How to catch subst exceptions in TCL - exception

Here is a code example:
set my_ref {$undefined_array(some_key)}
set my_val [subst $my_ref]
which returns:
can't read "undefined_array(some_key)": no such variable
while executing
"subst $my_ref"
According to http://wiki.tcl.tk/1501
Looks like there is no way to catch this right now

When subst attempts to perform substitutions on the text you gave it, it needs an existing variable with a matching name. If no such variable exists, subst throws a TCL LOOKUP VARNAME exception.
How to catch that? You can catch the exception after subst has failed as usual, with catch or try. The discussion you referred to was AFAICT about catching exceptions before subst has failed, which I believe still isn't possible.
ETA:
Proof-of-concept for my "discriminating try" comment. This code has tons of potential problems but at least demonstrates basically how it could be done. In the example, the handler reacts by creating a variable that has its own name in uppercase as value.
# CAUTION: demonstration code, do not use without modification
proc handler varName {
upvar 1 $varName name
set name [string toupper $varName]
}
unset -nocomplain foo bar
set baz xyz
set str {$foo $bar $baz}
while true {
try {
subst $str
} on ok res {
break
} trap {TCL LOOKUP VARNAME} {msg opts} {
handler [lindex [dict get $opts -errorcode] end]
}
}
set res
# -> FOO BAR xyz

Related

How can I get the code line number along with errorinfo but prior to 8.5?

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…

Why can't I access errorInfo and errorCode

I have the following code:
$ cat ~/tmp/2.tcl
set zero 0
proc p1 {} {
if {[catch {expr 1/$zero} err]} {
puts "errorCode=$errorCode"
puts "errorInfo=$errorInfo"
}
}
p1
When I source it, I get error accessing errorCode:
$ tclsh ~/tmp/2.tcl
can't read "errorCode": no such variable
while executing
"puts "errorCode=$errorCode""
(procedure "p1" line 3)
invoked from within
"p1"
(file "~/tmp/2.tcl" line 9)
I tried changing to $::errorCode, but did not help.
Can you see what is wrong?
The errorInfo and errorCode variables are globals. You should either use the global command to bring them into scope or use their fully-qualified names (i.e., precede with ::).
It might be easier to pick the information out of the result options dictionary (a new feature in 8.5).
Starting from Tcl 8.5 [catch] doesn't set the errorCode and errorInfo global variables. (As Donal has pointed out, it still does, so they can be accessed as $::errorCode and $::errorInfo). And in addition it puts their values into a dictionary which name is to be specified as the third argument. The following code
#!/usr/bin/tclsh
set zero 0
proc p1 {} {
if {[catch {expr 1/$zero} err opts] == 1} {
puts "errorCode=[dict get $opts -errorcode]"
puts "errorInfo=[dict get $opts -errorinfo]"
}
}
p1
prints
errorCode=NONE
errorInfo=can't read "zero": no such variable
while executing
"expr 1/$zero"
in Tcl 8.5.19, and
errorCode=TCL READ VARNAME
errorInfo=can't read "zero": no such variable
while executing
"expr 1/$zero"
in Tcl8.6.6.
You'd probably want to use $::zero in the division after which the result would be
errorCode=ARITH DIVZERO {divide by zero}
errorInfo=divide by zero
while executing
"expr 1/$::zero"

Code that works in 8.4 is causing crash in 8.6, is there a better way to implement the functionality

