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man pages section 3: Extended Library Functions, Volume 1

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Updated: Wednesday, July 27, 2022
 
 

Tcl_CreateCommand (3tcl)

Name

Tcl_CreateCommand - implement new commands in C

Synopsis

#include <tcl.h>

Tcl_Command
Tcl_CreateCommand(interp, cmdName, proc, clientData, deleteProc)

Description

Tcl_CreateCommand(3tcl)     Tcl Library Procedures     Tcl_CreateCommand(3tcl)



______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       Tcl_CreateCommand - implement new commands in C

SYNOPSIS
       #include <tcl.h>

       Tcl_Command
       Tcl_CreateCommand(interp, cmdName, proc, clientData, deleteProc)

ARGUMENTS
       Tcl_Interp *interp (in)                     Interpreter   in  which  to
                                                   create new command.

       const char *cmdName (in)                    Name of command.

       Tcl_CmdProc *proc (in)                      Implementation of new  com-
                                                   mand:   proc will be called
                                                   whenever cmdName is invoked
                                                   as a command.

       ClientData clientData (in)                  Arbitrary one-word value to
                                                   pass    to     proc     and
                                                   deleteProc.

       Tcl_CmdDeleteProc *deleteProc (in)          Procedure  to  call  before
                                                   cmdName is deleted from the
                                                   interpreter;   allows   for
                                                   command-specific   cleanup.
                                                   If  NULL, then no procedure
                                                   is called before  the  com-
                                                   mand is deleted.
______________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION
       Tcl_CreateCommand  defines  a  new  command in interp and associates it
       with procedure proc such that whenever cmdName is invoked as a Tcl com-
       mand  (via  a  call  to Tcl_Eval) the Tcl interpreter will call proc to
       process the command.  It differs from Tcl_CreateObjCommand  in  that  a
       new  string-based  command  is defined; that is, a command procedure is
       defined that takes an array of argument strings instead of values.  The
       value-based  command  procedures registered by Tcl_CreateObjCommand can
       execute significantly faster than the string-based  command  procedures
       defined  by Tcl_CreateCommand.  This is because they take Tcl values as
       arguments and those values can retain an internal  representation  that
       can  be manipulated more efficiently.  Also, Tcl's interpreter now uses
       values internally.  In order to invoke a string-based command procedure
       registered  by  Tcl_CreateCommand,  it must generate and fetch a string
       representation from each argument value before the call.  New  commands
       should  be  defined using Tcl_CreateObjCommand.  We support Tcl_Create-
       Command for backwards compatibility.

       The procedures Tcl_DeleteCommand, Tcl_GetCommandInfo,  and  Tcl_SetCom-
       mandInfo are used in conjunction with Tcl_CreateCommand.

       Tcl_CreateCommand  will  delete  an existing command cmdName, if one is
       already associated with the interpreter.  It returns a token  that  may
       be  used to refer to the command in subsequent calls to Tcl_GetCommand-
       Name.  If cmdName contains any :: namespace qualifiers, then  the  com-
       mand  is  added  to  the  specified namespace; otherwise the command is
       added to the global namespace.  If Tcl_CreateCommand is called  for  an
       interpreter  that  is in the process of being deleted, then it does not
       create a new command and it returns NULL.  Proc should  have  arguments
       and result that match the type Tcl_CmdProc:

              typedef int Tcl_CmdProc(
                      ClientData clientData,
                      Tcl_Interp *interp,
                      int argc,
                      const char *argv[]);

       When  proc  is  invoked  the  clientData  and interp parameters will be
       copies of the clientData and interp arguments given  to  Tcl_CreateCom-
       mand.   Typically,  clientData  points  to an application-specific data
       structure that describes what to  do  when  the  command  procedure  is
       invoked.   Argc  and  argv  describe the arguments to the command, argc
       giving the number of arguments (including the command  name)  and  argv
       giving  the  values  of  the arguments as strings.  The argv array will
       contain argc+1 values; the first argc  values  point  to  the  argument
       strings,  and  the  last value is NULL.  Note that the argument strings
       should not be modified as they may point to constant strings or may  be
       shared with other parts of the interpreter.

       Note  that  the  argument strings are encoded in normalized UTF-8 since
       version 8.1 of Tcl.

       Proc must return an integer code that is expected to be one of  TCL_OK,
       TCL_ERROR,  TCL_RETURN,  TCL_BREAK, or TCL_CONTINUE.  See the Tcl over-
       view man page for details on what these codes mean.  Most  normal  com-
       mands will only return TCL_OK or TCL_ERROR.  In addition, proc must set
       the interpreter result; in the case of a TCL_OK return code this  gives
       the  result  of  the  command, and in the case of TCL_ERROR it gives an
       error message.  The Tcl_SetResult procedure provides an easy  interface
       for  setting  the return value;  for complete details on how the inter-
       preter result field is managed, see the Tcl_Interp  man  page.   Before
       invoking  a  command procedure, Tcl_Eval sets the interpreter result to
       point to an empty string, so simple commands can return an empty result
       by doing nothing at all.

       The  contents of the argv array belong to Tcl and are not guaranteed to
       persist once proc returns:  proc should not modify them, nor should  it
       set  the  interpreter  result to point anywhere within the argv values.
       Call Tcl_SetResult with status TCL_VOLATILE if you want to return some-
       thing from the argv array.

       DeleteProc will be invoked when (if) cmdName is deleted. This can occur
       through a call to Tcl_DeleteCommand or Tcl_DeleteInterp, or by  replac-
       ing  cmdName  in  another  call  to  Tcl_CreateCommand.   DeleteProc is
       invoked before the command is deleted, and  gives  the  application  an
       opportunity  to  release  any  structures  associated with the command.
       DeleteProc should  have  arguments  and  result  that  match  the  type
       Tcl_CmdDeleteProc:

              typedef void Tcl_CmdDeleteProc(
                      ClientData clientData);

       The  clientData  argument  will  be the same as the clientData argument
       passed to Tcl_CreateCommand.


ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:


       +---------------+------------------+
       |ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE  |
       +---------------+------------------+
       |Availability   | runtime/tcl-8    |
       +---------------+------------------+
       |Stability      | Uncommitted      |
       +---------------+------------------+

SEE ALSO
       Tcl_CreateObjCommand, Tcl_DeleteCommand,  Tcl_GetCommandInfo,  Tcl_Set-
       CommandInfo, Tcl_GetCommandName, Tcl_SetObjResult

KEYWORDS
       bind, command, create, delete, interpreter, namespace



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  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl-
       core8.6.7-src.tar.gz.

       Further information about this software can be found on the open source
       community website at https://www.tcl.tk/.



Tcl                                                    Tcl_CreateCommand(3tcl)