For a given tcl user-defined command (for instance, "user_command -switch_A -switch_B") I would like to get all the possible sub-commands/switches to be used with that command as a list.
Below is an example of the tcl regexp switches available:
Regexp valid switches
I would like to use it to compare "implemented and public sub-commands/switches VS documented and public sub-commands/switches" for a given program.
I can get the available commands from "info commands" command, but I'm struggling to get possible valid sub-commands/switches for a given command.
The normal way is to use a deliberately wrong option name (such as -!) and to catch and parse the result.
proc listOptions args {
try {
{*}$args -!
} on error msg {
if {[regexp {should be one of (.*)} $msg -> items]} {
return [string map {{, or } { } , {}} $items]
}
}
error "no option list from $args"
}
puts [listOptions chan configure stdout]
To find subcommands for commands that are implemented as namespace ensembles, you can do:
set cmd "string"
set map [namespace ensemble configure $cmd -map]
dict keys $map
# => bytelength cat compare equal first index is last length map match range repeat replace reverse tolower toupper totitle trim trimleft trimright wordend wordstart
Related
I am using the following TCL code:
proc RunCSM { scen } {
catch { $scen start }
if { "[$scen status]" != "SUCCESS" } {
puts "$scen FAILED. Error Info:"
puts "[$scen errorInfo]" ...
I need also the line number of the code that fails. In 8.5 and onwards this is achieved by this nice solution
How can I get the code line number along with errorinfo?
How is it possible to achieve the same but in version 8.4?
The easiest approach is to parse the errorInfo variable. Here's what an example looks like:
% parray foo
"foo" isn't an array
% set errorInfo
"foo" isn't an array
while executing
"error "\"$a\" isn't an array""
(procedure "parray" line 4)
invoked from within
"parray foo"
Parsing that with regexp isn't too hard, provided we use the -line option.
proc getLineFromErrorInfo {} {
global errorInfo
if {[regexp -line { line (\d+)\)$} $errorInfo -> line]} {
return $line
} else {
# No guarantee that there's information there...
return "unknown"
}
}
On our example from before, we can then do:
getLineFromErrorInfo
and it will return 4. You might want to extend the RE to also capture the name of the procedure; line numbers in 8.4 and before are always relative to their procedure. (This is also mostly true in 8.5 onwards; this is an area where backward compatibility is a bit painful IMO.) Here's how you might do that:
proc getLocusFromErrorInfo {} {
global errorInfo
if {[regexp -line {\(procedure "(.*?)" line (\d+)\)$} $errorInfo -> proc line]} {
return [list $proc $line]
} else {
# No guarantee that there's information there...
return "unknown"
}
}
Note that merely knowing where the error came from doesn't necessarily tell you where the problem is, especially in production code, since it could be due to bad arguments elsewhere that have been passed around a bit…
How can I get a single string variable with spaces in it in TCL to be interpreted as multiple arguments? I can't change the proc definition.
Here is an example of what I mean:
set my_options ""
if { "$some_condition" == 1 } {
append my_options " -optionA"
}
if { "$some_other_condition" == 1 } {
append my_options " -optionB"
}
set my_options [string trim $my_options]
not_my_proc ${my_options} ;# my_options gets interpreted as a single arg here and causes a problem:
# Flag '-optionA -optionB' is not supported by this command.
This is where you use the argument expansion syntax:
not_my_proc {*}$my_options
# ..........^^^
Although I'd recommend using a list instead of a string:
if for some reason the my_options string is not a well-formed list, you'll see an error thrown
if any of the options takes a space, a list is the proper data structure:
set my_options [list]
lappend my_options {-option1}
lappend my_options {-option2 "with a parameter"}
not_my_proc {*}$my_options
I have a "library" type file that where I define a namespace and export some functions to "print" debug info or "trace" info in TCL.
proc cputs { args } {
puts "Test= $args"
}
I import this function in multiple other files. When I use it everything is fine except it add bracket to the output.
Like if I call cputs "Hi there" it will output {Hi there} instead of Hi there.
Can't find anything to explain that. I would like to get ride of those brackets.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
If you do not want to pass an arbitrary, unknown numbers of arguments to your cproc, do not use args (which has a special meaning as a parameter name), but msg, for instance.
proc cputs {msg} {
puts "Test= $msg"
}
See also proc documentation:
If the last formal argument has the name “args”, then a call to the
procedure may contain more actual arguments than the procedure has
formal arguments. In this case, all of the actual arguments starting
at the one that would be assigned to args are combined into a list (as
if the list command had been used); this combined value is assigned to
the local variable args.
