Provided by: tcl8.5-doc_8.5.19-4_all 
NAME
Tcl_TraceVar, Tcl_TraceVar2, Tcl_UntraceVar, Tcl_UntraceVar2, Tcl_VarTraceInfo,
Tcl_VarTraceInfo2 - monitor accesses to a variable
SYNOPSIS
#include <tcl.h>
int
Tcl_TraceVar(interp, varName, flags, proc, clientData)
int
Tcl_TraceVar2(interp, name1, name2, flags, proc, clientData)
Tcl_UntraceVar(interp, varName, flags, proc, clientData)
Tcl_UntraceVar2(interp, name1, name2, flags, proc, clientData)
ClientData
Tcl_VarTraceInfo(interp, varName, flags, proc, prevClientData)
ClientData
Tcl_VarTraceInfo2(interp, name1, name2, flags, proc, prevClientData)
ARGUMENTS
Tcl_Interp *interp (in) Interpreter containing variable.
const char *varName (in) Name of variable. May refer to a scalar
variable, to an array variable with no
index, or to an array variable with a
parenthesized index.
int flags (in) OR-ed combination of the values
TCL_TRACE_READS, TCL_TRACE_WRITES,
TCL_TRACE_UNSETS, TCL_TRACE_ARRAY,
TCL_GLOBAL_ONLY, TCL_NAMESPACE_ONLY,
TCL_TRACE_RESULT_DYNAMIC and
TCL_TRACE_RESULT_OBJECT. Not all flags are
used by all procedures. See below for more
information.
Tcl_VarTraceProc *proc (in) Procedure to invoke whenever one of the
traced operations occurs.
ClientData clientData (in) Arbitrary one-word value to pass to proc.
const char *name1 (in) Name of scalar or array variable (without
array index).
const char *name2 (in) For a trace on an element of an array, gives
the index of the element. For traces on
scalar variables or on whole arrays, is
NULL.
ClientData prevClientData (in) If non-NULL, gives last value returned by
Tcl_VarTraceInfo or Tcl_VarTraceInfo2, so
this call will return information about next
trace. If NULL, this call will return
information about first trace.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
Tcl_TraceVar allows a C procedure to monitor and control access to a Tcl variable, so that
the C procedure is invoked whenever the variable is read or written or unset. If the
trace is created successfully then Tcl_TraceVar returns TCL_OK. If an error occurred
(e.g. varName specifies an element of an array, but the actual variable is not an array)
then TCL_ERROR is returned and an error message is left in the interpreter's result.
The flags argument to Tcl_TraceVar indicates when the trace procedure is to be invoked and
provides information for setting up the trace. It consists of an OR-ed combination of any
of the following values:
TCL_GLOBAL_ONLY
Normally, the variable will be looked up at the current level of procedure call;
if this bit is set then the variable will be looked up at global level, ignoring
any active procedures.
TCL_NAMESPACE_ONLY
Normally, the variable will be looked up at the current level of procedure call;
if this bit is set then the variable will be looked up in the current namespace,
ignoring any active procedures.
TCL_TRACE_READS
Invoke proc whenever an attempt is made to read the variable.
TCL_TRACE_WRITES
Invoke proc whenever an attempt is made to modify the variable.
TCL_TRACE_UNSETS
Invoke proc whenever the variable is unset. A variable may be unset either
explicitly by an unset command, or implicitly when a procedure returns (its local
variables are automatically unset) or when the interpreter is deleted (all
variables are automatically unset).
TCL_TRACE_ARRAY
Invoke proc whenever the array command is invoked. This gives the trace procedure
a chance to update the array before array names or array get is called. Note that
this is called before an array set, but that will trigger write traces.
TCL_TRACE_RESULT_DYNAMIC
The result of invoking the proc is a dynamically allocated string that will be
released by the Tcl library via a call to ckfree. Must not be specified at the
same time as TCL_TRACE_RESULT_OBJECT.
TCL_TRACE_RESULT_OBJECT
The result of invoking the proc is a Tcl_Obj* (cast to a char*) with a reference
count of at least one. The ownership of that reference will be transferred to the
Tcl core for release (when the core has finished with it) via a call to
Tcl_DecrRefCount. Must not be specified at the same time as
TCL_TRACE_RESULT_DYNAMIC.
