
3967 +integer+;; Any of the valid string formats for an integer value in Tcl, with optional surrounding whitespace.
3968 +lower+;; Any lower case alphabet character.
3969 +print+;; Any printing character, including space.
3970 +punct+;; Any punctuation character.
3971 +space+;; Any space character.
3972 +upper+;; Any upper case alphabet character.
3973 +xdigit+;; Any hexadecimal digit character ([0-9A-Fa-f]).
3975 Note that string classification does +'not'+ respect UTF-8. See UTF-8 AND UNICODE
3977 Note that only +'lowercase'+ boolean values are recognized (Tcl accepts any case).
3979 +*string last* 'string1 string2 ?lastIndex?'+::
3980 Search +'string2'+ for a sequence of characters that exactly match
3981 the characters in +'string1'+. If found, return the index of the
3982 first character in the last such match within +'string2'+. If there
3983 is no match, then return -1. If +'lastIndex'+ is specified, only characters
3984 up to +'lastIndex'+ of +'string2'+ will be considered in the match.
3986 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'lastIndex'+.
3988 +*string length* 'string'+::
3989 Returns a decimal string giving the number of characters in +'string'+.
3990 If UTF-8 support is enabled, this may be different than the number of bytes.
3991 See UTF-8 AND UNICODE
3993 +*string map ?-nocase?* 'mapping string'+::
3994 Replaces substrings in +'string'+ based on the key-value pairs in
3995 +'mapping'+, which is a list of +key value key value \...+ as in the form
3996 returned by `array get`. Each instance of a key in the string will be
3997 replaced with its corresponding value. If +-nocase+ is specified, then
3998 matching is done without regard to case differences. Both key and value may
3999 be multiple characters. Replacement is done in an ordered manner, so the
4000 key appearing first in the list will be checked first, and so on. +'string'+ is
4001 only iterated over once, so earlier key replacements will have no affect for
4002 later key matches. For example,
4004 string map {abc 1 ab 2 a 3 1 0} 1abcaababcabababc
4007 will return the string +01321221+.
4009 Note that if an earlier key is a prefix of a later one, it will completely mask the later
4010 one. So if the previous example is reordered like this,
4012 string map {1 0 ab 2 a 3 abc 1} 1abcaababcabababc
4015 it will return the string +02c322c222c+.
4017 +*string match ?-nocase?* 'pattern string'+::
4018 See if +'pattern'+ matches +'string'+; return 1 if it does, 0
4019 if it doesn't. Matching is done in a fashion similar to that
4020 used by the C-shell. For the two strings to match, their contents
4021 must be identical except that the following special sequences
4022 may appear in +'pattern'+:
4025 Matches any sequence of characters in +'string'+,
4026 including a null string.
4029 Matches any single character in +'string'+.
4032 Matches any character in the set given by +'chars'+.
4033 If a sequence of the form +'x-y'+ appears in +'chars'+,
4034 then any character between +'x'+ and +'y'+, inclusive,
4038 Matches the single character +'x'+. This provides a way of
4039 avoiding the special interpretation of the characters +{backslash}*?[]+
4042 Performs a case-insensitive comparison if +-nocase+ is specified.
4044 +*string range* 'string first last'+::
4045 Returns a range of consecutive characters from +'string'+, starting
4046 with the character whose index is +'first'+ and ending with the
4047 character whose index is +'last'+. An index of 0 refers to the
4048 first character of the string.
4050 See STRING AND LIST INDEX SPECIFICATIONS for all allowed forms for +'first'+ and +'last'+.
4052 If +'first'+ is less than zero then it is treated as if it were zero, and
4053 if +'last'+ is greater than or equal to the length of the string then
4054 it is treated as if it were +end+. If +'first'+ is greater than
4055 +'last'+ then an empty string is returned.
4057 +*string repeat* 'string count'+::
4058 Returns a new string consisting of +'string'+ repeated +'count'+ times.
4060 +*string replace* 'string first last ?newstring?'+::
4061 Removes a range of consecutive characters from +'string'+, starting
4062 with the character whose index is +'first'+ and ending with the
4063 character whose index is +'last'+. If +'newstring'+ is specified,
4064 then it is placed in the removed character range. If +'first'+ is
4065 less than zero then it is treated as if it were zero, and if +'last'+
4066 is greater than or equal to the length of the string then it is
4067 treated as if it were +end+. If +'first'+ is greater than +'last'+
4068 or the length of the initial string, or +'last'+ is less than 0,
4069 then the initial string is returned untouched.
4071 +*string reverse* 'string'+::
4072 Returns a string that is the same length as +'string'+ but
4073 with its characters in the reverse order.
4075 +*string tolower* 'string'+::
4076 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that all upper case
4077 letters have been converted to lower case.
4079 +*string totitle* 'string'+::
4080 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that the first character
4081 is converted to title case (or upper case if there is no UTF-8 titlecase variant)
4082 and all remaining characters have been converted to lower case.
4084 +*string toupper* 'string'+::
4085 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that all lower case
4086 letters have been converted to upper case.
4088 +*string trim* 'string ?chars?'+::
4089 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any leading
4090 or trailing characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4092 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4093 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4095 +*string trimleft* 'string ?chars?'+::
4096 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any
4097 leading characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4099 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4100 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4102 +*string trimright* 'string ?chars?'+::
4103 Returns a value equal to +'string'+ except that any
4104 trailing characters from the set given by +'chars'+ are
4106 If +'chars'+ is not specified then white space is removed
4107 (spaces, tabs, newlines, and carriage returns).
4108 Null characters are always removed.
4112 +*subst ?-nobackslashes? ?-nocommands? ?-novariables?* 'string'+
4114 This command performs variable substitutions, command substitutions,
4115 and backslash substitutions on its string argument and returns the
4116 fully-substituted result. The substitutions are performed in exactly
4117 the same way as for Tcl commands. As a result, the string argument
4118 is actually substituted twice, once by the Tcl parser in the usual
4119 fashion for Tcl commands, and again by the subst command.