I have a Tcl utility that makes it easy to ensure a snippet of code run at the time control flow leaves the current scope (of the proc). It crashes in Tcl 8.6.6, so I'm wondering if there is a "better" way to implement the functionality in Tcl 8.6?
An example usage is:
proc test {file} {
set fh [open $file]
::Util::Defer [list close $fh]
# ... do a bunch of stuff
# and even if we hit an error
# [close $fh] will be evaluated as we return
# from the proc
}
It's worked great in Tcl 8.4, and I use it all over my code.
As I'm still coming up to speed on all the functionality available in Tcl 8.6, I'm asking how should the ::Util::Defer proc be written to best take advantage of Tcl 8.6?
Here is the 8.4 implementation:
namespace eval ::Util {}
proc ::Util::Defer_impl {cmd args} {
uplevel 1 $cmd
}
proc ::Util::Defer {cmd} {
set vname _u_defer_var
# look for a unique variable name
while {[uplevel 1 [list info vars $vname]] != ""} {
set vname ${vname}_
}
uplevel 1 [list set $vname $cmd]
# when the variable is unset, trigger a call to the command
uplevel 1 [list trace add variable $vname unset [list ::Util::Defer_impl $cmd]]
# return a chunk of code enabling the user to cancel this if desired
return [list variable $vname unset [list ::Util::Defer_impl $cmd]]
}
Edited to add:
I appreciate the answers. To be honest, I already have other syntactic sugar for a file handle, this:
proc test {file} {
set fh [::Util::LocalFileHandle $file]
# do stuff
}
I was just hoping more for a generic solution to the ::Util::Defer - because I occasionally have two or three uses (at different locations) in the same proc. Yes, I'm leaving out the error handling if the doesn't exist or isn't readable.
Note: I have reported the bug to ActiveState and filed a bug at core.tcl.tk.
Edited to add buggy code: This is the Tcl code that causes a crash for me, it is slightly pared down to the essence (as opposed to being the full-blown ::Util::Defer).
# ---------------begin script-------------------
package require Itcl
proc ::try_uplevel {} {
return [uplevel 1 [list ::info vars _u_defer_var]]
}
itcl::class ::test_class {
constructor {} {}
public proc test_via_proc {} {
::try_uplevel
}
}
::test_class::test_via_proc
# ---------------end script-------------------
The pattern you describe is a supported one; it shouldn't crash (and indeed I can't reproduce the crash with 8.6.3 or the tip of the 8.6 support branch). The only problem it has is that if you have an error during the close (or any other deferred script) it won't report it, as you can see from this snippet (% is prompt):
% apply {{} {
::Util::Defer [list error boo]
puts hi
}}
hi
%
This is part of why I went to quite a bit of effort to provide a try command in 8.6. With that, you can do this:
proc test {filename} {
set f [open $filename]
try {
# Do stuff with $f
} finally {
close $f
}
}
It also takes care of tricky things like stitching errors thrown inside the body and the finally clause together (the body exception info is in the -during option of the finally clause's error exception info) so that if both places error you can find out about both.
% catch {
try {
error a
} finally {
error b
}
} x y
1
% puts $x
b
% puts $y
-errorstack {INNER {returnImm b {}}} -errorcode NONE -errorinfo {b
while executing
"error b"} -errorline 5 -during {-code 1 -level 0 -errorstack {INNER {returnImm a {}}} -errorcode NONE -errorinfo {a
while executing
"error a"} -errorline 3} -code 1 -level 0
Personally, I'd be more inclined to write this:
proc withreadfile {varName filename body} {
upvar 1 $varName f
set f [open $filename]
try {
return [uplevel 1 $body]
} finally {
close $f
}
}
proc test {file} {
withreadfile fh $file {
# Do stuff with $fh
}
}
Your mileage may vary.
Untested code (this exact snippet, I've used this pattern many times):
proc test file {
try {
open $file
} on ok fh {
# do stuff with fh
# more stuff
} finally {
catch {close $fh}
}
}
should be about the same. Regardless of whether you handle errors with the try structure or not, (or whether you get errors or not) the code in the finally clause is run when it ends. If you want to be able to cancel the action, use a simple if inside the clause.
Edit
In case one wants to see any errors generated when the channel is closed, it's a bad idea to just wrap it in a catch, which is necessary if the file couldn't be opened and the channel-id variable wasn't created. Alternatives include:
Checking for existence: if {[info exists fh]} {close $fh}
Propagate the closing error: using the result and options variable name arguments to catch.
Over the weekend this heavyweight solution came to mind. It leverages the itcl::local functionality to achieve the same effect. It does depend on Itcl - but since the problem is an interaction with Itcl, that seems a reasonable solution, even though it is not purely Tcl.
itcl::class Defer_impl {
constructor {cmd} {} {
set _to_eval $cmd
}
destructor {
uplevel 1 $_to_eval
}
private variable _to_eval {}
}
proc ::Util::Defer {cmd} {
uplevel 1 [list itcl::local ::Defer_impl #auto $cmd]
}