Whenever one of the specified operations occurs on the variable, proc will be invoked. It
should have arguments and result that match the type Tcl_VarTraceProc:
typedef char *Tcl_VarTraceProc(
ClientData clientData,
Tcl_Interp *interp,
char *name1,
char *name2,
int flags);
The clientData and interp parameters will have the same values as those passed to
Tcl_TraceVar when the trace was created. ClientData typically points to an application-
specific data structure that describes what to do when proc is invoked. Name1 and name2
give the name of the traced variable in the normal two-part form (see the description of
Tcl_TraceVar2 below for details). Flags is an OR-ed combination of bits providing several
pieces of information. One of the bits TCL_TRACE_READS, TCL_TRACE_WRITES,
TCL_TRACE_ARRAY, or TCL_TRACE_UNSETS will be set in flags to indicate which operation is
being performed on the variable. The bit TCL_GLOBAL_ONLY will be set whenever the
variable being accessed is a global one not accessible from the current level of procedure
call: the trace procedure will need to pass this flag back to variable-related procedures
like Tcl_GetVar if it attempts to access the variable. The bit TCL_NAMESPACE_ONLY will be
set whenever the variable being accessed is a namespace one not accessible from the
current level of procedure call: the trace procedure will need to pass this flag back to
variable-related procedures like Tcl_GetVar if it attempts to access the variable. The
bit TCL_TRACE_DESTROYED will be set in flags if the trace is about to be destroyed; this
information may be useful to proc so that it can clean up its own internal data structures
(see the section TCL_TRACE_DESTROYED below for more details). Lastly, the bit
TCL_INTERP_DESTROYED will be set if the entire interpreter is being destroyed. When this
bit is set, proc must be especially careful in the things it does (see the section
TCL_INTERP_DESTROYED below). The trace procedure's return value should normally be NULL;
see ERROR RETURNS below for information on other possibilities.
Tcl_UntraceVar may be used to remove a trace. If the variable specified by interp,
varName, and flags has a trace set with flags, proc, and clientData, then the
corresponding trace is removed. If no such trace exists, then the call to Tcl_UntraceVar
has no effect. The same bits are valid for flags as for calls to Tcl_TraceVar.
Tcl_VarTraceInfo may be used to retrieve information about traces set on a given variable.
The return value from Tcl_VarTraceInfo is the clientData associated with a particular
trace. The trace must be on the variable specified by the interp, varName, and flags
arguments (only the TCL_GLOBAL_ONLY and TCL_NAMESPACE_ONLY bits from flags is used; other
bits are ignored) and its trace procedure must the same as the proc argument. If the
prevClientData argument is NULL then the return value corresponds to the first (most
recently created) matching trace, or NULL if there are no matching traces. If the
prevClientData argument is not NULL, then it should be the return value from a previous
call to Tcl_VarTraceInfo. In this case, the new return value will correspond to the next
matching trace after the one whose clientData matches prevClientData, or NULL if no trace
matches prevClientData or if there are no more matching traces after it. This mechanism
makes it possible to step through all of the traces for a given variable that have the
same proc.
TWO-PART NAMES
The procedures Tcl_TraceVar2, Tcl_UntraceVar2, and Tcl_VarTraceInfo2 are identical to
Tcl_TraceVar, Tcl_UntraceVar, and Tcl_VarTraceInfo, respectively, except that the name of
the variable consists of two parts. Name1 gives the name of a scalar variable or array,
and name2 gives the name of an element within an array. When name2 is NULL, name1 may
contain both an array and an element name: if the name contains an open parenthesis and
ends with a close parenthesis, then the value between the parentheses is treated as an
element name (which can have any string value) and the characters before the first open
parenthesis are treated as the name of an array variable. If name2 is NULL and name1 does
not refer to an array element it means that either the variable is a scalar or the trace
is to be set on the entire array rather than an individual element (see WHOLE-ARRAY TRACES
below for more information).
ACCESSING VARIABLES DURING TRACES
During read, write, and array traces, the trace procedure can read, write, or unset the
traced variable using Tcl_GetVar2, Tcl_SetVar2, and other procedures. While proc is
executing, traces are temporarily disabled for the variable, so that calls to Tcl_GetVar2
and Tcl_SetVar2 will not cause proc or other trace procedures to be invoked again.
Disabling only occurs for the variable whose trace procedure is active; accesses to other
variables will still be traced. However, if a variable is unset during a read or write
trace then unset traces will be invoked.
During unset traces the variable has already been completely expunged. It is possible for
the trace procedure to read or write the variable, but this will be a new version of the
variable. Traces are not disabled during unset traces as they are for read and write
traces, but existing traces have been removed from the variable before any trace
procedures are invoked. If new traces are set by unset trace procedures, these traces
will be invoked on accesses to the variable by the trace procedures.