If you want to take an arbitrary number of arguments (since args is a special name), you should join or concat things before printing. These two options differ in their treatment of extra whitespace; use the one that suits you.
proc cputs { args } {
puts "Test= [join $args]"
}
cputs "Hello there " " from an example"
# Test= Hello there from an example
proc cputs { args } {
puts "Test= [concat {*}$args]"
}
cputs "Hello there " " from an example"
# Test= Hello there from an example
I am new to the TCL scripting .I have a script called "Sample.tcl". In the Sample.tcl I have a variable called $name. How can I assign a value to the variable if there exist a specific argv i.e.
Sample.tcl -step xyz
Only if I specify -step then $name should be xyz.
I'm not sure what $name might be in this context (it's a really unusual name for a variable, and using variable variable names is typically a bad idea) but under the guess that you're trying to set step to xyz in this case, you can put this in your script:
apply {{} {
# For each pair of values in the arguments (after the script name)
global argv
foreach {key value} $argv {
# Safety-check: if the key starts with a hyphen...
if {[string match -* $key]} {
# ... strip the leading hyphen(s)
set varname [string trimleft $key "-"]
# ... bind that global var name to a local name
upvar 1 $varname var
# ... and set the variable to the value we've got.
set var $value
}
}
}}
It's done in an apply so that we don't pollute the global namespace with all our working variables (key, value, varname and var) and because we don't really need to make a procedure for something we're only going to do once.
This isn't a safe piece of code, not by any means, but it is a useful and flexible way to get something working.
In general, parsing command line arguments can take quite a bit of thought to get perfectly right and there's various packages to help out, but that's only really important when writing code for other people to run. When it's just for yourself, you can be a lot sloppier and get the job done in a few minutes.
Using the cmdline package from tcllib you could write:
#!/usr/bin/env tclsh
package require cmdline
set options {
{step.arg "" "Set the step value"}
}
try {
array set params [cmdline::getoptions argv $options]
} on error e {
puts stderr $e
exit 1
}
if {$params(step) ne ""} {
set name $params(step)
}
if {[info exists name]} {
puts "name = $name"
} else {
puts "name is not set"
}
What is difference between following variables:
$argv
$::argv
{*}$argv
First two are possible to print via puts command and they returns following output:
param0 param1 {param 2} param3
param0 param1 {param 2} param3
The arguments that was passed to script were:
param0 param1 "param 2" param3
The last one end up with error:
wrong # args: should be "puts ?-nonewline? ?channelId? string"
while executing
"puts {*}$argv"
I've done some research in this area using following code:
if {[array exists $argv]} {
puts "\$argv IS ARRAY"
} else {
puts "\$argv IS NOT AN ARRAY"
}
if {[string is list $argv]} {
puts "\$argv IS LIST"
} else {
puts "\$argv IS NOT LIST"
}
if {[array exists $::argv]} {
puts "\$::argv IS ARRAY"
} else {
puts "\$::argv IS NOT AN ARRAY"
}
if {[string is list $::argv]} {
puts "\$::argv IS LIST"
} else {
puts "\$::argv IS NOT LIST"
}
if {[array exists {*}$argv]} {
puts "{*}\$::argv IS ARRAY"
} else {
puts "{*}\$::argv IS NOT AN ARRAY"
}
if {[string is list {*}$argv]} {
puts "{*}\$::argv IS LIST"
} else {
puts "{*}\$::argv IS NOT LIST"
}
The last two if-else statements which contain {*}$argv ends with following error:
wrong # args: should be "array exists arrayName"
while executing
"array exists {*}$argv"
invoked from within
"if {[array exists {*}$argv]} {
puts "{*}\$::argv IS ARRAY"
} else {
puts "{*}\$::argv IS NOT AN ARRAY"
}"
Commenting out those two statements shows that $argv and $::argv are lists:
argv IS NOT AN ARRAY
$argv IS NOT AN ARRAY
argv IS LIST
$argv IS LIST
Both those lists can be traversed as standard list e.g.:
foreach item $argv {
puts $item
}
or
foreach item $::argv {
puts $item
}
Attempt to traverse {*}$argv the same way leads to following error again:
wrong # args: should be "foreach varList list ?varList list ...? command"
while executing
"foreach item {*}$argv {
puts $item
}"
I am using TCL version 8.5
What is difference between following variables:
$argv
$::argv
{*}$argv
There are two types of difference here.