4121 If any of the +-nobackslashes+, +-nocommands+, or +-novariables+ are
4122 specified, then the corresponding substitutions are not performed.
4123 For example, if +-nocommands+ is specified, no command substitution
4124 is performed: open and close brackets are treated as ordinary
4125 characters with no special interpretation.
4127 *Note*: when it performs its substitutions, subst does not give any
4128 special treatment to double quotes or curly braces. For example,
4129 the following script returns +xyz \{44\}+, not +xyz \{$a\}+.
4137 +*switch* '?options? string pattern body ?pattern body \...?'+
4139 +*switch* '?options? string {pattern body ?pattern body \...?}'+
4141 The `switch` command matches its string argument against each of
4142 the pattern arguments in order. As soon as it finds a pattern that
4143 matches string it evaluates the following body and returns the
4144 result of that evaluation. If the last pattern argument is default
4145 then it matches anything. If no pattern argument matches string and
4146 no default is given, then the `switch` command returns an empty string.
4147 If the initial arguments to switch start with - then they are treated
4148 as options. The following options are currently supported:
4151 Use exact matching when comparing string to a
4152 pattern. This is the default.
4155 When matching string to the patterns, use glob-style
4156 matching (i.e. the same as implemented by the string
4160 When matching string to the patterns, use regular
4161 expression matching (i.e. the same as implemented
4162 by the regexp command).
4164 +-command 'commandname'+::
4165 When matching string to the patterns, use the given command, which
4166 must be a single word. The command is invoked as
4167 'commandname pattern string', or 'commandname -nocase pattern string'
4168 and must return 1 if matched, or 0 if not.
4171 Marks the end of options. The argument following
4172 this one will be treated as string even if it starts
4175 Two syntaxes are provided for the pattern and body arguments. The
4176 first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands;
4177 this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the
4178 patterns or commands. The second form places all of the patterns
4179 and commands together into a single argument; the argument must
4180 have proper list structure, with the elements of the list being the
4181 patterns and commands. The second form makes it easy to construct
4182 multi-line `switch` commands, since the braces around the whole list
4183 make it unnecessary to include a backslash at the end of each line.
4184 Since the pattern arguments are in braces in the second form, no
4185 command or variable substitutions are performed on them; this makes
4186 the behaviour of the second form different than the first form in
4189 If a body is specified as +-+ it means that the body for the next
4190 pattern should also be used as the body for this pattern (if the
4191 next pattern also has a body of +-+ then the body after that is
4192 used, and so on). This feature makes it possible to share a single
4193 body among several patterns.
4195 Below are some examples of `switch` commands:
4197 switch abc a - b {format 1} abc {format 2} default {format 3}
4201 switch -regexp aaab {
4221 +*tailcall* 'cmd ?arg\...?'+
4223 The `tailcall` command provides an optimised way of invoking a command whilst replacing
4224 the current call frame. This is similar to 'exec' in Bourne Shell.
4226 The following are identical except the first immediately replaces the current call frame.
4230 return [uplevel 1 [list a b c]]
4232 `tailcall` is useful as a dispatch mechanism:
4235 tailcall sub_$cmd {*}$args
4246 Returns a decimal string giving the current access position in
4249 +'fileId'+ must have been the return value from a previous call to
4250 `open`, or it may be +stdin+, +stdout+, or +stderr+ to refer to one
4251 of the standard I/O channels.
4255 +*throw* 'code ?msg?'+
4257 This command throws an exception (return) code along with an optional message.
4258 This command is mostly for convenient usage with `try`.
4260 The command +throw break+ is equivalent to +break+.
4261 The command +throw 20 message+ can be caught with an +on 20 \...+ clause to `try`.
4265 +*time* 'command ?count?'+
4267 This command will call the Tcl interpreter +'count'+
4268 times to execute +'command'+ (or once if +'count'+ isn't
4269 specified). It will then return a string of the form
4271 503 microseconds per iteration
4273 which indicates the average amount of time required per iteration,
4276 Time is measured in elapsed time, not CPU time.
4280 +*try* '?catchopts? tryscript' ?*on* 'returncodes {?resultvar? ?optsvar?} handlerscript \...'? ?*finally* 'finalscript'?+
4282 The `try` command is provided as a convenience for exception handling.
4284 This interpeter first evaluates +'tryscript'+ under the effect of the catch
4285 options +'catchopts'+ (e.g. +-signal -noexit --+, see `catch`).
4287 It then evaluates the script for the first matching 'on' handler
4288 (there many be zero or more) based on the return code from the `try`
4289 section. For example a normal +JIM_ERR+ error will be matched by
4290 an 'on error' handler.
4292 Finally, any +'finalscript'+ is evaluated.
4294 The result of this command is the result of +'tryscript'+, except in the
4295 case where an exception occurs in a matching 'on' handler script or the 'finally' script,
4296 in which case the result is this new exception.
4298 The specified +'returncodes'+ is a list of return codes either as names ('ok', 'error', 'break', etc.)
4301 If +'resultvar'+ and +'optsvar'+ are specified, they are set as for `catch` before evaluating
4302 the matching handler.
4309 } on {continue break} {} {
4310 error "Unexpected break/continue"
4311 } on error {msg opts} {
4312 puts "Dealing with error"
4313 return {*}$opts $msg
4315 puts "Got signal: $sig"
4320 If break, continue or error are raised, they are dealt with by the matching
4323 In any case, the file will be closed via the 'finally' clause.
4325 See also `throw`, `catch`, `return`, `error`.
4329 +*unknown* 'cmdName ?arg arg ...?'+
4331 This command doesn't actually exist as part of Tcl, but Tcl will
4332 invoke it if it does exist.
4334 If the Tcl interpreter encounters a command name for which there
4335 is not a defined command, then Tcl checks for the existence of
4336 a command named `unknown`.
4338 If there is no such command, then the interpreter returns an
4341 If the `unknown` command exists, then it is invoked with
4342 arguments consisting of the fully-substituted name and arguments
4343 for the original non-existent command.
