'\" Copyright (c) 1995-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: fconfigure.n,v 1.7.2.2 2004/10/27 12:52:40 dkf Exp $
'\" The definitions below are for supplemental macros used in Tcl/Tk
'\" .AP type name in/out ?indent?
'\" Start paragraph describing an argument to a library procedure.
'\" type is type of argument (int, etc.), in/out is either "in", "out",
'\" or "in/out" to describe whether procedure reads or modifies arg,
'\" and indent is equivalent to second arg of .IP (shouldn't ever be
'\" needed; use .AS below instead)
'\" Give maximum sizes of arguments for setting tab stops. Type and
'\" name are examples of largest possible arguments that will be passed
'\" to .AP later. If args are omitted, default tab stops are used.
'\" Start box enclosure. From here until next .BE, everything will be
'\" enclosed in one large box.
'\" End of box enclosure.
'\" Begin vertical sidebar, for use in marking newly-changed parts
'\" of man pages. The first argument is ignored and used for recording
'\" the version when the .VS was added, so that the sidebars can be
'\" found and removed when they reach a certain age. If another argument
'\" is present, then a line break is forced before starting the sidebar.
'\" End of vertical sidebar.
'\" Begin an indented unfilled display.
'\" End of indented unfilled display.
'\" Start of list of standard options for a Tk widget. The
'\" options follow on successive lines, in four columns separated
'\" End of list of standard options for a Tk widget.
'\" .OP cmdName dbName dbClass
'\" Start of description of a specific option. cmdName gives the
'\" option's name as specified in the class command, dbName gives
'\" the option's name in the option database, and dbClass gives
'\" the option's class in the option database.
'\" Print arg1 underlined, then print arg2 normally.
'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: man.macros,v 1.4 2000/08/25 06:18:32 ericm Exp $
'\" # Set up traps and other miscellaneous stuff for Tcl/Tk man pages.
'\" # Start an argument description
. ie !"\\$2"" .TP \\n()Cu
\&\\$1 \\fI\\$2\\fP (\\$3)
'\" # define tabbing values for .AP
.if !"\\$1"" .nr )A \\w'\\$1'u+3n
.if !"\\$2"" .nr )B \\w'\\$2'u+\\n()Au+3n
.nr )C \\n()Bu+\\w'(in/out)'u+2n
.AS Tcl_Interp Tcl_CreateInterp in/out
'\" # BS - start boxed text
'\" # ^y = starting y location
'\" # BE - end boxed text (draw box now)
.\" Draw four-sided box normally, but don't draw top of
.\" box if the box started on an earlier page.
\h'-1.5n'\L'|\\n(^yu-1v'\l'\\n(^lu+3n\(ul'\L'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^yu'\l'|0u-1.5n\(ul'
\h'-1.5n'\L'|\\n(^yu-1v'\h'\\n(^lu+3n'\L'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^yu'\l'|0u-1.5n\(ul'
'\" # VS - start vertical sidebar
'\" # ^Y = starting y location
'\" # ^v = 1 (for troff; for nroff this doesn't matter)
'\" # VE - end of vertical sidebar
\h'|\\n(^lu+3n'\L'|\\n(^Yu-1v\(bv'\v'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^Yu'\h'-|\\n(^lu+3n'
'\" # Special macro to handle page bottom: finish off current
'\" # box/sidebar if in box/sidebar mode, then invoked standard
.\" Draw three-sided box if this is the box's first page,
.\" draw two sides but no top otherwise.
.ie !\\n(^b-1 \h'-1.5n'\L'|\\n(^yu-1v'\l'\\n(^lu+3n\(ul'\L'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^yu'\h'|0u'\c
.el \h'-1.5n'\L'|\\n(^yu-1v'\h'\\n(^lu+3n'\L'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^yu'\h'|0u'\c
.nr ^x \\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^Yu
\kx\h'-\\nxu'\h'|\\n(^lu+3n'\ky\L'-\\n(^xu'\v'\\n(^xu'\h'|0u'\c
'\" # SO - start of list of standard options
'\" # SE - end of list of standard options
See the \\fBoptions\\fR manual entry for details on the standard options.
'\" # OP - start of full description for a single option
Command-Line Name: \\fB\\$1\\fR
Database Name: \\fB\\$2\\fR
Database Class: \\fB\\$3\\fR
'\" # CS - begin code excerpt
'\" # CE - end code excerpt
.TH fconfigure n 8.3 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
'\" Note: do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
fconfigure \- Set and get options on a channel
\fBfconfigure \fIchannelId\fR
\fBfconfigure \fIchannelId\fR \fIname\fR
\fBfconfigure \fIchannelId\fR \fIname value \fR?\fIname value ...\fR?
