Provided by: tcl-thread_2.8.8-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       tsv  -  Part  of  the  Tcl  threading extension allowing script level manipulation of data
       shared between threads.

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  8.4

       package require Thread  ?2.8?

       tsv::names ?pattern?

       tsv::object varname element

       tsv::set varname element ?value?

       tsv::get varname element ?namedvar?

       tsv::unset varname ?element?

       tsv::exists varname element

       tsv::pop varname element

       tsv::move varname oldname newname

       tsv::incr varname element ?count?

       tsv::append varname element value ?value ...?

       tsv::lock varname arg ?arg ...?

       tsv::handlers

       tsv::lappend varname element value ?value ...?

       tsv::linsert varname element index value ?value ...?

       tsv::lreplace varname element first last ?value ...?

       tsv::llength varname element

       tsv::lindex varname element ?index?

       tsv::lrange varname element from to

       tsv::lsearch varname element ?options? pattern

       tsv::lset varname element index ?index ...? value

       tsv::lpop varname element ?index?

       tsv::lpush varname element ?index?

       tsv::array set varname list

       tsv::array get varname ?pattern?

       tsv::array names varname ?pattern?

       tsv::array size varname

       tsv::array reset varname list

       tsv::array bind varname handle

       tsv::array unbind varname

       tsv::array isbound varname

       tsv::keyldel varname keylist key

       tsv::keylget varname keylist key ?retvar?

       tsv::keylkeys varname keylist ?key?

       tsv::keylset varname keylist key value ?key value..?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

       This section describes commands implementing thread shared  variables.   A  thread  shared
       variable  is  very  similar to a Tcl array but in contrast to a Tcl array it is created in
       shared memory and can be accessed from many threads at the same time. Important feature of
       thread  shared  variable  is  that each access to the variable is internaly protected by a
       mutex so script programmer does not have to take care about locking the variable himself.

       Thread shared variables are not bound to any thread explicitly. That  means  that  when  a
       thread  which  created  any  of thread shared variables exits, the variable and associated
       memory is not unset/reclaimed.  User has to explicitly unset the variable to  reclaim  the
       memory consumed by the variable.

ELEMENT COMMANDS

       tsv::names ?pattern?
              Returns  names  of  shared  variables  matching  optional  ?pattern?   or all known
              variables if pattern is ommited.

       tsv::object varname element
              Creates object accessor command for the element in  the  shared  variable  varname.
              Using  this  command,  one  can apply most of the other shared variable commands as
              method functions of the element object command. The object command is automatically
              deleted when the element which this command is pointing to is unset.

                  % tsv::set foo bar "A shared string"
                  % set string [tsv::object foo bar]
                  % $string append " appended"
                  => A shared string appended

       tsv::set varname element ?value?
              Sets  the  value of the element in the shared variable varname to value and returns
              the value to caller. The value may be ommited,  in  which  case  the  command  will
              return  the  current value of the element. If the element cannot be found, error is
              triggered.

       tsv::get varname element ?namedvar?
              Retrieves the value of the element  from  the  shared  variable  varname.   If  the
              optional  argument  namedvar  is  given, the value is stored in the named variable.
              Return value of the command depends of  the  existence  of  the  optional  argument
              namedvar.   If the argument is ommited and the requested element cannot be found in
              the shared array, the command triggers error. If, however, the optional argument is
              given  on the command line, the command returns true (1) if the element is found or
              false (0) if the element is not found.

       tsv::unset varname ?element?
              Unsets the element from the shared variable varname.  If the  optional  element  is
              not given, it deletes the variable.

       tsv::exists varname element
              Checks  wether  the  element exists in the shared variable varname and returns true
              (1) if it does or false (0) if it doesn't.

       tsv::pop varname element
              Returns value of the element in the shared variable varname and unsets the element,
              all in one atomic operation.

       tsv::move varname oldname newname
              Renames  the  element  oldname  to the newname in the shared variable varname. This
              effectively performs an get/unset/set sequence of operations but all in one  atomic
              step.

       tsv::incr varname element ?count?
              Similar  to  standard  Tcl  incr command but increments the value of the element in
              shared variaboe varname instead of the Tcl variable.

       tsv::append varname element value ?value ...?
              Similar to standard Tcl append command but  appends  one  or  more  values  to  the
              element in shared variable varname instead of the Tcl variable.

       tsv::lock varname arg ?arg ...?
              This command concatenates passed arguments and evaluates the resulting script under
              the internal mutex protection. During the  script  evaluation,  the  entire  shared
              variable  is  locked.  For  shared  variable  commands  within the script, internal
              locking is disabled so no deadlock can occur. It  is  also  allowed  to  unset  the
              shared  variable  from  within  the  script.  The  shared variable is automatically
              created if it did not exists at the time of the first lock operation.