4345 The `unknown` command typically does things like searching
4346 through library directories for a command procedure with the name
4347 +'cmdName'+, or expanding abbreviated command names to full-length,
4348 or automatically executing unknown commands as UNIX sub-processes.
4350 In some cases (such as expanding abbreviations) `unknown` will
4351 change the original command slightly and then (re-)execute it.
4352 The result of the `unknown` command is used as the result for
4353 the original non-existent command.
4357 +*unset ?-nocomplain? ?--?* '?name name ...?'+
4360 Each +'name'+ is a variable name, specified in any of the
4361 ways acceptable to the `set` command.
4363 If a +'name'+ refers to an element of an array, then that
4364 element is removed without affecting the rest of the array.
4366 If a +'name'+ consists of an array name with no parenthesized
4367 index, then the entire array is deleted.
4369 The `unset` command returns an empty string as result.
4371 An error occurs if any of the variables doesn't exist, unless '-nocomplain'
4372 is specified. The '--' argument may be specified to stop option processing
4373 in case the variable name may be '-nocomplain'.
4377 +*upcall* 'command ?args ...?'+
4379 May be used from within a proc defined as `local` `proc` in order to call
4380 the previous, hidden version of the same command.
4382 If there is no previous definition of the command, an error is returned.
4386 +*uplevel* '?level? command ?command ...?'+
4388 All of the +'command'+ arguments are concatenated as if they had
4389 been passed to `concat`; the result is then evaluated in the
4390 variable context indicated by +'level'+. `uplevel` returns
4391 the result of that evaluation. If +'level'+ is an integer, then
4392 it gives a distance (up the procedure calling stack) to move before
4393 executing the command. If +'level'+ consists of +\#+ followed by
4394 a number then the number gives an absolute level number. If +'level'+
4395 is omitted then it defaults to +1+. +'level'+ cannot be
4396 defaulted if the first +'command'+ argument starts with a digit or +#+.
4398 For example, suppose that procedure 'a' was invoked
4399 from top-level, and that it called 'b', and that 'b' called 'c'.
4400 Suppose that 'c' invokes the `uplevel` command. If +'level'+
4401 is +1+ or +#2+ or omitted, then the command will be executed
4402 in the variable context of 'b'. If +'level'+ is +2+ or +#1+
4403 then the command will be executed in the variable context of 'a'.
4405 If +'level'+ is '3' or +#0+ then the command will be executed
4406 at top-level (only global variables will be visible).
4407 The `uplevel` command causes the invoking procedure to disappear
4408 from the procedure calling stack while the command is being executed.
4409 In the above example, suppose 'c' invokes the command
4411 uplevel 1 {set x 43; d}
4413 where 'd' is another Tcl procedure. The `set` command will
4414 modify the variable 'x' in 'b's context, and 'd' will execute
4415 at level 3, as if called from 'b'. If it in turn executes
4420 then the `set` command will modify the same variable 'x' in 'b's
4421 context: the procedure 'c' does not appear to be on the call stack
4422 when 'd' is executing. The command `info level` may
4423 be used to obtain the level of the current procedure.
4425 `uplevel` makes it possible to implement new control
4426 constructs as Tcl procedures (for example, `uplevel` could
4427 be used to implement the `while` construct as a Tcl procedure).
4431 +*upvar* '?level? otherVar myVar ?otherVar myVar ...?'+
4433 This command arranges for one or more local variables in the current
4434 procedure to refer to variables in an enclosing procedure call or
4435 to global variables.
4437 +'level'+ may have any of the forms permitted for the `uplevel`
4438 command, and may be omitted if the first letter of the first +'otherVar'+
4439 isn't +#+ or a digit (it defaults to '1').
4441 For each +'otherVar'+ argument, `upvar` makes the variable
4442 by that name in the procedure frame given by +'level'+ (or at
4443 global level, if +'level'+ is +#0+) accessible
4444 in the current procedure by the name given in the corresponding
4447 The variable named by +'otherVar'+ need not exist at the time of the
4448 call; it will be created the first time +'myVar'+ is referenced, just like
4449 an ordinary variable.
4451 `upvar` may only be invoked from within procedures.
4453 `upvar` returns an empty string.
4455 The `upvar` command simplifies the implementation of call-by-name
4456 procedure calling and also makes it easier to build new control constructs
4458 For example, consider the following procedure:
4465 'add2' is invoked with an argument giving the name of a variable,
4466 and it adds two to the value of that variable.
4467 Although 'add2' could have been implemented using `uplevel`
4468 instead of `upvar`, `upvar` makes it simpler for 'add2'
4469 to access the variable in the caller's procedure frame.
4475 +*wait -nohang* 'pid'+
4477 With no arguments, cleans up any processes started by `exec ... &` that have completed
4478 (reaps zombie processes).
4480 With one or two arguments, waits for a process by id, either returned by `exec ... &`
4481 or by `os.fork` (if supported).
4483 Waits for the process to complete, unless +-nohang+ is specified, in which case returns
4484 immediately if the process is still running.
4486 Returns a list of 3 elements.
4488 +{NONE x x}+ if the process does not exist or has already been waited for, or
4489 if -nohang is specified, and the process is still alive.
4491 +{CHILDSTATUS <pid> <exit-status>}+ if the process exited normally.
4493 +{CHILDKILLED <pid> <signal>}+ if the process terminated on a signal.
4495 +{CHILDSUSP <pid> none}+ if the process terminated for some other reason.
4497 Note that on platforms supporting waitpid(2), +pid+ can also be given special values such
4498 as 0 or -1. See waitpid(2) for more detail.
4502 +*while* 'test body'+
4504 The +'while'+ command evaluates +'test'+ as an expression
4505 (in the same way that `expr` evaluates its argument).
4506 The value of the expression must be numeric; if it is non-zero
4507 then +'body'+ is executed by passing it to the Tcl interpreter.
