option - Add/retrieve window options to/from the option database
option add pattern value ?priority? option clear option get window name class option readfile fileName ?priority?
option(1t) Tk Built-In Commands option(1t)
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NAME
option - Add/retrieve window options to/from the option database
SYNOPSIS
option add pattern value ?priority?
option clear
option get window name class
option readfile fileName ?priority?
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DESCRIPTION
The option command allows you to add entries to the Tk option database
or to retrieve options from the database. The add form of the command
adds a new option to the database. Pattern contains the option being
specified, and consists of names and/or classes separated by asterisks
or dots, in the usual X format (see PATTERN FORMAT). Value contains a
text string to associate with pattern; this is the value that will be
returned in calls to Tk_GetOption or by invocations of the option get
command. If priority is specified, it indicates the priority level for
this option (see below for legal values); it defaults to interactive.
This command always returns an empty string.
The option clear command clears the option database. Default options
(from the RESOURCE_MANAGER property or the .Xdefaults file) will be
reloaded automatically the next time an option is added to the database
or removed from it. This command always returns an empty string.
The option get command returns the value of the option specified for
window under name and class. If several entries in the option database
match window, name, and class, then the command returns whichever was
created with highest priority level. If there are several matching
entries at the same priority level, then it returns whichever entry was
most recently entered into the option database. If there are no match-
ing entries, then the empty string is returned.
The readfile form of the command reads fileName, which should have the
standard format for an X resource database such as .Xdefaults, and adds
all the options specified in that file to the option database. If pri-
ority is specified, it indicates the priority level at which to enter
the options; priority defaults to interactive.
The file is read through a channel which is in "utf-8" encoding,
invalid byte sequences are automatically converted to valid ones. This
means that encodings like ISO 8859-1 or cp1252 with high probability
will work as well, but this cannot be guaranteed. This cannot be
changed, setting the [encoding system] has no effect.
The priority arguments to the option command are normally specified
symbolically using one of the following values:
widgetDefault
Level 20. Used for default values hard-coded into widgets.
startupFile
Level 40. Used for options specified in application-specific
startup files.
userDefault
Level 60. Used for options specified in user-specific defaults
files, such as .Xdefaults, resource databases loaded into the X
server, or user-specific startup files.
interactive
Level 80. Used for options specified interactively after the
application starts running. If priority is not specified, it
defaults to this level.
Any of the above keywords may be abbreviated. In addition, priorities
may be specified numerically using integers between 0 and 100, inclu-
sive. The numeric form is probably a bad idea except for new priority
levels other than the ones given above.
PATTERN FORMAT
Patterns consist of a sequence of words separated by either periods,
".", or asterisks "*". The overall pattern may also be optionally pre-
ceded by an asterisk.
Each word in the pattern conventionally starts with either an upper-
case letter (in which case it denotes the class of either a widget or
an option) or any other character, when it denotes the name of a widget
or option. The last word in the pattern always indicates the option;
the preceding ones constrain which widgets that option will be looked
for in.
When two words are separated by a period, the latter widget must be a
direct child of the former (or the option must apply to only the indi-
cated widgets). When two words are separated by an asterisk, any depth
of widgets may lie between the former and latter widgets (and the
option applies to all widgets that are children of the former widget).
If the overall pattern is preceded by an asterisk, then the overall
pattern applies anywhere it can throughout the whole widget hierarchy.
Otherwise the first word of the pattern is matched against the name and
class of the "." toplevel, which are usually set by options to wish.
EXAMPLES
Instruct every button in the application to have red text on it unless
explicitly overridden, by setting the foreground for the Button class
(note that on some platforms the option is ignored):
option add *Button.foreground red startupFile
Allow users to control what happens in an entry widget when the Return
key is pressed by specifying a script in the option database and add a
default option for that which rings the bell:
entry .e
bind .e <Return> [option get .e returnCommand Command]
option add *.e.returnCommand bell widgetDefault
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | runtime/tk-8 |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
SEE ALSO
options(n), wish(1)
KEYWORDS
database, option, priority, retrieve
NOTES
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from https://source-
forge.net/projects/tcl/files/Tcl/8.6.7/tk8.6.7-src.tar.gz/download.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at https://www.tcl.tk/.
Tk option(1t)