1fconfigure(n)                Tcl Built-In Commands               fconfigure(n)
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NAME

8       fconfigure - Set and get options on a channel
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SYNOPSIS

11       fconfigure channelId
12       fconfigure channelId name
13       fconfigure channelId name value ?name value ...?
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DESCRIPTION

17       The fconfigure command sets and retrieves options for channels.
18
19       ChannelId  identifies  the  channel for which to set or query an option
20       and must refer to an open  channel  such  as  a  Tcl  standard  channel
21       (stdin, stdout, or stderr), the return value from an invocation of open
22       or socket, or the result of a channel creation command  provided  by  a
23       Tcl extension.
24
25       If  no name or value arguments are supplied, the command returns a list
26       containing alternating option names and values  for  the  channel.   If
27       name  is  supplied  but  no  value then the command returns the current
28       value of the given option.  If one or more pairs of name and value  are
29       supplied, the command sets each of the named options to the correspond‐
30       ing value; in this case the return value is an empty string.
31
32       The options described below are supported for all  channels.  In  addi‐
33       tion,  each channel type may add options that only it supports. See the
34       manual entry for the command that creates each type of channels for the
35       options  that  that specific type of channel supports. For example, see
36       the manual entry for the socket command for its additional options.
37
38       -blocking boolean
39              The -blocking option determines whether I/O  operations  on  the
40              channel  can cause the process to block indefinitely.  The value
41              of the option must be a proper boolean value.  Channels are nor‐
42              mally in blocking mode;  if a channel is placed into nonblocking
43              mode it will affect the  operation  of  the  gets,  read,  puts,
44              flush,  and close commands; see the documentation for those com‐
45              mands for details.  For nonblocking mode to work correctly,  the
46              application  must  be  using the Tcl event loop (e.g. by calling
47              Tcl_DoOneEvent or invoking the vwait command).
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49       -buffering newValue
50              If newValue is full then the I/O system will buffer output until
51              its  internal  buffer  is  full  or  until  the flush command is
52              invoked. If newValue is line, then the I/O system will automati‐
53              cally  flush output for the channel whenever a newline character
54              is output. If newValue is none, the I/O system will flush  auto‐
55              matically  after  every  output  operation.   The default is for
56              -buffering to be set to full except for channels that connect to
57              terminal-like devices; for these channels the initial setting is
58              line.  Additionally, stdin and stdout are initially set to line,
59              and stderr is set to none.
60
61       -buffersize newSize
62              Newvalue  must  be an integer; its value is used to set the size
63              of buffers, in bytes, subsequently allocated for this channel to
64              store input or output. Newvalue must be between ten and one mil‐
65              lion, allowing buffers of ten to one million bytes in size.
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67       -encoding name
68              This option is used to specify the encoding of the  channel,  so
69              that  the  data  can be converted to and from Unicode for use in
70              Tcl.  For instance, in order for Tcl to read characters  from  a
71              Japanese  file  in shiftjis and properly process and display the
72              contents, the encoding would be set  to  shiftjis.   Thereafter,
73              when  reading  from  the channel, the bytes in the Japanese file
74              would be converted to Unicode as they are read.  Writing is also
75              supported  - as Tcl strings are written to the channel they will
76              automatically be converted to the specified encoding on output.
77
78              If a file contains  pure  binary  data  (for  instance,  a  JPEG
79              image),  the encoding for the channel should be configured to be
80              binary.  Tcl will then assign no interpretation to the  data  in
81              the  file  and  simply  read or write raw bytes.  The Tcl binary
82              command can be used to manipulate this byte-oriented data.
83
84              The default encoding for newly opened channels is the same plat‐
85              form-  and locale-dependent system encoding used for interfacing
86              with the operating system.
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88       -eofchar char
89
90       -eofchar {inChar outChar}
91              This option supports DOS file systems that use Control-z  (\x1a)
92              as  an end of file marker.  If char is not an empty string, then
93              this character signals end-of-file when it is encountered during
94              input.  For output, the end-of-file character is output when the
95              channel is closed.  If char is the empty string, then  there  is
96              no  special  end of file character marker.  For read-write chan‐
97              nels, a two-element list specifies the end of  file  marker  for
98              input  and output, respectively.  As a convenience, when setting
99              the end-of-file character for a read-write channel you can spec‐
100              ify  a single value that will apply to both reading and writing.
101              When querying the end-of-file character of a read-write channel,
102              a  two-element  list will always be returned.  The default value
103              for -eofchar is the empty string in all cases except  for  files
104              under  Windows.   In  that case the -eofchar is Control-z (\x1a)
105              for reading and the empty string for writing.
106
107       -translation mode
108
109       -translation {inMode outMode}
110              In Tcl scripts the end of a line is always represented  using  a
111              single  newline  character  (\n).   However, in actual files and
112              devices the end of a line may be represented differently on dif‐
113              ferent  platforms,  or  even  for  different devices on the same
114              platform.  For example, under UNIX newlines are used  in  files,
115              whereas  carriage-return-linefeed sequences are normally used in
116              network connections.  On input (i.e., with gets  and  read)  the
117              Tcl I/O system automatically translates the external end-of-line
118              representation into newline characters.  Upon output (i.e., with
119              puts),  the  I/O system translates newlines to the external end-
120              of-line representation.  The  default  translation  mode,  auto,
121              handles all the common cases automatically, but the -translation
122              option provides explicit control over the end of  line  transla‐
123              tions.
124
125              The  value  associated  with  -translation  is a single item for
126              read-only and write-only channels.  The value is  a  two-element
127              list  for  read-write channels; the read translation mode is the
128              first element of the list, and the write translation mode is the
129              second  element.  As a convenience, when setting the translation
130              mode for a read-write channel you can  specify  a  single  value
131              that  will apply to both reading and writing.  When querying the
132              translation mode of a read-write  channel,  a  two-element  list
133              will  always  be  returned.   The following values are currently
134              supported:
135
136              auto   As the input translation mode, auto treats any of newline
137                     (lf),  carriage  return (cr), or carriage return followed
138                     by a newline (crlf) as the end  of  line  representation.
139                     The end of line representation can even change from line-
140                     to-line, and all cases are translated to a  newline.   As
141                     the output translation mode, auto chooses a platform spe‐
142                     cific representation; for sockets on  all  platforms  Tcl
143                     chooses  crlf,  for  all Unix flavors, it chooses lf, for
144                     the Macintosh platform it chooses cr and for the  various
145                     flavors  of Windows it chooses crlf.  The default setting
146                     for -translation is auto for both input and output.
147
148              binary No  end-of-line  translations  are  performed.   This  is
149                     nearly  identical  to  lf  mode,  except that in addition
150                     binary mode also sets the end-of-file  character  to  the
151                     empty string (which disables it) and sets the encoding to
152                     binary (which  disables  encoding  filtering).   See  the
153                     description  of  -eofchar and -encoding for more informa‐
154                     tion.
155
156                     Internally, i.e. when it comes to the actual behaviour of
157                     the  translator  this  value  is  identical  to lf and is
158                     therefore reported as such when queried. Even  if  binary
159                     was used to set the translation.
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161              cr     The  end  of  a  line in the underlying file or device is
162                     represented by a single carriage  return  character.   As
163                     the  input  translation  mode,  cr mode converts carriage
164                     returns to newline characters.  As the output translation
165                     mode,  cr  mode translates newline characters to carriage
166                     returns.  This mode is typically used on Macintosh  plat‐
167                     forms.
168
169              crlf   The  end  of  a  line in the underlying file or device is
170                     represented by a carriage return character followed by  a
171                     linefeed  character.  As the input translation mode, crlf
172                     mode converts carriage-return-linefeed sequences to  new‐
173                     line  characters.   As  the output translation mode, crlf
174                     mode translates newline  characters  to  carriage-return-
175                     linefeed  sequences.  This mode is typically used on Win‐
176                     dows platforms and for network connections.
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178              lf     The end of a line in the underlying  file  or  device  is
179                     represented by a single newline (linefeed) character.  In
180                     this mode no translations occur during  either  input  or
181                     output.  This mode is typically used on UNIX platforms.
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STANDARD CHANNELS