Unqualified and Qualified Variables
In Tcl, unqualified and qualified variables can be a bit different, but it depends on the context (in a pretty simple way though). Firstly, a qualified variable name is one that contains at least one :: within it. If the variable name (the thing after the $ — in Tcl, $ just means “read this variable now and use its contents here”) starts with ::, it is an absolute variable name, otherwise a qualified variable name is a relative variable name and is resolved with respect to the current namespace (which you can find out with namespace current if you're uncertain). Absolute variable names always refer to the same thing, in all contexts. Thus, ::argv is an absolute variable name, and indeed it refers to a variable called argv in the top-level, global namespace. That happens to be a variable that tclsh and wish write their arguments into.
But if there is no ::, it is an unqualified variable name. If you are not in a procedure (or procedure-like thing, which includes a lambda term such as you'd use with apply or the methods defined by various OO systems) then the variable is (mostly) treated as if it was a relative variable name and resolved with respect to the current namespace. namespace eval and namespace code are two of the things that can change the current namespace (the others are more obscure). All this is provided you use variable to declare all your namespace variables. Otherwise, you can hit some weird problems with variable resolution which are really nasty. So do use variable. Really.
If you are in a procedure(-like entity) though, that unqualified name refers to a local variable, whose life is coupled to that of the stack frame pushed on the stack when the procedure is entered. That can be linked to variables in other scopes (including the global namespace) through various commands: global, upvar, variable, and namespace upvar. However, the actual resolution of the variable is to something local.
Finally, there might also be a custom variable resolver in place. Since you're using Tcl 8.5, the place where you're most likely to see this in use is if you're using Incr Tcl, an object system for Tcl. Custom variable resolvers can do some complex stuff. (If you were using Tcl 8.6, the most likely place to see a custom variable resolver at work is in TclOO. The variable resolver there is very conservative and cautious, but allows local variables to be bound to object variables without having to explicitly declare this in each method).
Normal and Expanding Substitution
The difference between $argv and {*}$argv is totally different.
$argv is a normal substitution. It says “read this variable here and use the contents of it instead”. It can be used in the middle of a word, so $argv$argv$argv is a thing, consisting of the concatenation of the contents of the argv variable three times.
{*}, when placed at the start of a word (it's not special elsewhere), marks that word for expansion. When a word is expanded, it's parsed as a Tcl list after all other normal substitutions have been done, and the words of that list are used as words in the resulting command being built up. {*}$argv is a degenerate case where the remainder of the word is just the a read from a variable; the words that are used in the command are the elements of the list in the argv variable. Since that's normally a list, this is all hunky-dory.
Here's an example:
set abc {a b c}
set dabcf [list d $abc f]
puts $dabcf; # ===> “d {a b c} f”
set eabcg [list e {*}$abc g]
puts $eabcg; # ===> “e a b c g”
See the difference? One produces three elements in the list, the other produces five. It makes even more sense with something somewhat longer:
set options {
-foreground blue
-background yellow
-text "This is eye-watering stuff!"
}
button .b1 {*}$options -command {puts "Ouch 1"}
button .b2 {*}$options -command {puts "Ouch 2"}
button .b3 {*}$options -command {puts "Ouch 3"}
pack .b1 .b2 .b3
With expansion, that all Just Works™. Without, you'd have to do something horrific with eval:
eval [list button .b1] [lrange $options 0 end] [list -command {puts "Ouch 1"}]
# etc.
This was difficult to get right, and tedious, so it caused lots of people (including Tcl and Tk maintainers!) many problems because they tended to take shortcuts and get it wrong. It was to address this that expansion syntax was created in Tcl 8.5 to make this all less error prone. (The prototypical example in plain Tcl tends to involve things with exec, and meant that quite a few people actually had security holes because of this.)
As a bonus, using {*} is much faster than using eval since expansion can guarantee that it is never doing complicated reparsing of things. In Tcl, faster virtually always correlates with safer.
Note that this is independent of whether the variable is qualified. Yes, that means that you can also have {*}$::argv if you want.
You confuse the effects of substitution with the effects of argument expansion.
Please study the Dodekalogue http://wiki.tcl.tk/10259.
You mix the Rule #5: Argument Expansion (the {*} thing) with Variable Substitution (Rule #8).
The three forms you listed above are equivalent to the following:
$argv -> [set argv]
Get the value of a simple variable in the currently active scope.
$::argv -> [namespace eval :: { set argv }] -> [set ::argv]
Get the value of the variable in the namespace :: (the global namespace)
{*}$argv -> [eval [set argv]]
Expand the variables content to multiple arguments.