Provided by: tcl8.6-doc_8.6.14+dfsg-1build1_all bug

NAME

       fconfigure - Set and get options on a channel

SYNOPSIS

       fconfigure channelId
       fconfigure channelId name
       fconfigure channelId name value ?name value ...?
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DESCRIPTION

       The fconfigure command sets and retrieves options for channels.

       ChannelId  identifies the channel for which to set or query an option and must refer to an
       open channel such as a Tcl standard channel (stdin, stdout, or stderr), the  return  value
       from an invocation of open or socket, or the result of a channel creation command provided
       by a Tcl extension.

       If no name or value  arguments  are  supplied,  the  command  returns  a  list  containing
       alternating  option  names  and  values for the channel.  If name is supplied but no value
       then the command returns the current value of the given option.  If one or more  pairs  of
       name  and  value  are  supplied,  the  command  sets  each  of  the  named  options to the
       corresponding value; in this case the return value is an empty string.

       The options described below are supported for all channels. In addition, each channel type
       may  add  options that only it supports. See the manual entry for the command that creates
       each type of channels for the options that that specific type  of  channel  supports.  For
       example,  see  the manual entry for the socket command for additional options for sockets,
       and the open command for additional options for serial devices.

       -blocking boolean
              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 by allowing them to operate asynchronously;  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.  Additionally, stdin and stdout are initially set to line,
              and stderr is set to none.

       -buffersize newSize
              Newvalue 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. Newvalue
              must be between one and one million, allowing buffers of one to one  million  bytes
              in size.

       -encoding name
              This option is used to specify the encoding of the channel, so that the data can be
              converted to and from Unicode for use in Tcl.  For instance, in order  for  Tcl  to
              read  characters  from a Japanese file in shiftjis and properly process and display
              the contents, the encoding would be set to shiftjis.  Thereafter, when reading from
              the  channel,  the bytes in the Japanese file would be converted to Unicode as they
              are read.  Writing is also supported - as Tcl strings are written  to  the  channel
              they will automatically be converted to the specified encoding on output.

              If  a file contains pure binary data (for instance, a JPEG image), the encoding for
              the  channel  should  be  configured  to  be  binary.   Tcl  will  then  assign  no
              interpretation to the data in the file and simply read or write raw bytes.  The Tcl
              binary command can be used to manipulate this byte-oriented data.   It  is  usually
              better  to  set  the -translation option to binary when you want to transfer binary
              data, as this turns off the other automatic interpretations of  the  bytes  in  the
              stream as well.

              The  default  encoding  for newly opened channels is the same platform- and locale-
              dependent system encoding used  for  interfacing  with  the  operating  system,  as
              returned by encoding system.

       -eofchar char

       -eofchar {inChar outChar}
              This  option  supports DOS file systems that use Control-z (\x1A) 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.   The  acceptable  range  for
              -eofchar  values  is  \x01 - \x7F; attempting to set -eofchar to a value outside of
              this range will generate an error.

       -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,  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) and sets the  encoding  to
                     binary (which disables encoding filtering).  See the description of -eofchar
                     and -encoding for more information.

                     Internally, i.e. when it comes to the actual  behaviour  of  the  translator
                     this  value  is  identical  to  lf  and  is  therefore reported as such when
                     queried. Even if binary was used to set the translation.

              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.

              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.

STANDARD CHANNELS

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

EXAMPLES

       Instruct  Tcl  to  always  send  output  to  stdout immediately, whether or not it is to a
       terminal:

              fconfigure stdout -buffering none

       Open a socket and read lines from it without ever blocking the processing of other events:

              set s [socket some.where.com 12345]
              fconfigure $s -blocking 0
              fileevent $s readable "readMe $s"
              proc readMe chan {
                  if {[gets $chan line] < 0} {
                      if {[eof $chan]} {
                          close $chan
                          return
                      }
                      # Could not read a complete line this time; Tcl's
                      # internal buffering will hold the partial line for us
                      # until some more data is available over the socket.
                  } else {
                      puts stdout $line
                  }
              }

       Read a PPM-format image from a file:

              # Open the file and put it into Unix ASCII mode
              set f [open teapot.ppm]
              fconfigure $f -encoding ascii -translation lf

              # Get the header
              if {[gets $f] ne "P6"} {
                  error "not a raw-bits PPM"
              }

              # Read lines until we have got non-comment lines
              # that supply us with three decimal values.
              set words {}
              while {[llength $words] < 3} {
                  gets $f line
                  if {[string match "#*" $line]} continue
                  lappend words {*}[join [scan $line %d%d%d]]
              }

              # Those words supply the size of the image and its
              # overall depth per channel. Assign to variables.
              lassign $words xSize ySize depth

              # Now switch to binary mode to pull in the data,
              # one byte per channel (red,green,blue) per pixel.
              fconfigure $f -translation binary
              set numDataBytes [expr {3 * $xSize * $ySize}]
              set data [read $f $numDataBytes]

              close $f

SEE ALSO

       close(3tcl), flush(3tcl), gets(3tcl), open(3tcl),  puts(3tcl),  read(3tcl),  socket(3tcl),
       Tcl_StandardChannels(3tcl)

KEYWORDS

       blocking,   buffering,   carriage  return,  end  of  line,  flushing,  linemode,  newline,
       nonblocking, platform, translation, encoding, filter, byte array, binary