CALLBACK TIMING
When read tracing has been specified for a variable, the trace procedure will be invoked
whenever the variable's value is read. This includes set Tcl commands, $-notation in Tcl
commands, and invocations of the Tcl_GetVar and Tcl_GetVar2 procedures. Proc is invoked
just before the variable's value is returned. It may modify the value of the variable to
affect what is returned by the traced access. If it unsets the variable then the access
will return an error just as if the variable never existed.
When write tracing has been specified for a variable, the trace procedure will be invoked
whenever the variable's value is modified. This includes set commands, commands that
modify variables as side effects (such as catch and scan), and calls to the Tcl_SetVar and
Tcl_SetVar2 procedures). Proc will be invoked after the variable's value has been
modified, but before the new value of the variable has been returned. It may modify the
value of the variable to override the change and to determine the value actually returned
by the traced access. If it deletes the variable then the traced access will return an
empty string.
When array tracing has been specified, the trace procedure will be invoked at the
beginning of the array command implementation, before any of the operations like get, set,
or names have been invoked. The trace procedure can modify the array elements with
Tcl_SetVar and Tcl_SetVar2.
When unset tracing has been specified, the trace procedure will be invoked whenever the
variable is destroyed. The traces will be called after the variable has been completely
unset.
WHOLE-ARRAY TRACES
If a call to Tcl_TraceVar or Tcl_TraceVar2 specifies the name of an array variable without
an index into the array, then the trace will be set on the array as a whole. This means
that proc will be invoked whenever any element of the array is accessed in the ways
specified by flags. When an array is unset, a whole-array trace will be invoked just
once, with name1 equal to the name of the array and name2 NULL; it will not be invoked
once for each element.
MULTIPLE TRACES
It is possible for multiple traces to exist on the same variable. When this happens, all
of the trace procedures will be invoked on each access, in order from most-recently-
created to least-recently-created. When there exist whole-array traces for an array as
well as traces on individual elements, the whole-array traces are invoked before the
individual-element traces. If a read or write trace unsets the variable then all of the
unset traces will be invoked but the remainder of the read and write traces will be
skipped.
ERROR RETURNS
Under normal conditions trace procedures should return NULL, indicating successful
completion. If proc returns a non-NULL value it signifies that an error occurred. The
return value must be a pointer to a static character string containing an error message,
unless (exactly one of) the TCL_TRACE_RESULT_DYNAMIC and TCL_TRACE_RESULT_OBJECT flags is
set, which specify that the result is either a dynamic string (to be released with ckfree)
or a Tcl_Obj* (cast to char* and to be released with Tcl_DecrRefCount) containing the
error message. If a trace procedure returns an error, no further traces are invoked for
the access and the traced access aborts with the given message. Trace procedures can use
this facility to make variables read-only, for example (but note that the value of the
variable will already have been modified before the trace procedure is called, so the
trace procedure will have to restore the correct value).
The return value from proc is only used during read and write tracing. During unset
traces, the return value is ignored and all relevant trace procedures will always be
invoked.
RESTRICTIONS
A trace procedure can be called at any time, even when there is a partially formed result
in the interpreter's result area. If the trace procedure does anything that could damage
this result (such as calling Tcl_Eval) then it must save the original values of the
interpreter's result and freeProc fields and restore them before it returns.
UNDEFINED VARIABLES
It is legal to set a trace on an undefined variable. The variable will still appear to be
undefined until the first time its value is set. If an undefined variable is traced and
then unset, the unset will fail with an error (“no such variable”), but the trace
procedure will still be invoked.
TCL_TRACE_DESTROYED FLAG
In an unset callback to proc, the TCL_TRACE_DESTROYED bit is set in flags if the trace is
being removed as part of the deletion. Traces on a variable are always removed whenever
the variable is deleted; the only time TCL_TRACE_DESTROYED is not set is for a whole-
array trace invoked when only a single element of an array is unset.
TCL_INTERP_DESTROYED
When an interpreter is destroyed, unset traces are called for all of its variables. The
TCL_INTERP_DESTROYED bit will be set in the flags argument passed to the trace procedures.
Trace procedures must be extremely careful in what they do if the TCL_INTERP_DESTROYED bit
is set. It is not safe for the procedures to invoke any Tcl procedures on the
interpreter, since its state is partially deleted. All that trace procedures should do
under these circumstances is to clean up and free their own internal data structures.
BUGS
Tcl does not do any error checking to prevent trace procedures from misusing the
interpreter during traces with TCL_INTERP_DESTROYED set.
Array traces are not yet integrated with the Tcl info exists command, nor is there Tcl-
level access to array traces.
KEYWORDS
clientData, trace, variable