NAME

       auto_execok,    auto_import,    auto_load,   auto_mkindex,
       auto_mkindex_old,  auto_qualify,  auto_reset,  tcl_findLi­
       brary,    parray,    tcl_endOfWord,   tcl_startOfNextWord,
       tcl_startOfPreviousWord,   tcl_wordBreakAfter,   tcl_word­
       BreakBefore - standard library of Tcl procedures


SYNOPSIS

       auto_execok cmd
       auto_import pattern
       auto_load cmd
       auto_mkindex dir pattern pattern ...
       auto_mkindex_old dir pattern pattern ...
       auto_qualify command namespace
       auto_reset
       tcl_findLibrary basename version patch initScript enVarName varName
       parray arrayName
       tcl_endOfWord str start                                    |
       tcl_startOfNextWord str start                              |
       tcl_startOfPreviousWord str start                          |
       tcl_wordBreakAfter str start                               |
       tcl_wordBreakBefore str start                              |
_________________________________________________________________


INTRODUCTION

       Tcl  includes  a  library  of Tcl procedures for commonly-
       needed functions.   The  procedures  defined  in  the  Tcl
       library  are generic ones suitable for use by many differ­
       ent applications.  The location  of  the  Tcl  library  is
       returned  by the info library command.  In addition to the
       Tcl library, each application will normally have  its  own
       library  of  support  procedures as well;  the location of
       this library  is  normally  given  by  the  value  of  the
       $app_library global variable, where app is the name of the
       application.  For example, the location of the Tk  library
       is kept in the variable $tk_library.

       To  access  the procedures in the Tcl library, an applica­
       tion should source the file init.tcl in the  library,  for
       example with the Tcl command
              source [file join [info library] init.tcl]
       If  the  library  procedure  Tcl_Init  is  invoked from an
       application's Tcl_AppInit procedure, this happens automat­
       ically.  The code in init.tcl will define the unknown pro­
       cedure and arrange for the other procedures to  be  loaded
       on-demand using the auto-load mechanism defined below.


COMMAND PROCEDURES

       The following procedures are provided in the Tcl library:

              Determines  whether  there is an executable file or
              shell builtin by the name cmd.  If so, it returns a
              list  of  arguments to be passed to exec to execute
              the executable file or shell builtin named by  cmd.
              If  not,  it returns an empty string.  This command
              examines the directories in the current search path
              (given  by  the  PATH  environment variable) in its
              search for an executable file named cmd.   On  Win­
              dows  platforms,  the  search  is expanded with the
              same directories and file  extensions  as  used  by
              exec.  Auto_exec remembers information about previ­
              ous searches in an array  named  auto_execs;   this
              avoids the path search in future calls for the same
              cmd.  The command auto_reset may be used  to  force
              auto_execok to forget its cached information.

       auto_import pattern
              Auto_import  is  invoked during namespace import to
              see if the imported commands specified  by  pattern
              reside  in  an autoloaded library.  If so, the com­
              mands are loaded so that they will be available  to
              the  interpreter for creating the import links.  If
              the  commands  do  not  reside  in  an   autoloaded
              library, auto_import does nothing.

       auto_load cmd
              This  command attempts to load the definition for a
              Tcl command named cmd.  To do this, it searches  an
              auto-load  path,  which  is  a  list of one or more
              directories.  The auto-load path is  given  by  the
              global  variable $auto_path if it exists.  If there
              is no  $auto_path  variable,  then  the  TCLLIBPATH
              environment variable is used, if it exists.  Other­
              wise the auto-load path consists of  just  the  Tcl
              library  directory.   Within  each directory in the
              auto-load path there must be a file  tclIndex  that
              describes  one  or  more  commands  defined in that
              directory and a script to evaluate to load each  of
              the  commands.   The tclIndex file should be gener­
              ated with the  auto_mkindex  command.   If  cmd  is
              found in an index file, then the appropriate script
              is evaluated to create the command.  The  auto_load
              command  returns 1 if cmd was successfully created.
              The command returns 0 if there was no  index  entry
              for cmd or if the script didn't actually define cmd
              (e.g. because index information is  out  of  date).
              If  an  error  occurs  while processing the script,
              then that error is returned.  Auto_load only  reads
              the  index  information  once  and  saves it in the
              array auto_index;  future calls to auto_load  check
              for  cmd  in  the  array rather than re-reading the
              index files.  The cached index information  may  be
              deleted  with  the  command  auto_reset.  This will

              index database from disk.

