fconfigure(1tcl)

Synopsis

Description

The options described below are supported for all channels. In addition, each channel type may add options that only it supports. See the manual page for the command that creates each type of channels for the options that that specific type of channel supports. For example, see the manual page for socket(1tcl) for its additional options.

-blocking

The -blocking option determines whether I/O operations on the channel can cause the process to block indefinitely. The value of the option must be a proper boolean value. Channels are normally in blocking mode; if a channel is placed into nonblocking mode it will affect the operation of the gets, read, puts, flush, and close commands; see the documentation for those commands for details. For nonblocking mode to work correctly, the application must be using the Tcl event loop (e.g. by calling Tcl_DoOneEvent or invoking the vwait command).

-buffering newValue

If newValue is full then the I/O system will buffer output until its internal buffer is full or until the flush command is invoked. If newValue is line, then the I/O system will automatically flush output for the channel whenever a newline character is output. If newValue is none, the I/O system will flush automatically after every output operation. The default is for -buffering to be set to full except for channels that connect to terminal-like devices; for these channels the initial setting is line.

-buffersize newSize

newSize must be an integer; its value is used to set the size of buffers, in bytes, subsequently allocated for this channel to store input or output. newSize must be between ten and one million, allowing buffers of ten to one million bytes in size.

-eofchar char

-eofchar {inChar outChar}

This option supports DOS file systems that use ctrl-z as an end of file marker. If char is not an empty string, then this character signals end of file when it is encountered during input. For output, the end of file character is output when the channel is closed. If char is the empty string, then there is no special end of file character marker. For read-write channels, a two-element list specifies the end of file marker for input and output, respectively. As a convenience, when setting the end-of-file character for a read-write channel you can specify a single value that will apply to both reading and writing. When querying the end-of-file character of a read-write channel, a two-element list will always be returned. The default value for -eofchar is the empty string in all cases except for files under Windows. In that case the -eofchar is Control-z (\x1a) for reading and the empty string for writing.

-translation mode

-translation {inMode outMode}

In Tcl scripts the end of a line is always represented using a single newline character (\n). However, in actual files and devices the end of a line may be represented differently on different platforms, or even for different devices on the same platform. For example, under UNIX newlines are used in files, whereas carriage-return-linefeed sequences are normally used in network connections. On input (i.e., with gets and read) the Tcl I/O system automatically translates the external end-of-line representation into newline characters. Upon output (i.e., with puts), the I/O system translates newlines to the external end-of-line representation. The default translation mode, auto, handles all the common cases automatically, but the -translation option provides explicit control over the end of line translations.

The value associated with -translation is a single item for read-only and write-only channels. The value is a two-element list for read-write channels; the read translation mode is the first element of the list, and the write translation mode is the second element. As a convenience, when setting the translation mode for a read-write channel you can specify a single value that will apply to both reading and writing. When querying the translation mode of a read-write channel, a two-element list will always be returned. The following values are currently supported:

auto

As the input translation mode, auto treats any of newline (lf), carriage return (cr), or carriage return followed by a newline (crlf) as the end of line representation. The end of line representation can even change from line-to-line, and all cases are translated to a newline. As the output translation mode, auto chooses a platform specific representation; for sockets on all platforms Tcl chooses crlf, for all Unix flavors, it chooses lf, for the Macintosh platform it chooses cr and for the various flavors of Windows it chooses crlf. The default setting for -translation is auto for both input and output.

binary

No end-of-line translations are performed. This is nearly identical to lf mode, except that in addition binary mode also sets the end of file character to the empty string, which disables it. See the description of -eofchar for more information.

cr

The end of a line in the underlying file or device is represented by a single carriage return character. As the input translation mode, cr mode converts carriage returns to newline characters. As the output translation mode, cr mode translates newline characters to carriage returns. This mode is typically used on Macintosh platforms.

crlf

The end of a line in the underlying file or device is represented by a carriage return character followed by a linefeed character. As the input translation mode, crlf mode converts carriage-return-linefeed sequences to newline characters. As the output translation mode, crlf mode translates newline characters to carriage-return-linefeed sequences. This mode is typically used on Windows platforms and for network connections.

lf

The end of a line in the underlying file or device is represented by a single newline (linefeed) character. In this mode no translations occur during either input or output. This mode is typically used on UNIX platforms.

References