4509 Once +'body'+ has been executed then +'test'+ is evaluated
4510 again, and the process repeats until eventually +'test'+
4511 evaluates to a zero numeric value. `continue`
4512 commands may be executed inside +'body'+ to terminate the current
4513 iteration of the loop, and `break`
4514 commands may be executed inside +'body'+ to cause immediate
4515 termination of the `while` command.
4517 The `while` command always returns an empty string.
4522 The following extensions may or may not be available depending upon
4523 what options were selected when Jim Tcl was built.
4527 posix: os.fork, os.gethostname, os.getids, os.uptime
4528 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4530 Invokes 'fork(2)' and returns the result.
4532 +*os.gethostname*+::
4533 Invokes 'gethostname(3)' and returns the result.
4536 Returns the various user/group ids for the current process.
4539 uid 1000 euid 1000 gid 100 egid 100
4542 Returns the number of seconds since system boot. See description of 'uptime' in 'sysinfo(2)'.
4544 ANSI I/O (aio) and EVENTLOOP API
4545 --------------------------------
4546 Jim provides an alternative object-based API for I/O.
4548 See `open` and `socket` for commands which return an I/O handle.
4552 +$handle *accept* ?addrvar?+::
4553 Server socket only: Accept a connection and return stream.
4554 If +'addrvar'+ is specified, the address of the connected client is stored
4555 in the named variable in the form 'addr:port'. See `socket` for details.
4557 +$handle *buffering none|line|full*+::
4558 Sets the buffering mode of the stream.
4560 +$handle *close* ?r(ead)|w(rite)?+::
4562 The two-argument form is a "half-close" on a socket. See the +shutdown(2)+ man page.
4564 +$handle *copyto* 'tofd ?size?'+::
4565 Copy bytes to the file descriptor +'tofd'+. If +'size'+ is specified, at most
4566 that many bytes will be copied. Otherwise copying continues until the end
4567 of the input file. Returns the number of bytes actually copied.
4570 Returns 1 if stream is at eof
4572 +$handle *filename*+::
4573 Returns the original filename associated with the handle.
4574 Handles returned by `socket` give the socket type instead of a filename.
4579 +$handle *gets* '?var?'+::
4580 Read one line and return it or store it in the var
4582 +$handle *isatty*+::
4583 Returns 1 if the stream is a tty device.
4586 Apply a POSIX lock to the open file associated with the handle using
4588 The handle must be open for write access.
4589 Returns 1 if the lock was successfully obtained, 0 otherwise.
4590 An error occurs if the handle is not suitable for locking (e.g.
4591 if it is not open for write)
4593 +$handle *ndelay ?0|1?*+::
4594 Set O_NDELAY (if arg). Returns current/new setting.
4595 Note that in general ANSI I/O interacts badly with non-blocking I/O.
4598 +$handle *puts ?-nonewline?* 'str'+::
4599 Write the string, with newline unless -nonewline
4601 +$handle *read ?-nonewline?* '?len?'+::
4602 Read and return bytes from the stream. To eof if no len.
4604 +$handle *recvfrom* 'maxlen ?addrvar?'+::
4605 Receives a message from the handle via recvfrom(2) and returns it.
4606 At most +'maxlen'+ bytes are read.
4607 If +'addrvar'+ is specified, the sending address of the message is stored in
4608 the named variable in the form 'addr:port'. See `socket` for details.
4610 +$handle *seek* 'offset' *?start|current|end?*+::
4611 Seeks in the stream (default 'current')
4613 +$handle *sendto* 'str ?addr:?port'+::
4614 Sends the string, +'str'+, to the given address via the socket using sendto(2).
4615 This is intended for udp/dgram sockets and may give an error or behave in unintended
4616 ways for other handle types.
4617 Returns the number of bytes written.
4619 +$handle *sockopt* '?name value?'+::
4620 With no arguments, returns a dictionary of socket options currently set for the handle
4621 (will be empty for a non-socket). With +'name'+ and +'value'+, sets the socket option
4622 to the given value. Currently supports the following boolean socket options:
4623 +broadcast, debug, keepalive, nosigpipe, oobinline, tcp_nodelay+, and the following
4624 integer socket options: +sndbuf, rcvbuf+
4627 Flush the stream, then fsync(2) to commit any changes to storage.
4628 Only available on platforms that support fsync(2).
4631 Returns the current seek position
4633 +$handle *tty* ?settings?+::
4634 If no arguments are given, returns a dictionary containing the tty settings for the stream.
4635 If arguments are given, they must either be a dictionary, or +setting value \...+
4636 Abbrevations are supported for both settings and values, so the following is acceptable:
4637 +$f tty parity e input c out raw+.
4638 Only available on platforms that support termios(3). Supported settings are:
4641 Baud rate. e.g. 115200
4649 +*parity even|odd|none*+;;
4652 +*handshake xonxoff|rtscts|none*+;;
4655 +*input raw|cooked*+;;
4656 Input character processing. In raw mode, the usual key sequences such as ^C do
4657 not generate signals.
4659 +*output raw|cooked*+;;
4660 Output character processing. Typically CR -> CRNL is disabled in raw mode.
4662 +*vmin* 'numchars'+;;
4663 Minimum number of characters to read.
4666 Timeout for noncanonical read (units of 0.1 seconds)
4668 +$handle *ssl* *?-server cert priv?*+::
4669 Upgrades the stream to a SSL/TLS session and returns the handle.
4671 +$handle *unlock*+::
4672 Release a POSIX lock previously acquired by `aio lock`.
4674 +$handle *verify*+::
4675 Verifies the certificate of a SSL/TLS stream peer
4677 +*load_ssl_certs* 'dir'+::
4678 Loads SSL/TLS CA certificates for use during verification
4682 +*fconfigure* 'handle' *?-blocking 0|1? ?-buffering noneline|full? ?-translation* 'mode'?+::
4683 For compatibility with Tcl, a limited form of the `fconfigure`
4684 command is supported.
