NAME

       Tk::fileevent - Execute a callback when a filehandle becomes readable or writable

SYNOPSIS

       $widget->fileevent(fileHandle,readable?,callback?)

       $widget->fileevent(fileHandle,writable?,callback?)

DESCRIPTION

       This command is used to create file event handlers.  A file event handler is a binding
       between a filehandle and a callback, such that the callback is evaluated whenever the
       filehandle becomes readable or writable.  File event handlers are most commonly used to
       allow data to be received from another process on an event-driven basis, so that the
       receiver can continue to interact with the user while waiting for the data to arrive.  If
       an application invokes "<>", "sysread" or "read" on a blocking filehandle when there is no
       input data available, the process will block; until the input data arrives, it will not be
       able to service other events, so it will appear to the user to ``freeze up''.  With
       fileevent, the process can tell when data is present and only invoke gets or read when
       they won't block.

       The fileHandle argument to fileevent refers to an open filehandle, such as the return
       value from a previous open or socket command.  If the callback argument is specified, then
       fileevent creates a new event handler:  callback will be evaluated whenever the filehandle
       becomes readable or writable (depending on the argument to fileevent).  In this case
       fileevent returns an empty string.  The readable and writable event handlers for a file
       are independent, and may be created and deleted separately.  However, there may be at most
       one readable and one writable handler for a file at a given time in a given interpreter.
       If fileevent is called when the specified handler already exists in the invoking
       interpreter, the new callback replaces the old one.

       If the callback argument is not specified, fileevent returns the current callback for
       fileHandle, or an empty string if there is none.  If the callback argument is specified as
       an empty string then the event handler is deleted, so that no callback will be invoked.  A
       file event handler is also deleted automatically whenever its filehandle is closed or its
       interpreter is deleted.

       A filehandle is considered to be readable if there is unread data available on the
       underlying device.  A filehandle is also considered to be readable if an end of file or
       error condition is present on the underlying file or device.  It is important for callback
       to check for these conditions and handle them appropriately;  for example, if there is no
       special check for end of file, an infinite loop may occur where callback reads no data,
       returns, and is immediately invoked again.

       A filehandle is considered to be writable if at least one byte of data can be written to
       the underlying file or device without blocking, or if an error condition is present on the
       underlying file or device.

       Event-driven I/O works best for filehandles that have been placed into nonblocking mode.
       In blocking mode, a "print" command may block if you give it more data than the underlying
       file or device can accept, and a "<>", "sysread" or "read" command will block if you
       attempt to read more data than is ready;  no events will be processed while the commands
       block.  In nonblocking mode "print", "<>", "sysread" and "read" never block.  See the
       documentation for the individual commands for information on how they handle blocking and
       nonblocking filehandles.

       The callback for a file event is executed in the context of $widget with which fileevent
       was invoked.  If an error occurs while executing the callback then the Tk::Error mechanism
       is used to report the error.  In addition, the file event handler is deleted if it ever
       returns an error;  this is done in order to prevent infinite loops due to buggy handlers.

BUGS

       On windows platforms fileevent is limited in the types of filehandles that behave
       correctly. Making filefhandles non-blocking is only implemented on a subset of UNIX
       platforms (see Tk::IO).

CREDITS

       fileevent is based on the addinput command created by Mark Diekhans.

SEE ALSO

       Tk::IO Tk::callbacks

KEYWORDS

       asynchronous I/O, blocking, filehandle, event handler, nonblocking, readable, callback,
       writable.