184       The Tcl standard channels (stdin, stdout, and stderr) can be configured
185       through this command  like  every  other  channel  opened  by  the  Tcl
186       library.  Beyond  the  standard  options described above they will also
187       support any special option according to their current  type.   If,  for
188       example,  a  Tcl application is started by the inet super-server common
189       on Unix system its Tcl standard channels will be sockets and thus  sup‐
190       port the socket options.
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EXAMPLES

193       Instruct  Tcl  to  always send output to stdout immediately, whether or
194       not it is to a terminal:
195              fconfigure stdout -buffering none
196
197       Open a socket and read lines from it without ever blocking the process‐
198       ing of other events:
199              set s [socket some.where.com 12345]
200              fconfigure $s -blocking 0
201              fileevent $s readable "readMe $s"
202              proc readMe chan {
203                 if {[gets $chan line] < 0} {
204                    if {[eof $chan]} {
205                       close $chan
206                       return
207                    }
208                    # Could not read a complete line this time; Tcl's
209                    # internal buffering will hold the partial line for us
210                    # until some more data is available over the socket.
211                 } else {
212                    puts stdout $line
213                 }
214              }
215
216       Read a PPM-format image from a file:
217              # Open the file and put it into Unix ASCII mode
218              set f [open teapot.ppm]
219              fconfigure $f -encoding ascii -translation lf
220
221              # Get the header
222              if {[gets $f] ne "P6"} {
223                 error "not a raw-bits PPM"
224              }
225
226              # Read lines until we have got non-comment lines
227              # that supply us with three decimal values.
228              set words {}
229              while {[llength $words] < 3} {
230                 gets $f line
231                 if {[string match "#*" $line]} continue
232                 lappend words [eval concat [scan $line %d%d%d]]
233              }
234
235              # Those words supply the size of the image and its
236              # overall depth per channel. Assign to variables.
237              foreach {xSize ySize depth} $words {break}
238
239              # Now switch to binary mode to pull in the data,
240              # one byte per channel (red,green,blue) per pixel.
241              fconfigure $f -translation binary
242              set numDataBytes [expr {3 * $xSize * $ySize}]
243              set data [read $f $numDataBytes]
244
245              close $f
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SEE ALSO

249       close(n),  flush(n),  gets(n),  open(n),  puts(n),  read(n), socket(n),
250       Tcl_StandardChannels(3)
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KEYWORDS

254       blocking, buffering, carriage return, end of line, flushing,  linemode,
255       newline,  nonblocking,  platform,  translation,  encoding, filter, byte
256       array, binary
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260Tcl                                   8.3                        fconfigure(n)
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