4685 * `fconfigure ... -blocking` maps to `aio ndelay`
4686 * `fconfigure ... -buffering` maps to `aio buffering`
4687 * `fconfigure ... -translation` is accepted but ignored
4690 eventloop: after, vwait, update
4691 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4693 The following commands allow a script to be invoked when the given condition occurs.
4694 If no script is given, returns the current script. If the given script is the empty, the
4697 +$handle *readable* '?readable-script?'+::
4698 Sets or returns the script for when the socket is readable.
4700 +$handle *writable* '?writable-script?'+::
4701 Sets or returns the script for when the socket is writable.
4703 +$handle *onexception* '?exception-script?'+::
4704 Sets or returns the script for when oob data received.
4706 For compatibility with 'Tcl', these may be prefixed with `fileevent`. e.g.
4709 +fileevent $handle *readable* '\...'+
4711 Time-based execution is also available via the eventloop API.
4714 Sleeps for the given number of milliseconds. No events are
4715 processed during this time.
4717 +*after* 'ms'|*idle* 'script ?script \...?'+::
4718 The scripts are concatenated and executed after the given
4719 number of milliseconds have elapsed. If 'idle' is specified,
4720 the script will run the next time the event loop is processed
4721 with `vwait` or `update`. The script is only run once and
4722 then removed. Returns an event id.
4724 +*after cancel* 'id|command'+::
4725 Cancels an `after` event with the given event id or matching
4726 command (script). Returns the number of milliseconds
4727 remaining until the event would have fired. Returns the
4728 empty string if no matching event is found.
4730 +*after info* '?id?'+::
4731 If +'id'+ is not given, returns a list of current `after`
4732 events. If +'id'+ is given, returns a list containing the
4733 associated script and either 'timer' or 'idle' to indicated
4734 the type of the event. An error occurs if +'id'+ does not
4737 +*vwait* 'variable'+::
4738 A call to `vwait` enters the eventloop. `vwait` processes
4739 events until the named (global) variable changes or all
4740 event handlers are removed. The variable need not exist
4741 beforehand. If there are no event handlers defined, `vwait`
4742 returns immediately.
4744 +*update ?idletasks?*+::
4745 A call to `update` enters the eventloop to process expired events, but
4746 no new events. If 'idletasks' is specified, only expired time events are handled,
4748 Returns once handlers have been run for all expired events.
4750 Scripts are executed at the global scope. If an error occurs during a handler script,
4751 an attempt is made to call (the user-defined command) `bgerror` with the details of the error.
4752 If the `bgerror` command does not exist, the error message details are printed to stderr instead.
4754 If a file event handler script generates an error, the handler is automatically removed
4755 to prevent infinite errors. (A time event handler is always removed after execution).
4758 Called when an event handler script generates an error. Note that the normal command resolution
4759 rules are used for bgerror. First the name is resolved in the current namespace, then in the
4764 Various socket types may be created.
4766 +*socket unix* 'path'+::
4767 A unix domain socket client.
4769 +*socket unix.server* 'path'+::
4770 A unix domain socket server.
4772 +*socket ?-ipv6? stream* 'addr:port'+::
4773 A TCP socket client. (See the forms for +'addr'+ below)
4775 +*socket ?-ipv6? stream.server* '?addr:?port'+::
4776 A TCP socket server (+'addr'+ defaults to +0.0.0.0+ for IPv4 or +[::]+ for IPv6).
4778 +*socket ?-ipv6? dgram* ?'addr:port'?+::
4779 A UDP socket client. If the address is not specified,
4780 the client socket will be unbound and 'sendto' must be used
4781 to indicated the destination.
4783 +*socket ?-ipv6? dgram.server* 'addr:port'+::
4784 A UDP socket server.
4787 A synonym for `pipe`
4790 A socketpair (see socketpair(2)). Like `pipe`, this command returns
4791 a list of two channels: {s1 s2}. These channels are both readable and writable.
4793 This command creates a socket connected (client) or bound (server) to the given
4796 The returned value is channel and may generally be used with the various file I/O
4797 commands (gets, puts, read, etc.), either as object-based syntax or Tcl-compatible syntax.
4799 . set f [socket stream www.google.com:80]
4801 . $f puts -nonewline "GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n"
4806 Server sockets, however support only 'accept', which is most useful in conjunction with
4809 set f [socket stream.server 80]
4811 set client [$f accept]
4814 $client puts -nonewline "HTTP/1.1 404 Not found\r\n"
4819 The address, +'addr'+, can be given in one of the following forms:
4821 1. For IPv4 socket types, an IPv4 address such as 192.168.1.1
4822 2. For IPv6 socket types, an IPv6 address such as [fe80::1234] or [::]
4825 Note that on many systems, listening on an IPv6 address such as [::] will
4826 also accept requests via IPv4.
4828 Where a hostname is specified, the +'first'+ returned address is used
4829 which matches the socket type is used.
4831 The special type 'pipe' isn't really a socket.
4833 lassign [socket pipe] r w
4835 # Must close $w after exec
4843 +*syslog* '?options? ?priority? message'+
4845 This command sends message to system syslog facility with given
4846 priority. Valid priorities are:
4848 emerg, alert, crit, err, error, warning, notice, info, debug
4850 If a message is specified, but no priority is specified, then a
4851 priority of info is used.
4853 By default, facility user is used and the value of global tcl variable
4854 argv0 is used as ident string. However, any of the following options
4855 may be specified before priority to control these parameters:
4857 +*-facility* 'value'+::
4858 Use specified facility instead of user. The following
4859 values for facility are recognized:
4861 authpriv, cron, daemon, kernel, lpr, mail, news, syslog, user,
4864 +*-ident* 'string'+::
4865 Use given string instead of argv0 variable for ident string.
4867 +*-options* 'integer'+::
4868 Set syslog options such as +LOG_CONS+, +LOG_NDELAY+. You should
4869 use numeric values of those from your system syslog.h file,
4870 because I haven't got time to implement yet another hash
4875 The optional 'pack' extension provides commands to encode and decode binary strings.
4877 +*pack* 'varName value' *-intle|-intbe|-floatle|-floatbe|-str* 'bitwidth ?bitoffset?'+::
4878 Packs the binary representation of +'value'+ into the variable
4879 +'varName'+. The value is packed according to the given type
4880 (integer/floating point/string, big-endian/little-endian), width and bit offset.
