.TH tclreadline n "@TCLREADLINE_VERSION@" "Johannes Zellner"
.\" (C) 1999 by Johannes Zellner
.\" FILE: "/home/joze/src/tclreadline/tclreadline.n.in"
.\" LAST MODIFICATION: "Sun Aug 22 23:24:34 1999 (joze)"
.\" (C) 1998, 1999 by Johannes Zellner, <johannes@zellner.org>
.\" $Id$
.\" ---
.\"
.\" tclreadline -- gnu readline for the tcl scripting language
.\" Copyright (C) 1999 Johannes Zellner
.\"
.\" This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
.\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
.\" as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
.\" of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
.\"
.\" This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
.\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
.\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
.\" GNU General Public License for more details.
.\"
.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
.\" along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
.\" Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
.\"
.\" <johannes@zellner.org>, http://www.zellner.org/tclreadline/
.SH NAME
tclreadline \- gnu readline for the tcl scripting language
.SH SYNOPSIS
.TP 6
\fB::tclreadline::readline\fP \fIcommand\fP [\fIoptions\fP]
.SH DESCRIPTION
The \fBtclreadline\fP package makes the gnu readline available
to the scripting language tcl. The primary purpose of the package
is to facilitate the interactive script development by the means
of word and file name completion as well as history expansion
(well known from shells like bash).
Additionally tclreadline can also be used for tcl scripts
which want to use a shell like input interface. In this case the
\fB::tclreadline::readline read\fP command has to be called explicitly.
.PP
The advantage of \fBtclreadline\fP is that it uses the callback
handler mechanism of the gnu readline while it processes tcl
events. This way X events from a wish gui will processed as
well as events from the \fPtclreadline\fP line interface.
.PP
\fBtclreadline\fP is basically a shared library and a few tcl scripts
which are accessed with the tcl package require command. Therefore
\fBtclreadline\fP should work with all common extensions like
\fBblt, itcl, itk, tix ...\fP.
.\".SH SOURCE FILES
.SH COMMANDS
If you want to use \fBtclreadline\fP as a line interface
for developing tcl scripts, you probably don't have to read
this section.
.PP
The following list will give all commands, which are currently
implemented in the shared lib (e.g. libtclreadline@TCLREADLINE_VERSION@.so).
Additional commands were introduced in a startup script
\fBtclreadlineSetup.tcl\fP, which lives in the tclreadline
installation directory.
(typically something like /usr/local/lib/tclreadline ..)
These commands are primarily for internal use and not documented here.
Note that all commands reside in the namespace \fB::tclreadline::\fP.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline add\fP \fIstring\fP
adds a string to the completer. If the string contains white
spaces, each of the words will be completed consecutively when
hitting <Tab>. Example:
::tclreadline::readline add "button pathName ?options?"
typing but<Tab> will complete to button. Hitting <Tab> again
will complete to "button pathName". ...
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline complete\fP \fIstring\fP
returns 1 if \fIstring\fP is a complete tcl command and 0 otherwise.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline customcompleter\fP [\fIstring\fP]
Register the proc \fIstring\fP as custom completer. This proc is called
with exactly four arguments each time completion takes place:
the word to complete ("text"), the "start" and "end" positions of this word
in the line entered so far, and this line ("line"). The custom completion
script should return an array of strings which is a list of completions
for "text". If there are no completions, it should return an empty
string "". The first entry in the returned list is the substitution
for "text". The remaining entries are the possible completions. If
the custom completion script returns an empty string and builtin
completion is enabled (see \fBtclreadline::readline builtincompleter\fP),
the builtin completer is called.
\fBtclreadline::readline customcompleter\fP simply returns the current
custom completer if called w/o \fIstring\fP. To turn of custom
completion, call \fBtclreadline::readline customcompleter\fP with
an empty \fIstring\fP.
Example: \fB% puts $b<TAB>\fP will call the custom completer
with the four arguments \fI"$b"\fP, \fI"5"\fP, \fI"8"\fP and \fI"puts $b"\fP.
The custom completer could return a string like "$bl $black $blue", which
will complete "$b" to "$bl" (the longest match) and offer a list of two
further matches "$black" and "$blue".
For further reference, see the proc tclreadline::script_completer in
the file tclreadlineSetup.tcl.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline builtincompleter\fP [\fIbool\fP]
enable or disable the builtin completer. If the builtin completer
is enabled, it will be invoked either if there is no custom completer,
or the custom completer returned an empty string. The builtin
completer is on by default.
\fBtclreadline::readline builtincompleter\fP returns the current
custom completer (also, if called w/o the \fIbool\fP argument).
