Tcl_CreateObjCommand(3)

NAME
Tcl_CreateObjCommand, Tcl_DeleteCommand, Tcl_DeleteCommandFromToken, Tcl_GetCommandInfo, Tcl_GetCommandInfoFromToken, Tcl_SetCommandInfo, Tcl_SetCommandInfoFromToken, Tcl_GetCommandName, Tcl_GetCommandFullName, Tcl_GetCommandFromObj, Tcl_RegisterCommandTypeName, Tcl_GetCommandTypeName - implement new commands in C

SYNOPSIS
#include <tcl.h>

Tcl_Command
Tcl_CreateObjCommand(interp, cmdName, proc, clientData, deleteProc)

int
Tcl_DeleteCommand(interp, cmdName)

int
Tcl_DeleteCommandFromToken(interp, token)

int
Tcl_GetCommandInfo(interp, cmdName, infoPtr)

int
Tcl_SetCommandInfo(interp, cmdName, infoPtr)

int
Tcl_GetCommandInfoFromToken(token, infoPtr)

int
Tcl_SetCommandInfoFromToken(token, infoPtr)

const char *
Tcl_GetCommandName(interp, token)

void
Tcl_GetCommandFullName(interp, token, objPtr)

Tcl_Command
Tcl_GetCommandFromObj(interp, objPtr)

void
Tcl_RegisterCommandTypeName(proc, typeName)

const char *
Tcl_GetCommandTypeName(token)

ARGUMENTS
Interpreter in which to create a new command or that contains a command. Name of command. Implementation of the new command: proc will be called whenever cmdName is invoked as a command. Arbitrary one-word value to pass to proc and deleteProc. Procedure to call before cmdName is deleted from the interpreter; allows for command-specific cleanup. If NULL, then no procedure is called before the command is deleted. Token for command, returned by previous call to Tcl_CreateObjCommand. The command must not have been deleted. Pointer to structure containing various information about a Tcl command. Value containing the name of a Tcl command. Indicates the name of the type of command implementation associated with a particular proc, or NULL to break the association.

DESCRIPTION

Tcl_CreateObjCommand defines a new command in interp and associates it with procedure proc such that whenever name is invoked as a Tcl command (e.g., via a call to Tcl_EvalObjEx) the Tcl interpreter will call proc to process the command.

Tcl_CreateObjCommand deletes any existing command name already associated with the interpreter (however see below for an exception where the existing command is not deleted). It returns a token that may be used to refer to the command in subsequent calls to Tcl_GetCommandName. If name contains any :: namespace qualifiers, then the command is added to the specified namespace; otherwise the command is added to the global namespace. If Tcl_CreateObjCommand is called for an interpreter that is in the process of being deleted, then it does not create a new command and it returns NULL. proc should have arguments and result that match the type Tcl_ObjCmdProc:

typedef int Tcl_ObjCmdProc(
        ClientData clientData,
        Tcl_Interp *interp,
        int objc,
        Tcl_Obj *const objv[]);

When proc is invoked, the clientData and interp parameters will be copies of the clientData and interp arguments given to Tcl_CreateObjCommand. Typically, clientData points to an application-specific data structure that describes what to do when the command procedure is invoked. Objc and objv describe the arguments to the command, objc giving the number of argument values (including the command name) and objv giving the values of the arguments. The objv array will contain objc values, pointing to the argument values. Unlike argv[argv] used in a string-based command procedure, objv[objc] will not contain NULL.

Additionally, when proc is invoked, it must not modify the contents of the objv array by assigning new pointer values to any element of the array (for example, objv[2] = NULL) because this will cause memory to be lost and the runtime stack to be corrupted. The const in the declaration of objv will cause ANSI-compliant compilers to report any such attempted assignment as an error. However, it is acceptable to modify the internal representation of any individual value argument. For instance, the user may call Tcl_GetIntFromObj on objv[2] to obtain the integer representation of that value; that call may change the type of the value that objv[2] points at, but will not change where objv[2] points.

proc must return an integer code that is either TCL_OK, TCL_ERROR, TCL_RETURN, TCL_BREAK, or TCL_CONTINUE. See the Tcl overview man page for details on what these codes mean. Most normal commands will only return TCL_OK or TCL_ERROR. In addition, if proc needs to return a non-empty result, it can call Tcl_SetObjResult to set the interpreter's result. In the case of a TCL_OK return code this gives the result of the command, and in the case of TCL_ERROR this gives an error message. Before invoking a command procedure, Tcl_EvalObjEx sets interpreter's result to point to a value representing an empty string, so simple commands can return an empty result by doing nothing at all.

The contents of the objv array belong to Tcl and are not guaranteed to persist once proc returns: proc should not modify them. Call Tcl_SetObjResult if you want to return something from the objv array.

Ordinarily, Tcl_CreateObjCommand deletes any existing command name already associated with the interpreter. However, if the existing command was created by a previous call to Tcl_CreateCommand, Tcl_CreateObjCommand does not delete the command but instead arranges for the Tcl interpreter to call the Tcl_ObjCmdProc proc in the future. The old string-based Tcl_CmdProc associated with the command is retained and its address can be obtained by subsequent Tcl_GetCommandInfo calls. This is done for backwards compatibility.

DeleteProc will be invoked when (if) name is deleted. This can occur through a call to Tcl_DeleteCommand, Tcl_DeleteCommandFromToken, or Tcl_DeleteInterp, or by replacing name in another call to Tcl_CreateObjCommand. DeleteProc is invoked before the command is deleted, and gives the application an opportunity to release any structures associated with the command. DeleteProc should have arguments and result that match the type Tcl_CmdDeleteProc:

typedef void Tcl_CmdDeleteProc(
        ClientData clientData);

The clientData argument will be the same as the clientData argument passed to Tcl_CreateObjCommand.