How to effectively override a procedure-local variable in TCL

So I have the following situation:
$ ls -l
-r--r----- 1.tcl
-rw-rw---- 2.tcl
$ cat 1.tcl
proc foo {args} {
puts "$bar"
}
and I need to make 1.tcl print something other than "can't read \"bar\"". In a good programming language, the obvious solution would be
$ cat > 2.tcl
set -global bar "hello, world"
foo
What would be a reasonable workaround in TCL? Unfortunately the real foo is a long function that I can't really make a copy of or sed to a temporary file at runtime.
You can do this for your specific example
$ cat 2.tcl
source 1.tcl
set bar "Hello, bar!"
# add a "global bar" command to the foo procedure
proc foo [info args foo] "global bar; [info body foo]"
foo
$ tclsh 2.tcl
Hello, bar!
Clearly this doesn't scale very well.
If the variable is simply undefined, the easiest way would be to patch the procedure with a definition:
proc foo [info args foo] "set bar \"hello, world\" ; [info body foo]"
You can also accomplish this using a read trace and a helper command. This removes the problem I mentioned above, where local assignments destroy the value you wanted to inject.
The original procedure, with an added command that sets the local variable to a value which is later printed.
proc foo args {
set bar foobar
puts "$bar"
}
% foo
foobar
Create a global variable (it doesn't matter if the name is the same or not).
set bar "hello, world"
Create a helper command that gets the name of the local variable, links to it, and assigns the value of the global variable to it. Since we already know the name we could hardcode it in the procedure, but this is more flexible.
proc readbar {name args} {
upvar 1 $name var
global bar
set var $bar
}
Add the trace to the body of the foo procedure. The trace will fire whenever the local variable bar is read, i.e. something attempts to retrieve its value. When the trace fires, the command readbar is called: it overwrites the current value of the variable with the globally set value.
proc foo [info args foo] "trace add variable bar read readbar; [info body foo]"
% foo
hello, world
If one doesn't want to pollute the namespace with the helper command, one can use an anonymous function instead:
proc foo [info args foo] [format {trace add variable bar read {apply {{name args} {
upvar 1 $name var
global bar
set var $bar
}}} ; %s} [info body foo]]
Documentation:
apply,
format,
global,
info,
proc,
puts,
set,
trace,
upvar,
Syntax of Tcl regular expressions
source 1.tcl
try {
foo
} on error {err res} {
set einfo [dict get $res -errorinfo]
if { [regexp {no such variable} $einfo] } {
puts "hello, world"
return -code 0
} else {
puts $einfo
return -code [dict get $res -code]
}
}
Tcl's procedures do not resolve variables to anything other than local variables by default. You have to explicitly ask for them to refer to something else (e.g., with global, variable or upvar). This means that it's always possible to see at a glance whether non-local things are happening, and that the script won't work.
It's possible to override this behaviour with a variable resolver, but Tcl doesn't really expose that API in its script interface. Some extensions do more. For example, it might work to use [incr Tcl] (i.e., itcl) as that does that sort of thing for variables in its objects. I can't remember if Expect also does this, or if that uses special-cased code for handling its variables.
Of course, you could get really sneaky and override the behaviour of proc.
rename proc real_proc
real_proc proc {name arguments body} {
uplevel 1 [list real_proc $name $arguments "global bar;$body"]
}
That's rather nasty though.