       auto_mkindex dir pattern pattern ...
              Generates  an  index suitable for use by auto_load.
              The command searches dir for all files whose  names
              match  any  of  the  pattern arguments (matching is
              done with the glob command), generates an index  of
              all  the  Tcl command procedures defined in all the
              matching files, and stores the index information in
              a  file  named  tclIndex  in  dir. If no pattern is
              given a pattern of  *.tcl  will  be  assumed.   For
              example, the command
                     auto_mkindex foo *.tcl

              will  read  all  the .tcl files in subdirectory foo
              and generate a new index file foo/tclIndex.

              Auto_mkindex parses the  Tcl  scripts  by  sourcing
              them  into  a  slave interpreter and monitoring the
              proc and  namespace  commands  that  are  executed.
              Extensions     can     use    the    (undocumented)
              auto_mkindex_parser package to register other  com­
              mands  that  can contribute to the auto_load index.
              You will have to read through auto.tcl to  see  how
              this works.

              Auto_mkindex_old  parses the Tcl scripts in a rela­
              tively unsophisticated way:  if any  line  contains
              the  word  proc  as its first characters then it is
              assumed to be a procedure definition and  the  next
              word  of the line is taken as the procedure's name.
              Procedure definitions that don't appear in this way
              (e.g. they have spaces before the proc) will not be
              indexed.  If your script contains "dangerous" code,
              such  as  global  initialization  code or procedure
              names with special characters like $, *,  [  or  ],
              you are safer using auto_mkindex_old.

       auto_reset
              Destroys  all the information cached by auto_execok
              and auto_load.  This information  will  be  re-read
              from  disk  the next time it is needed.  Auto_reset
              also deletes any procedures listed in the auto-load
              index,  so that fresh copies of them will be loaded
              the next time that they're used.

       auto_qualify command namespace
              Computes a list of fully qualified names  for  com­
              mand.   This  list  mirrors the path a standard Tcl
              interpreter follows for command lookups:  first  it
              looks for the command in the current namespace, and
              then in the global namespace.  Accordingly, if com­
              mand  is relative and namespace is not ::, the list

              namespace, as if it were a command in the namespace
              namespace; and command as if it were a  command  in
              the global namespace.  Otherwise, if either command
              is absolute (it begins with ::),  or  namespace  is
              ::,  the list contains only command as if it were a
              command in the global namespace.

              Auto_qualify is used by the auto-loading facilities
              in  Tcl,  both  for  producing auto-loading indexes
              such as pkgIndex.tcl, and for performing the actual
              auto-loading of functions at runtime.

       tcl_findLibrary  basename version patch initScript
              enVarName var­ Name
              This  is  a  standard  search  procedure for use by
              extensions during their initialization.  They  call
              this  procedure to look for their script library in
              several standard directories.  The  last  component
              of  the  name  of the library directory is normally
              basenameversion (e.g.,  tk8.0),  but  it  might  be
              "library"  when  in  the  build  hierarchies.   The
              initScript file will be  sourced  into  the  inter­
              preter  once  it  is found.  The directory in which
              this file is found is stored into the global  vari­
              able  varName.  If this variable is already defined
              (e.g., by C code during application initialization)
              then  no  searching  is done.  Otherwise the search
              looks in these directories: the directory named  by
              the environment variable enVarName; relative to the
              Tcl library directory; relative to  the  executable
              file  in  the standard installation bin or bin/arch
              directory; relative to the executable file  in  the
              current build tree; relative to the executable file
              in a parallel build tree.

       parray arrayName
              Prints on standard output the names and  values  of
              all the elements in the array arrayName.  ArrayName
              must be an array accessible to the caller  of  par­
              ray.  It may be either local or global.