4881 The variable is created if necessary (like `append`).
4882 The variable is expanded if necessary.
4884 +*unpack* 'binvalue' *-intbe|-intle|-uintbe|-uintle|-floatbe|-floatle|-str* 'bitpos bitwidth'+::
4885 Unpacks bits from +'binvalue'+ at bit position +'bitpos'+ and with +'bitwidth'+.
4886 Interprets the value according to the type (integer/floating point/string, big-endian/little-endian
4887 and signed/unsigned) and returns it. For integer types, +'bitwidth'+
4888 may be up to the size of a Jim Tcl integer (typically 64 bits). For floating point types,
4889 +'bitwidth'+ may be 32 bits (for single precision numbers) or 64 bits (for double precision).
4890 For the string type, both the width and the offset must be on a byte boundary (multiple of 8). Attempting to
4891 access outside the length of the value will return 0 for integer types, 0.0 for floating point types
4892 or the empty string for the string type.
4896 The optional 'zlib' extension provides a Tcl-compatible subset of the `zlib` command.
4898 +*crc32* 'data' '?startValue?'+::
4899 Returns the CRC32 checksum of a buffer. Optionally, an initial value may be specified; this is most useful
4900 for calculating the checksum of chunked data read from a stream (for instance, a pipe).
4902 +*deflate* 'string' '?level?'+::
4903 Compresses a buffer and outputs a raw, Deflate-compressed stream. Optionally, a compression level (1-9) may
4904 be specified to choose the desired speed vs. compression rate ratio.
4906 +*inflate* 'data' '?bufferSize?'+::
4907 Decompresses a raw, Deflate-compressed stream. When the uncompressed data size is known and specified, memory
4908 allocation is more efficient. Otherwise, decomperssion is chunked and therefore slower.
4910 +*gzip* 'string' '?-level level?'+::
4911 Compresses a buffer and adds a gzip header.
4913 +*gunzip* 'data' '?-buffersize size?'+::
4914 Decompresses a gzip-compressed buffer. Decompression is chunked, with a default, small buffer size of 64K
4915 which guarantees lower memory footprint at the cost of speed. It is recommended to use a bigger size, on
4916 systems without a severe memory constraint.
4920 The optional, pure-Tcl 'binary' extension provides the Tcl-compatible `binary scan` and `binary format`
4921 commands based on the low-level `pack` and `unpack` commands.
4923 See the Tcl documentation at: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TclCmd/binary.htm
4925 Note that 'binary format' with f/r/R specifiers (single-precision float) uses the value of Infinity
4926 in case of overflow.
4930 The optional, pure-Tcl 'oo' extension provides object-oriented (OO) support for Jim Tcl.
4932 See the online documentation (http://jim.tcl.tk/index.html/doc/www/www/documentation/oo/) for more details.
4934 +*class* 'classname ?baseclasses? classvars'+::
4935 Create a new class, +'classname'+, with the given dictionary
4936 (+'classvars'+) as class variables. These are the initial variables
4937 which all newly created objects of this class are initialised with.
4938 If a list of baseclasses is given, methods and instance variables
4941 +*super* 'method ?args \...?'+::
4942 From within a method, invokes the given method on the base class.
4943 Note that this will only call the last baseclass given.
4947 The optional, pure-Tcl 'tree' extension implements an OO, general purpose tree structure
4948 similar to that provided by tcllib ::struct::tree (http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/doc/trunk/embedded/www/tcllib/files/modules/struct/struct_tree.html)
4950 A tree is a collection of nodes, where each node (except the root node) has a single parent
4951 and zero or more child nodes (ordered), as well as zero or more attribute/value pairs.
4954 Creates and returns a new tree object with a single node named "root".
4955 All operations on the tree are invoked through this object.
4958 Destroy the tree and all it's nodes. (Note that the tree will also
4959 be automatically garbage collected once it goes out of scope).
4961 +$tree *set* 'nodename key value'+::
4962 Set the value for the given attribute key.
4964 +$tree *lappend* 'nodename key value \...'+::
4965 Append to the (list) value(s) for the given attribute key, or set if not yet set.
4967 +$tree *keyexists* 'nodename key'+::
4968 Returns 1 if the given attribute key exists.
4970 +$tree *get* 'nodename key'+::
4971 Returns the value associated with the given attribute key.
4973 +$tree *getall* 'nodename'+::
4974 Returns the entire attribute dictionary associated with the given key.
4976 +$tree *depth* 'nodename'+::
4977 Returns the depth of the given node. The depth of "root" is 0.
4979 +$tree *parent* 'nodename'+::
4980 Returns the node name of the parent node, or "" for the root node.
4982 +$tree *numchildren* 'nodename'+::
4983 Returns the number of child nodes.
4985 +$tree *children* 'nodename'+::
4986 Returns a list of the child nodes.
4988 +$tree *next* 'nodename'+::
4989 Returns the next sibling node, or "" if none.
4991 +$tree *insert* 'nodename ?index?'+::
4992 Add a new child node to the given node. The index is a list index
4993 such as +3+ or +end-2+. The default index is +end+.
4994 Returns the name of the newly added node.
4996 +$tree *walk* 'nodename' *dfs|bfs* {'actionvar nodevar'} 'script'+::
4997 Walks the tree starting from the given node, either breadth first (+bfs+)
4998 depth first (+dfs+).
4999 The value +"enter"+ or +"exit"+ is stored in variable +'actionvar'+.
5000 The name of each node is stored in +'nodevar'+.
5001 The script is evaluated twice for each node, on entry and exit.
5004 Dumps the tree contents to stdout
5008 The optional tclprefix extension provides the Tcl8.6-compatible `tcl::prefix` command
5009 (http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/prefix.htm) for matching strings against a table
5010 of possible values (typically commands or options).
