1memchan(n) memchan(n)
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8 memchan - Create and manipulate memory channels
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11 package require Tcl
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13 package require memchan
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15 memchan ?-initial-size len?
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20 This manpage documents both the overall package and the command mem‐
21 chan. The package itself provides a number of in-memory channels which
22 can utilized to
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24 · capture stream-like information in a natural way instead of
25 using set and append to manipulate strings
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27 · or to transfer data between interpreters, in the same thread or
28 not.
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31 memchan ?-initial-size len?
32 creates a chunk-oriented in-memory channel and returns its han‐
33 dle. If an initial size is specified the system will pre-allo‐
34 cate len bytes of buffer space for the contents. This is no
35 restriction on the ultimate size of the channel, it will always
36 grow as much as is necessary to accommodate the data written
37 into it.
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39 The channels created here can be transferred between inter‐
40 preters in the same thread and between threads, but only as a
41 whole. It is not possible to use them to create a bi- or unidi‐
42 rectional connection between two interpreters.
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44 Memory channels created by memchan provide two read-only options which
45 can be queried via the standard fconfigure command. These are
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47 -length
48 The value of this option is the number of bytes currently stored
49 in the queried memory channel.
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51 -allocated
52 The value of this option is the number of bytes currently allo‐
53 cated by the queried memory channel. This number is at least as
54 big as the value of -length.
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56 As the channels generated by memchan grow as necessary they are always
57 writable. This means that a writable fileevent-handler will fire con‐
58 tinuously.
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60 The channels are also readable if they contain more than zero bytes and
61 the seek location is not and the end of the channel. Under these condi‐
62 tions a readable fileevent-handler will fire continuously.
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64 Note that writing to such a channel usually occurs at the end, thus
65 suppressing readable events. This also means that users have to take
66 care to seek the channel to a location before the end before trying to
67 read data back.
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70 fifo, fifo2, null, random, zero
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73 channel, chunk, i/o, in-memory channel, memchan
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76 Copyright (c) 1996-2003 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>
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81Memory channels 2.2 memchan(n)