execute tcl commands line by line

I have a file like this:
set position {0.50 0.50}
set visibility false
set text {ID: {entity.id}\n Value: {entity.contour_val}}
And I want to do something similar to source, but I want to use a file handle only.
My current attempt looks like this:
proc readArray {fileHandle arrayName} {
upvar $arrayName arr
set cl 0
while {! [eof $fileHandle]} {
set cl [expr "$cl + 1"]
set line [gets $fileHandle]
if [$line eq {}] continue
puts $line
namespace eval ::__esg_priv "
uplevel 1 {*}$line
"
info vars ::__esg_priv::*
foreach varPath [info vars ::__esg_priv::*] {
set varName [string map { ::__esg_priv:: "" } $varPath]
puts "Setting arr($varName) -> [set $varPath]"
set arr($varName) [set $varPath]
}
namespace delete __esg_priv
}
puts "$cl number of lines read"
}
In place of uplevel I tried many combinations of eval and quoting.
My problem is, it either fails on the lines with lists or it does not actuall set the variables.
What is the right way to do it, if the executed commands are expected to be any valid code.
An extra question would be how to properly apply error checking, which I haven't tried yet.
After a call to
readArray [open "myFile.tcl" r] arr
I expect that
parray arr
issues something like:
arr(position) = 0.50 0.50
arr(text) = ID: {entity.id}\n Value: {entity.contour_val}
arr(visibility) = false
BTW: The last line contains internal {}, which are supposed to make it into the string variables. And there is no intent to make this a dict.
This code works, but there are still some problems with it:
proc readArray {fileHandle arrayName} {
upvar $arrayName arr
set cl 0
while {! [eof $fileHandle]} {
incr cl ;# !
set line [gets $fileHandle]
if {$line eq {}} continue ;# !
puts $line
namespace eval ::__esg_priv $line ;# !
foreach varPath [info vars ::__esg_priv::*] {
set varName [string map { ::__esg_priv:: "" } $varPath]
puts "Setting arr($varName) -> [set $varPath]"
set arr($varName) [set $varPath]
}
namespace delete __esg_priv
}
puts "$cl number of lines read"
}
I've taken out a couple of lines that didn't seem necessary, and changed some lines a bit.
You don't need set cl [expr "$cl + 1"]: incr cl will do.
if [$line eq {}] continue will fail because the [...] is a command substitution. if {$line eq {}} continue (braces instead of brackets) does what you intend.
Unless you are accessing variables in another scope, you won't need uplevel. namespace eval ::__esg_priv $line will evaluate one line in the designated namespace.
I didn't change the following, but maybe you should:
set varName [string map { ::__esg_priv:: "" } $varPath] works as intended, but set varName [namespace tail $varPath] is cleaner.
Be aware that if there exists a global variable with the same name as one of the variables in your file, no namespace variable will be created; the global variable will be updated instead.
If you intend to use the value in the text variable as a dictionary, you need to remove either the \n or the braces.
According to your question title, you want to evaluate the file line by line. If that requirement can be lifted, your code could be simplified by reading the whole script in one operation and then evaluating it with a single namespace eval.
ETA
This solution is a lot more robust in that it reads the script in a sandbox (always a good idea when writing code that will execute arbitrary external code) and redefines (within that sandbox) the set command to create members in your array instead of regular variables.
proc readArray {fileHandle arrayName} {
upvar 1 $arrayName arr
set int [interp create -safe]
$int alias set apply {{name value} {
uplevel 1 [list set arr($name) $value]
}}
$int eval [read $fileHandle]
interp delete $int
}
To make it even more safe against unexpected interaction with global variables etc, look at the interp package in the Tcllib. It lets you create an interpreter that is completely empty.
Documentation: apply, continue, eof, foreach, gets, if, incr, info, interp package, interp, list, namespace, proc, puts, set, string, uplevel, upvar, while