The \fBfconfigure\fR command sets and retrieves options for channels.
\fIChannelId\fR identifies the channel for which to set or query an
option and must refer to an open channel such as a Tcl standard
channel (\fBstdin\fR, \fBstdout\fR, or \fBstderr\fR), the return
value from an invocation of \fBopen\fR or \fBsocket\fR, or the result
of a channel creation command provided by a Tcl extension.
If no \fIname\fR or \fIvalue\fR arguments are supplied, the command
returns a list containing alternating option names and values for the channel.
If \fIname\fR is supplied but no \fIvalue\fR then the command returns
the current value of the given option.
If one or more pairs of \fIname\fR and \fIvalue\fR are supplied, the
command sets each of the named options to the corresponding \fIvalue\fR;
in this case the return value is an empty string.
The options described below are supported for all channels. In addition,
each channel type may add options that only it supports. See the manual
entry for the command that creates each type of channels for the options
that that specific type of channel supports. For example, see the manual
entry for the \fBsocket\fR command for its additional options.
\fB\-blocking\fR \fIboolean\fR
The \fB\-blocking\fR option determines whether I/O operations on the
channel can cause the process to block indefinitely.
The value of the option must be a proper boolean value.
Channels are normally in blocking mode; if a channel is placed into
nonblocking mode it will affect the operation of the \fBgets\fR,
\fBread\fR, \fBputs\fR, \fBflush\fR, and \fBclose\fR commands;
see the documentation for those commands for details.
For nonblocking mode to work correctly, the application must be
using the Tcl event loop (e.g. by calling \fBTcl_DoOneEvent\fR or
invoking the \fBvwait\fR command).
\fB\-buffering\fR \fInewValue\fR
If \fInewValue\fR is \fBfull\fR then the I/O system will buffer output
until its internal buffer is full or until the \fBflush\fR command is
invoked. If \fInewValue\fR is \fBline\fR, then the I/O system will
automatically flush output for the channel whenever a newline character
is output. If \fInewValue\fR is \fBnone\fR, the I/O system will flush
automatically after every output operation. The default is for
\fB\-buffering\fR to be set to \fBfull\fR except for channels that
connect to terminal-like devices; for these channels the initial setting
is \fBline\fR. Additionally, \fBstdin\fR and \fBstdout\fR are
initially set to \fBline\fR, and \fBstderr\fR is set to \fBnone\fR.
\fB\-buffersize\fR \fInewSize\fR
\fINewvalue\fR must be an integer; its value is used to set the size of
buffers, in bytes, subsequently allocated for this channel to store input
or output. \fINewvalue\fR must be between ten and one million, allowing
buffers of ten to one million bytes in size.
\fB\-encoding\fR \fIname\fR
This option is used to specify the encoding of the channel, so that the data
can be converted to and from Unicode for use in Tcl. For instance, in
order for Tcl to read characters from a Japanese file in \fBshiftjis\fR
and properly process and display the contents, the encoding would be set
to \fBshiftjis\fR. Thereafter, when reading from the channel, the bytes in
the Japanese file would be converted to Unicode as they are read.
Writing is also supported \- as Tcl strings are written to the channel they
will automatically be converted to the specified encoding on output.
If a file contains pure binary data (for instance, a JPEG image), the
encoding for the channel should be configured to be \fBbinary\fR. Tcl
will then assign no interpretation to the data in the file and simply read or
write raw bytes. The Tcl \fBbinary\fR command can be used to manipulate this
The default encoding for newly opened channels is the same platform- and
locale-dependent system encoding used for interfacing with the operating
\fB\-eofchar\fR \fIchar\fR
\fB\-eofchar\fR \fB{\fIinChar outChar\fB}\fR
This option supports DOS file systems that use Control-z (\ex1a) as an
end of file marker. If \fIchar\fR is not an empty string, then this
character signals end-of-file when it is encountered during input. For
output, the end-of-file character is output when the channel is closed.
If \fIchar\fR is the empty string, then there is no special end of file
character marker. For read-write channels, a two-element list specifies
the end of file marker for input and output, respectively. As a
convenience, when setting the end-of-file character for a read-write
channel you can specify a single value that will apply to both reading
and writing. When querying the end-of-file character of a read-write
channel, a two-element list will always be returned. The default value
for \fB\-eofchar\fR is the empty string in all cases except for files
under Windows. In that case the \fB\-eofchar\fR is Control-z (\ex1a) for
reading and the empty string for writing.