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline eofchar\fP [\fIscript\fP]
set a script which will be called, if readline returns the eof character
(this is typically the case if CTRL-D is entered at the very beginning
of the line). The default for this script is "puts {}; exit". Setting
this to an empty value disables any action on eof.
\fBtclreadline::readline eof\fP returns the current eof script.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline initialize\fP \fIhistoryfile\fP
initialize the tclreadline interface and read the history from
the \fIhistoryfile\fP. On succes an empty string is returned.
This command has to be called before any other tclreadline commands.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline read\fP \fIprompt\fP
prints the \fIprompt\fP to stdout and enters the tclreadline event
loop. Both readline and X events are processed. Returns the
(eventually history-expanded) input string.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline write\fP \fIhistoryfile\fP
writes the history to the \fIhistoryfile\fP. This command is called
automatically from the internal routine ::tclreadline::Exit.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::Print\fP [\fIyes / no\fP]
turns on or off the default behavior of tclsh to print the result of
every command. This is turned on by default, so it will just behave
as the tclsh w/o tclreadline. Turning off might be useful, when reading
binary data for example. If \fB::tclreadline::Print\fP is called w/o
arguments, it just returns the current setting.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::Loop\fP
enter the tclreadline main loop. This command is typically called from
the startup resource file (something .tclshrc, depending on the interpreter
you use). \fB::tclreadline::Loop\fP will normally not return.
.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::prompt1\fP
a proc which is called by ::tclreadline::Loop and returns a string
which will be displayed as the primary prompt. This prompt will be
something like "[info nameofexecutable] \[[pwd]\]" possibly fancy colored.
The default proc is defined on entering the ::tclreadline::Loop,
if it is not already defined. So: If you define your own proc
::tclreadline::prompt1 before entering ::tclreadline::Loop, this
proc is called each time the prompt is to be displayed.
Example:
.EQ
package require tclreadline
namespace eval tclreadline {
proc prompt1 {} {
return "[clock format [clock seconds]]> "
}
}
::tclreadline::Loop
.EN
Note that non-printable control characters as color control characters
must be enclosed in literal ctrl-a / ctrl-b to tell readline the length
of the printable prompt. See for example the variable `prompt_string'
in the file tclreadlineSetup.tcl in your tclreadline installation directory.
.\".SH "EXAMPLES"
.\".SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
.SH VARIABLES
The global variable \fBtclreadline_version\fP holds the version number
of the tclreadline package.
.SH FILES
the \fB.tclshrc\fP file in the HOME directory, which
is read on tclsh startup. Alternatively, the name of this initialization
file might be \fB.wishrc\fP ... depending on what interpreter you use.
These files should typically contain something like
.EQ
if {$tcl_interactive} {
package require tclreadline
::tclreadline::Loop
}
.EN
which will enter the tclreadline main loop.
.PP
the \fB.tclsh-history\fP file in the HOME directory. On startup
commands will be read from this file. On exit, the readline history
is written to this file. Note that if you abort tclsh with <cntrl-c>
no history is written. For the future it is planned to set up a signal
handler, which will write the history on <ctrl-c> before exiting.
.PP
the \fB.inputrc\fP file in the users HOME directory. This file
is used normally for all programs which use the gnu readline (e.g. bash).
The `global' readline settings there will be valid also for
\fBtclreadline\fP. Additionally the .inputrc might hold conditional
settings for the implementation name \fBtclreadline\fP. Example of
some lines in your .inputrc:
.EQ
$if tclreadline
"\\C-xp": "puts $env(PATH)"
$endif
.EN
For further documentation please refer to the gnu readline documentation.
.SH BUGS
probably.
.SH SEE ALSO
.PP
The official \fBtclreadline\fP web site at:
.PP
.RS 4
http://www.zellner.org/tclreadline/
.RE
.SH AUTHOR
Johannes Zellner, <johannes@zellner.org>
.br
.SH CONTRIBUTIONS, SUGGESTIONS AND PATCHES
Magnus Eriksson <magnus.eriksson@netinsight.se>,
Les Johnson <les@infolabs.com>,
Harald Kirsch <kir@iitb.fhg.de>,
Christian Krone <krischan@sql.de>,
Larry W. Virden <lvirden@cas.org>,
David Engel <dlengel@home.com>, <david@debian.org>
.SH DEBIAN PACKAGE
David Engel <dlengel@home.com>, <david@debian.org>
.SH HISTORY
This version of \fBtclreadline\fP is still a development version.
Pretty a lot of features and ideas are not implemented yet. The
reason for this is the lack of time and manpower.
So you are welcome to modify and contribute to the code.
If you have suggestions, please let me know.