       tcl_endOfWord str start
              Returns the index of the first end-of-word location |
              that occurs after a starting  index  start  in  the |
              string  str.  An end-of-word location is defined to |
              be the first non-word character following the first |
              word  character  after the starting point.  Returns |
              -1 if there are no more end-of-word locations after |
              the   starting   point.   See  the  description  of |
              tcl_wordchars and tcl_nonwordchars below  for  more |
              details  on how Tcl determines which characters are |
              word characters.                                    |

              start                                     |         |
              Returns  the index of the first start-of-word loca­ |
              tion that occurs after a starting  index  start  in |
              the   string  str.   A  start-of-word  location  is |
              defined to be the first word character following  a |
              non-word  character.   Returns  -1  if there are no |
              more start-of-word  locations  after  the  starting |
              point.                                              |

       tcl_startOfPreviousWord str                                |
              start                                 |             |
              Returns the index of the first start-of-word  loca­ |
              tion  that  occurs before a starting index start in |
              the string str.  Returns -1 if there  are  no  more |
              start-of-word  locations before the starting point. |

       tcl_wordBreakAfter str                                     |
              start                                      |        |
              Returns  the index of the first word boundary after |
              the  starting  index  start  in  the  string   str. |
              Returns  -1  if  there are no more boundaries after |
              the starting point in the given string.  The  index |
              returned refers to the second character of the pair |
              that comprises a boundary.                          |

       tcl_wordBreakBefore str                                    |
              start                                     |         |
              Returns the index of the first word boundary before |
              the  starting  index  start  in  the  string   str. |
              Returns  -1  if there are no more boundaries before |
              the starting point in the given string.  The  index |
              returned refers to the second character of the pair |
              that comprises a boundary.


VARIABLES

       The following global variables are defined or used by  the
       procedures in the Tcl library:

       auto_execs
              Used  by  auto_execok  to  record information about
              whether particular  commands  exist  as  executable
              files.

       auto_index
              Used  by  auto_load  to  save the index information
              read from disk.

       auto_noexec
              If set to any value, then unknown will not  attempt
              to auto-exec any commands.

              If  set to any value, then unknown will not attempt
              to auto-load any commands.

       auto_path
              If set, then it must contain a valid Tcl list  giv­
              ing  directories  to search during auto-load opera­
              tions.  This variable is initialized during startup
              to contain, in order: the directories listed in the
              TCLLIBPATH  environment  variable,  the   directory
              named  by  the  $tcl_library  variable,  the parent
              directory of $tcl_library, the  directories  listed
              in the $tcl_pkgPath variable.

       env(TCL_LIBRARY)
              If  set,  then  it  specifies  the  location of the
              directory containing library scripts (the value  of
              this  variable  will be assigned to the tcl_library
              variable and therefore returned by the command info
              library).   If  this  variable  isn't  set  then  a
              default value is used.

       env(TCLLIBPATH)
              If set, then it must contain a valid Tcl list  giv­
              ing  directories  to search during auto-load opera­
              tions.  Directories must be specified in  Tcl  for­
              mat, using "/" as the path separator, regardless of
              platform.  This variable is only used when initial­
              izing the auto_path variable.

       tcl_nonwordchars
              This variable contains a regular expression that is |
              used by routines  like  tcl_endOfWord  to  identify |
              whether  a  character is part of a word or not.  If |
              the pattern matches a character, the  character  is |
              considered  to be a non-word character.  On Windows |
              platforms, spaces, tabs, and newlines  are  consid­ |
              ered  non-word  characters.  Under Unix, everything |
              but numbers, letters and underscores are considered |
              non-word characters.                                |

       tcl_wordchars                                                     ||
              This variable contains a regular expression that is |
              used  by  routines  like  tcl_endOfWord to identify |
              whether a character is part of a word or  not.   If |
              the  pattern  matches a character, the character is |
              considered to be  a  word  character.   On  Windows |
              platforms,  words  are  comprised  of any character |
              that is not a space, tab, or newline.  Under  Unix, |
              words  are  comprised of numbers, letters or under­ |
              scores.

       unknown_pending
              Used by unknown to record the command(s) for  which

              unknown recurses on itself infinitely.   The  vari­
              able is unset before unknown returns.


SEE ALSO

       info(n), re_syntax(n)


KEYWORDS

       auto-exec, auto-load, library, unknown, word, whitespace


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