NAME

       Tcl_Interp  -  client-visible fields of interpreter struc­
       tures


SYNOPSIS

       #include <tcl.h>

       typedef struct {
            char *result;
            Tcl_FreeProc *freeProc;
            int errorLine;
       } Tcl_Interp;

       typedef void Tcl_FreeProc(char *blockPtr);
_________________________________________________________________


DESCRIPTION

       The Tcl_CreateInterp procedure  returns  a  pointer  to  a
       Tcl_Interp  structure.   This  pointer is then passed into
       other Tcl procedures to process  commands  in  the  inter­
       preter  and  perform  other operations on the interpreter.
       Interpreter structures contain many many fields  that  are
       used  by  Tcl,  but  only  three  that  may be accessed by
       clients:  result, freeProc, and errorLine.

       The result and freeProc fields are used to return  results
       or  error  messages  from  commands.   This information is
       returned by command procedures back to  Tcl_Eval,  and  by
       Tcl_Eval  back to its callers.  The result field points to
       the string that represents the result  or  error  message,
       and the freeProc field tells how to dispose of the storage
       for the string when it isn't needed anymore.  The  easiest
       way  for  command procedures to manipulate these fields is
       to call procedures like Tcl_SetResult or Tcl_AppendResult;
       they  will  hide  all  the details of managing the fields.
       The description below is for those procedures that manipu­
       late the fields directly.

       Whenever  a command procedure returns, it must ensure that
       the result field of its interpreter points to  the  string
       being  returned  by  the  command.   The result field must
       always point to a valid string.  If a  command  wishes  to
       return  no  result  then interp->result should point to an
       empty string.  Normally, results are assumed to be  stati­
       cally  allocated,  which  means that the contents will not
       change before the next time Tcl_Eval  is  called  or  some
       other  command  procedure  is  invoked.  In this case, the |
       freeProc field must be  zero.   Alternatively,  a  command |
       procedure  may dynamically allocate its return value (e.g. |
       using  Tcl_Alloc)  and  store   a   pointer   to   it   in |
       interp->result.   In this case, the command procedure must |

       that can free the value, or TCL_DYNAMIC if the storage was |
       allocated directly by Tcl or by a call to  Tcl_Alloc.   If
       interp->freeProc  is non-zero, then Tcl will call freeProc
       to free the space pointed to by interp->result  before  it
       invokes  the  next  command.   If a client procedure over­
       writes interp->result when interp->freeProc  is  non-zero,
       then  it  is  responsible for calling freeProc to free the
       old interp->result (the  Tcl_FreeResult  macro  should  be
       used for this purpose).

       FreeProc  should  have arguments and result that match the
       Tcl_FreeProc declaration  above:   it  receives  a  single
       argument  which  is a pointer to the result value to free. |
       In most applications  TCL_DYNAMIC  is  the  only  non-zero |
       value ever used for freeProc.  However, an application may
       store a different procedure address in freeProc  in  order
       to  use  an  alternate  memory allocator or in order to do
       other cleanup when the result memory is freed.

       As part of processing each command,  Tcl_Eval  initializes
       interp->result  and  interp->freeProc  just before calling
       the command procedure for the command.  The freeProc field
       will be initialized to zero, and interp->result will point
       to an empty string.  Commands that do not return any value
       can simply leave the fields alone.  Furthermore, the empty
       string pointed to by result is actually part of  an  array
       of  TCL_RESULT_SIZE  characters (approximately 200).  If a
       command wishes to return a short  string,  it  can  simply
       copy  it to the area pointed to by interp->result.  Or, it
       can use the sprintf procedure to generate a  short  result
       string at the location pointed to by interp->result.

       It  is a general convention in Tcl-based applications that
       the result of an interpreter is normally in  the  initial­
       ized  state  described  in the previous paragraph.  Proce­
       dures that manipulate an  interpreter's  result  (e.g.  by
       returning  an error) will generally assume that the result
       has been initialized when the  procedure  is  called.   If
       such a procedure is to be called after the result has been
       changed, then Tcl_ResetResult should be  called  first  to
       reset the result to its initialized state.  The direct use
       of interp->result is strongly deprecated  (see  Tcl_SetRe­
       sult).

       The errorLine field is valid only after Tcl_Eval returns a
       TCL_ERROR return code.  In this  situation  the  errorLine
       field identifies the line number of the command being exe­
       cuted when the error occurred.  The line numbers are rela­
       tive  to  the  command  being executed:  1 means the first
       line of the command passed to Tcl_Eval, 2 means the second
       line, and so on.  The errorLine field is typically used in
       conjunction with Tcl_AddErrorInfo  to  report  information
       about  where  an  error  occurred.   ErrorLine  should not



KEYWORDS

       free, initialized, interpreter, malloc, result


Man(1) output converted with man2html