5012 +*tcl::prefix all* 'table string'+::
5013 Returns a list of all elements in +'table'+ that begin with the prefix +'string'+.
5015 +*tcl::prefix longest* 'table string'+::
5016 Returns the longest common prefix of all elements in +'table'+ that begin with the prefix +'string'+.
5018 +*tcl::prefix match* '?options? table string'+::
5019 If +'string'+ equals one element in +'table'+ or is a prefix to
5020 exactly one element, the matched element is returned. If not, the
5021 result depends on the +-error+ option.
5023 * +*-exact*+ Accept only exact matches.
5024 * +*-message* 'string'+ Use +'string'+ in the error message at a mismatch. Default is "option".
5025 * +*-error* 'options'+ The options are used when no match is found. If +'options'+ is
5026 empty, no error is generated and an empty string is returned.
5027 Otherwise the options are used as return options when
5028 generating the error message. The default corresponds to
5033 Scriptable command line completion is supported in the interactive shell, 'jimsh', through
5034 the `tcl::autocomplete` callback. A simple implementation is provided, however this may
5035 be replaced with a custom command instead if desired.
5037 In the interactive shell, press <TAB> to activate command line completion.
5039 +*tcl::autocomplete* 'commandline'+::
5040 This command is called with the current command line when the user presses <TAB>.
5041 The command should return a list of all possible command lines that match the current command line.
5042 For example if +*pr*+ is the current command line, the list +*{prefix proc}*+ may be returned.
5046 The optional history extension provides script access to the command line editing
5047 and history support available in 'jimsh'. See 'examples/jtclsh.tcl' for an example.
5048 Note: if line editing support is not available, `history getline` acts like `gets` and
5049 the remaining subcommands do nothing.
5051 +*history load* 'filename'+::
5052 Load history from a (text) file. If the file does not exist or is not readable,
5055 +*history getline* 'prompt ?varname?'+::
5056 Displays the given prompt and allows a line to be entered. Similarly to `gets`,
5057 if +'varname'+ is given, it receives the line and the length of the line is returned,
5058 or -1 on EOF. If +'varname'+ is not given, the line is returned directly.
5060 +*history completion* 'command'+::
5061 Sets an autocompletion command (see `tcl::autocomplete`) that is active during `history getline`.
5062 If the command is empty, autocompletion is disabled.
5064 +*history add* 'line'+::
5065 Adds the given line to the history buffer.
5067 +*history save* 'filename'+::
5068 Saves the current history buffer to the given file.
5071 Displays the current history buffer to standard output.
5075 Provides namespace-related functions. See also: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/namespace.htm
5077 +*namespace code* 'script'+::
5078 Captures the current namespace context for later execution of
5079 the script +'script'+. It returns a new script in which script has
5080 been wrapped in a +*namespace inscope*+ command.
5082 +*namespace current*+::
5083 Returns the fully-qualified name for the current namespace.
5085 +*namespace delete* '?namespace ...?'+::
5086 Deletes all commands and variables with the given namespace prefixes.
5088 +*namespace eval* 'namespace arg ?arg...?'+::
5089 Activates a namespace called +'namespace'+ and evaluates some code in that context.
5091 +*namespace origin* 'command'+::
5092 Returns the fully-qualified name of the original command to which the imported command +'command'+ refers.
5094 +*namespace parent* ?namespace?+::
5095 Returns the fully-qualified name of the parent namespace for namespace +'namespace'+, if given, otherwise
5096 for the current namespace.
5098 +*namespace qualifiers* 'string'+::
5099 Returns any leading namespace qualifiers for +'string'+
5101 +*namespace tail* 'string'+::
5102 Returns the simple name at the end of a qualified string.
5104 +*namespace upvar* 'namespace ?arg...?'+::
5105 This command arranges for zero or more local variables in the current procedure to refer to variables in +'namespace'+
5107 +*namespace which* '?-command|-variable? name'+::
5108 Looks up +'name'+ as either a command (the default) or variable and returns its fully-qualified name.
5112 The optional 'interp' command allows sub-interpreters to be created where commands may be run
5113 independently (but synchronously) of the main interpreter.
5116 Creates and returns a new interpreter object (command).
5117 The created interpeter contains any built-in commands along with static extensions,
5118 but does not include any dynamically loaded commands (package require, load).
5119 These must be reloaded in the child interpreter if required.
5121 +*$interp delete*+::
5122 Deletes the interpeter object.
5124 +*$interp eval* 'script' ...+::
5125 Evaluates a script in the context for the child interpreter, in the same way as 'eval'.
5127 +*$interp alias* 'alias childcmd parentcmd ?arg ...?'+::
5128 Similar to 'alias', but creates a command, +'childcmd'+, in the child interpreter that is an
5129 alias for +'parentcmd'+ in the parent interpreter, with the given, fixed arguments.
5130 The alias may be deleted in the child with 'rename'.
5132 [[BuiltinVariables]]
5136 The following global variables are created automatically
5140 This variable is set by Jim as an array
5141 whose elements are the environment variables for the process.
5142 Reading an element will return the value of the corresponding
5143 environment variable.
5144 This array is initialised at startup from the `env` command.
5145 It may be modified and will affect the environment passed to
5146 commands invoked with `exec`.
5149 This variable is set by Jim as an array containing information
5150 about the platform on which Jim was built. Currently this includes
5151 'os' and 'platform'.
5154 This variable contains a list of paths to search for packages.
5155 It defaults to a location based on where jim is installed
5156 (e.g. +/usr/local/lib/jim+), but may be changed by +jimsh+
5157 or the embedding application. Note that +jimsh+ will consider
5158 the environment variable +$JIMLIB+ to be a list of colon-separated
5159 list of paths to add to +*auto_path*+.