Tcl_DeleteCommand deletes a command from a command interpreter. Once the call completes, attempts to invoke cmdName in interp will result in errors. If cmdName is not bound as a command in interp then Tcl_DeleteCommand does nothing and returns -1; otherwise it returns 0. There are no restrictions on cmdName: it may refer to a built-in command, an application-specific command, or a Tcl procedure. If name contains any :: namespace qualifiers, the command is deleted from the specified namespace.

Given a token returned by Tcl_CreateObjCommand, Tcl_DeleteCommandFromToken deletes the command from a command interpreter. It will delete a command even if that command has been renamed. Once the call completes, attempts to invoke the command in interp will result in errors. If the command corresponding to token has already been deleted from interp then Tcl_DeleteCommand does nothing and returns -1; otherwise it returns 0.

Tcl_GetCommandInfo checks to see whether its cmdName argument exists as a command in interp. cmdName may include :: namespace qualifiers to identify a command in a particular namespace. If the command is not found, then it returns 0. Otherwise it places information about the command in the Tcl_CmdInfo structure pointed to by infoPtr and returns 1. A Tcl_CmdInfo structure has the following fields:

typedef struct Tcl_CmdInfo {
    int isNativeObjectProc;
    Tcl_ObjCmdProc *objProc;
    ClientData objClientData;
    Tcl_CmdProc *proc;
    ClientData clientData;
    Tcl_CmdDeleteProc *deleteProc;
    ClientData deleteData;
    Tcl_Namespace *namespacePtr; } Tcl_CmdInfo;

The isNativeObjectProc field has the value 1 if Tcl_CreateObjCommand was called to register the command; it is 0 if only Tcl_CreateCommand was called. It allows a program to determine whether it is faster to call objProc or proc: objProc is normally faster if isNativeObjectProc has the value 1. The fields objProc and objClientData have the same meaning as the proc and clientData arguments to Tcl_CreateObjCommand; they hold information about the value-based command procedure that the Tcl interpreter calls to implement the command. The fields proc and clientData hold information about the string-based command procedure that implements the command. If Tcl_CreateCommand was called for this command, this is the procedure passed to it; otherwise, this is a compatibility procedure registered by Tcl_CreateObjCommand that simply calls the command's value-based procedure after converting its string arguments to Tcl values. The field deleteData is the ClientData value to pass to deleteProc; it is normally the same as clientData but may be set independently using the Tcl_SetCommandInfo procedure. The field namespacePtr holds a pointer to the Tcl_Namespace that contains the command.

Tcl_GetCommandInfoFromToken is identical to Tcl_GetCommandInfo except that it uses a command token returned from Tcl_CreateObjCommand in place of the command name. If the token parameter is NULL, it returns 0; otherwise, it returns 1 and fills in the structure designated by infoPtr.

Tcl_SetCommandInfo is used to modify the procedures and ClientData values associated with a command. Its cmdName argument is the name of a command in interp. cmdName may include :: namespace qualifiers to identify a command in a particular namespace. If this command does not exist then Tcl_SetCommandInfo returns 0. Otherwise, it copies the information from *infoPtr to Tcl's internal structure for the command and returns 1.

Tcl_SetCommandInfoFromToken is identical to Tcl_SetCommandInfo except that it takes a command token as returned by Tcl_CreateObjCommand instead of the command name. If the token parameter is NULL, it returns 0. Otherwise, it copies the information from *infoPtr to Tcl's internal structure for the command and returns 1.

Note that Tcl_SetCommandInfo and Tcl_SetCommandInfoFromToken both allow the ClientData for a command's deletion procedure to be given a different value than the ClientData for its command procedure.

Note that neither Tcl_SetCommandInfo nor Tcl_SetCommandInfoFromToken will change a command's namespace. Use Tcl_Eval to call the rename command to do that.

Tcl_GetCommandName provides a mechanism for tracking commands that have been renamed. Given a token returned by Tcl_CreateObjCommand when the command was created, Tcl_GetCommandName returns the string name of the command. If the command has been renamed since it was created, then Tcl_GetCommandName returns the current name. This name does not include any :: namespace qualifiers. The command corresponding to token must not have been deleted. The string returned by Tcl_GetCommandName is in dynamic memory owned by Tcl and is only guaranteed to retain its value as long as the command is not deleted or renamed; callers should copy the string if they need to keep it for a long time.

Tcl_GetCommandFullName produces the fully qualified name of a command from a command token. The name, including all namespace prefixes, is appended to the value specified by objPtr.

Tcl_GetCommandFromObj returns a token for the command specified by the name in a Tcl_Obj. The command name is resolved relative to the current namespace. Returns NULL if the command is not found.

Tcl_RegisterCommandTypeName is used to associate a name (the typeName argument) with a particular implementation function so that it can then be looked up with Tcl_GetCommandTypeName, which in turn is called with a command token that information is wanted for and which returns the name of the type that was registered for the implementation function used for that command. (The lookup functionality is surfaced virtually directly in Tcl via info cmdtype.) If there is no function registered for a particular function, the result will be the string literal The registration of a name can be undone by registering a mapping to NULL instead. The result from Tcl_GetCommandTypeName will be exactly that string which was registered, and not a copy; use of a compile-time constant string is strongly recommended.

SEE ALSO
Tcl_CreateCommand(3), Tcl_ResetResult(3), Tcl_SetObjResult(3)

KEYWORDS
bind, command, create, delete, namespace, value