TCL : how to wait a flow till the present flow completes? - tcl

Question

I have a log which keeps on updating.
I am running a flow that generates a file. This flow runs at the background and
updates the log saying "[12:23:12:1] \m successfully completed (data_01)" .
As soon as I see this comment, i use this file for the next flow.
I created a popup saying "wait till the log says successfully completed", to avoid
script going to next flow and gets aborted.
But the problem is each and every time I need to check the log for that comment and
press OK in the popup.
Is there any way to capture the comment from the updating log.
I tried
set flag 0
while { $flag == 0} {
set fp [open "|tail code.log" r]
set data [ read $fp]
close $fp
set data [ split $data]
if { [ regexp {.*successfully completed.*} $data ]} {
set line $data
set flag 1
} else {
continue
}
}
This $line,i will pass it to the pop up variable so that instead to saying wait until
successfully completed. I will say "Successfully completed" .
But, This is throwing error as too many files opened and also its not waiting.

Answer 1

There's a limit on the number of files that can be opened at once by a process, imposed by the OS. Usually, if you are getting close to that limit then you're doing something rather wrong!
So let's back up a little bit.
The simplest way to read a log file continuously is to open a pipe from the program tail with the -f option passed in, so it only reports things added to the file instead of reporting the end each time it is run. Like this:
set myPipeline [open "|tail -f code.log"]
You can then read from this pipeline and, as long as you don't close it, you will only ever read a line once. Exiting the Tcl process will close the pipe. You can either use a blocking gets to read each line, or a fileevent so that you get a callback when a line is available. This latter form is ideal for a GUI.
Blocking form
while {[gets $myPipeline line] >= 0} {
if {[regexp {successfully completed \(([^()]+)\)} $line -> theFlowName]} {
processFlow $theFlowName
}
}
close $myPipeline
Callback form
Assuming that the pipeline is kept in blocking mode. Full non-blocking is a little more complex but follows a similar pattern.
fileevent $myPipeline readable [list GetOneLine $myPipeline]
proc GetOneLine {pipe} {
if {[gets $pipe line] < 0} {
# IMPORTANT! Close upon EOF to remove the callback!
close $pipe
} elseif {[regexp {successfully completed \(([^()]+)\)} $line -> theFlowName]} {
processFlow $theFlowName
}
}
Both of these forms call processFlow with the bit of the line extract from within the parentheses when that appears in the log. That's the part where it becomes not generic Tcl any more…

Answer 2

It appears that what you want to do is monitor a file and wait without hanging your UI for a particular line to be added to the file. To do this you cannot use the asynchronous IO on the file as in Tcl files are always readable. Instead you need to poll the file on a timer. In Tcl this means using the after command. So create a command that checks the time the file was last modified and if it has been changed since you last checked it, opens the file and looks for your specific data. If the data is present, set some state variable to allow your program to continue to do the next step. If not, you just schedule another call to your check function using after and a suitable interval.
You could use a pipe as you have above but you should use asynchronous IO to read data from the channel when it becomes available. That means using fileevent