5162 This variable holds the value of the -errorcode return
5163 option set by the most recent error that occurred in this
5164 interpreter. This list value represents additional information
5165 about the error in a form that is easy to process with
5166 programs. The first element of the list identifies a general
5167 class of errors, and determines the format of the rest of
5168 the list. The following formats for -errorcode return options
5169 are used by the Tcl core; individual applications may define
5170 additional formats. Currently only `exec` sets this variable.
5171 Otherwise it will be +NONE+.
5173 The following global variables are set by jimsh.
5175 +*tcl_interactive*+::
5176 This variable is set to 1 if jimsh is started in interactive mode
5180 This variable is set by Jim as an array containing information
5181 about the platform upon which Jim was built. The following is an
5182 example of the contents of this array.
5184 tcl_platform(byteOrder) = littleEndian
5185 tcl_platform(engine) = Jim
5186 tcl_platform(os) = Darwin
5187 tcl_platform(platform) = unix
5188 tcl_platform(pointerSize) = 8
5189 tcl_platform(threaded) = 0
5190 tcl_platform(wordSize) = 8
5191 tcl_platform(pathSeparator) = :
5194 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains the name
5198 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains a list
5199 of any arguments supplied to the script.
5202 If jimsh is invoked to run a script, this variable contains the number
5203 of arguments supplied to the script.
5206 The value of argv[0] when jimsh was invoked.
5208 The following variables have special meaning to Jim Tcl:
5211 If this variable is set, it is considered to be a list of scripts to evaluate
5212 when the current proc exits (local variables), or the interpreter exits (global variable).
5215 +*history::multiline*+::
5216 If this variable is set to "1", interactive line editing operates in multiline mode.
5217 That is, long lines will wrap across multiple lines rather than scrolling within a
5220 CHANGES IN PREVIOUS RELEASES
5221 ----------------------------
5225 1. +platform_tcl()+ settings are now automatically determined
5226 2. Add aio `$handle filename`
5227 3. Add `info channels`
5228 4. The 'bio' extension is gone. Now `aio` supports 'copyto'.
5229 5. Add `exists` command
5230 6. Add the pure-Tcl 'oo' extension
5231 7. The `exec` command now only uses vfork(), not fork()
5232 8. Unit test framework is less verbose and more Tcl-compatible
5233 9. Optional UTF-8 support
5234 10. Optional built-in regexp engine for better Tcl compatibility and UTF-8 support
5235 11. Command line editing in interactive mode, e.g. 'jimsh'
5239 1. `source` now checks that a script is complete (.i.e. not missing a brace)
5240 2. 'info complete' now uses the real parser and so is 100% accurate
5241 3. Better access to live stack frames with 'info frame', `stacktrace` and `stackdump`
5242 4. `tailcall` no longer loses stack trace information
5243 5. Add `alias` and `curry`
5244 6. `lambda`, `alias` and `curry` are implemented via `tailcall` for efficiency
5245 7. `local` allows procedures to be deleted automatically at the end of the current procedure
5246 8. udp sockets are now supported for both clients and servers.
5247 9. vfork-based exec is now working correctly
5248 10. Add 'file tempfile'
5249 11. Add 'socket pipe'
5250 12. Enhance 'try ... on ... finally' to be more Tcl 8.6 compatible
5251 13. It is now possible to `return` from within `try`
5252 14. IPv6 support is now included
5254 16. Event handlers works better if an error occurs. eof handler has been removed.
5255 17. `exec` now sets $::errorCode, and catch sets opts(-errorcode) for exit status
5256 18. Command pipelines via open "|..." are now supported
5257 19. `pid` can now return pids of a command pipeline
5258 20. Add 'info references'
5259 21. Add support for 'after +'ms'+', 'after idle', 'after info', `update`
5260 22. `exec` now sets environment based on $::env
5262 24. Add support for 'lsort -index'
5266 1. Add support to `exec` for '>&', '>>&', '|&', '2>@1'
5267 2. Fix `exec` error messages when special token (e.g. '>') is the last token
5268 3. Fix `subst` handling of backslash escapes.
5269 4. Allow abbreviated options for `subst`
5270 5. Add support for `return`, `break`, `continue` in subst
5271 6. Many `expr` bug fixes
5272 7. Add support for functions in `expr` (e.g. int(), abs()), and also 'in', 'ni' list operations
5273 8. The variable name argument to `regsub` is now optional
5274 9. Add support for 'unset -nocomplain'
5275 10. Add support for list commands: `lassign`, `lrepeat`
5276 11. Fully-functional `lsearch` is now implemented
5277 12. Add 'info nameofexecutable' and 'info returncodes'
5278 13. Allow `catch` to determine what return codes are caught
5279 14. Allow `incr` to increment an unset variable by first setting to 0
5280 15. Allow 'args' and optional arguments to the left or required arguments in `proc`
5282 17. Add 'try ... finally' command
5288 Copyright 2005 Salvatore Sanfilippo <antirez@invece.org>
5289 Copyright 2005 Clemens Hintze <c.hintze@gmx.net>
5290 Copyright 2005 patthoyts - Pat Thoyts <patthoyts@users.sf.net>
5291 Copyright 2008 oharboe - Oyvind Harboe - oyvind.harboe@zylin.com
5292 Copyright 2008 Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
5293 Copyright 2008 Duane Ellis <openocd@duaneellis.com>
5294 Copyright 2008 Uwe Klein <uklein@klein-messgeraete.de>
5295 Copyright 2009 Steve Bennett <steveb@workware.net.au>
5298 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5299 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
5301 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
5302 notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
5303 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
5304 copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
5305 disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
5306 provided with the distribution.
5308 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE JIM TCL PROJECT ``AS IS'' AND ANY
5309 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
5310 THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
5311 PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
5312 JIM TCL PROJECT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
5313 INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
5314 (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
5315 OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
5316 HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
5317 STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
5318 ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
5319 ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
5321 The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation
5322 are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing
5323 official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Jim Tcl Project.