\fB\-translation\fR \fImode\fR
\fB\-translation\fR \fB{\fIinMode outMode\fB}\fR
In Tcl scripts the end of a line is always represented using a single
newline character (\en). However, in actual files and devices the end of
a line may be represented differently on different platforms, or even for
different devices on the same platform. For example, under UNIX newlines
are used in files, whereas carriage-return-linefeed sequences are
normally used in network connections. On input (i.e., with \fBgets\fP
and \fBread\fP) the Tcl I/O system automatically translates the external
end-of-line representation into newline characters. Upon output (i.e.,
with \fBputs\fP), the I/O system translates newlines to the external
end-of-line representation. The default translation mode, \fBauto\fP,
handles all the common cases automatically, but the \fB\-translation\fR
option provides explicit control over the end of line translations.
The value associated with \fB\-translation\fR is a single item for
read-only and write-only channels. The value is a two-element list for
read-write channels; the read translation mode is the first element of
the list, and the write translation mode is the second element. As a
convenience, when setting the translation mode for a read-write channel
you can specify a single value that will apply to both reading and
writing. When querying the translation mode of a read-write channel, a
two-element list will always be returned. The following values are
As the input translation mode, \fBauto\fR treats any of newline
(\fBlf\fP), carriage return (\fBcr\fP), or carriage return followed by a
newline (\fBcrlf\fP) as the end of line representation. The end of line
representation can even change from line-to-line, and all cases are
translated to a newline. As the output translation mode, \fBauto\fR
chooses a platform specific representation; for sockets on all platforms
Tcl chooses \fBcrlf\fR, for all Unix flavors, it chooses \fBlf\fR, for the
Macintosh platform it chooses \fBcr\fR and for the various flavors of
Windows it chooses \fBcrlf\fR. The default setting for
\fB\-translation\fR is \fBauto\fR for both input and output.
No end-of-line translations are performed. This is nearly identical to
\fBlf\fP mode, except that in addition \fBbinary\fP mode also sets the
end-of-file character to the empty string (which disables it) and sets the
encoding to \fBbinary\fR (which disables encoding filtering). See the
description of \fB\-eofchar\fR and \fB\-encoding\fR for more information.
The end of a line in the underlying file or device is represented by a
single carriage return character. As the input translation mode,
\fBcr\fP mode converts carriage returns to newline characters. As the
output translation mode, \fBcr\fP mode translates newline characters to
carriage returns. This mode is typically used on Macintosh platforms.
The end of a line in the underlying file or device is represented by a
carriage return character followed by a linefeed character. As the input
translation mode, \fBcrlf\fP mode converts carriage-return-linefeed
sequences to newline characters. As the output translation mode,
\fBcrlf\fP mode translates newline characters to carriage-return-linefeed
sequences. This mode is typically used on Windows platforms and for
The end of a line in the underlying file or device is represented by a
single newline (linefeed) character. In this mode no translations occur
during either input or output. This mode is typically used on UNIX
The Tcl standard channels (\fBstdin\fR, \fBstdout\fR, and \fBstderr\fR)
can be configured through this command like every other channel opened
by the Tcl library. Beyond the standard options described above they
will also support any special option according to their current type.
If, for example, a Tcl application is started by the \fBinet\fR
super-server common on Unix system its Tcl standard channels will be
sockets and thus support the socket options.
Instruct Tcl to always send output to \fBstdout\fR immediately,
whether or not it is to a terminal:
\fBfconfigure\fR stdout -buffering none
Open a socket and read lines from it without ever blocking the
processing of other events:
set s [socket some.where.com 12345]
\fBfconfigure\fR $s -blocking 0
fileevent $s readable "readMe $s"
if {[gets $chan line] < 0} {
# Could not read a complete line this time; Tcl's
# internal buffering will hold the partial line for us
# until some more data is available over the socket.
Read a PPM-format image from a file:
# Open the file and put it into Unix ASCII mode
\fBfconfigure\fR $f \-encoding ascii \-translation lf
error "not a raw\-bits PPM"
# Read lines until we have got non-comment lines
# that supply us with three decimal values.
while {[llength $words] < 3} {
if {[string match "#*" $line]} continue
lappend words [eval concat [scan $line %d%d%d]]
# Those words supply the size of the image and its
# overall depth per channel. Assign to variables.
foreach {xSize ySize depth} $words {break}
# Now switch to binary mode to pull in the data,
# one byte per channel (red,green,blue) per pixel.
\fBfconfigure\fR $f \-translation binary
set numDataBytes [expr {3 * $xSize * $ySize}]
set data [read $f $numDataBytes]
close(n), flush(n), gets(n), open(n), puts(n), read(n), socket(n),
blocking, buffering, carriage return, end of line, flushing, linemode,
newline, nonblocking, platform, translation, encoding, filter, byte array,
projects / OpenSPARC-T2-SAM / blob