                  % tsv::lock foo {
                      tsv::lappend foo bar 1
                      tsv::lappend foo bar 2
                      puts stderr [tsv::set foo bar]
                      tsv::unset foo
                  }

       tsv::handlers
              Returns the names of all persistent storage handlers enabled at compile time.   See
              ARRAY COMMANDS for details.

LIST COMMANDS

       Those  command  are  similar to the equivalently named Tcl command. The difference is that
       they operate on elements of shared arrays.

       tsv::lappend varname element value ?value ...?
              Similar to standard Tcl lappend command but appends  one  or  more  values  to  the
              element in shared variable varname instead of the Tcl variable.

       tsv::linsert varname element index value ?value ...?
              Similar to standard Tcl linsert command but inserts one or more values at the index
              list position in the element in the shared variable  varname  instead  of  the  Tcl
              variable.

       tsv::lreplace varname element first last ?value ...?
              Similar  to  standard  Tcl lreplace command but replaces one or more values between
              the first and last position in the element of the shared variable  varname  instead
              of the Tcl variable.

       tsv::llength varname element
              Similar  to  standard  Tcl llength command but returns length of the element in the
              shared variable varname instead of the Tcl variable.

       tsv::lindex varname element ?index?
              Similar to standard Tcl lindex command but returns the  value  at  the  index  list
              position  of  the  element  from  the  shared  variable  varname instead of the Tcl
              variable.

       tsv::lrange varname element from to
              Similar to standard Tcl lrange command but returns values between from and to  list
              positions  from  the  element  in  the  shared  variable varname instead of the Tcl
              variable.

       tsv::lsearch varname element ?options? pattern
              Similar to standard Tcl lsearch command but searches  the  element  in  the  shared
              variable varname instead of the Tcl variable.

       tsv::lset varname element index ?index ...? value
              Similar  to  standard  Tcl lset command but sets the element in the shared variable
              varname instead of the Tcl variable.

       tsv::lpop varname element ?index?
              Similar to the standard Tcl lindex command but in addition to  returning,  it  also
              splices the value out of the element from the shared variable varname in one atomic
              operation.  In contrast to the Tcl lindex command, this command returns no value to
              the caller.

       tsv::lpush varname element ?index?
              This  command performes the opposite of the tsv::lpop command.  As its counterpart,
              it returns no value to the caller.

ARRAY COMMANDS

       This command supports most of the options of the standard Tcl array command.  In  addition
       to  those,  it  allows  binding  a  shared  variable  to some persisten storage databases.
       Currently the persistent options supported are the famous GNU Gdbm and LMDB. These options
       have  to  be  selected  during  the package compilation time.  The implementation provides
       hooks for defining other persistency layers, if needed.

       tsv::array set varname list
              Does the same as standard Tcl array set.

       tsv::array get varname ?pattern?
              Does the same as standard Tcl array get.

       tsv::array names varname ?pattern?
              Does the same as standard Tcl array names.

       tsv::array size varname
              Does the same as standard Tcl array size.

       tsv::array reset varname list
              Does the same as standard Tcl array set but it clears  the  varname  and  sets  new
              values from the list atomically.

       tsv::array bind varname handle
              Binds  the  varname  to the persistent storage handle.  The format of the handle is
              <handler>:<address>, where <handler> is "gdbm" for GNU Gdbm and "lmdb" for LMDB and
              <address> is the path to the database file.

       tsv::array unbind varname
              Unbinds the shared array from its bound persistent storage.

       tsv::array isbound varname
              Returns  true (1) if the shared varname is bound to some persistent storage or zero
              (0) if not.

KEYED LIST COMMANDS

       Keyed list commands are borrowed from the TclX package. Keyed lists provide  a  structured
       data type built upon standard Tcl lists. This is a functionality similar to structs in the
       C programming language.

       A keyed list is a list in which each element contains a key and value pair. These  element
       pairs  are stored as lists themselves, where the key is the first element of the list, and
       the value is the second. The key-value pairs are  referred  to  as  fields.   This  is  an
       example of a keyed list:

                  {{NAME  {Frank  Zappa}} {JOB {musician and composer}}}

       Fields  may  contain  subfields;  `.'  is  the separator character. Subfields are actually
       fields  where the value is another keyed list. Thus the following list has the  top  level
       fields ID and NAME, and subfields NAME.FIRST and NAME.LAST:

                  {ID 106} {NAME {{FIRST Frank} {LAST Zappa}}}

       There  is no limit to the recursive depth of subfields, allowing one to build complex data
       structures. Keyed lists are constructed and accessed via a number of commands. All   keyed
       list  management  commands  take  the name of the variable containing the keyed list as an
       argument (i.e. passed by reference), rather than passing the list directly.

       tsv::keyldel varname keylist key
              Delete the field specified by key  from  the  keyed  list  keylist  in  the  shared
              variable varname.  This removes both the key and the value from the keyed list.

       tsv::keylget varname keylist key ?retvar?
              Return  the  value  associated  with  key from the keyed list keylist in the shared
              variable varname.  If the optional retvar is not specified, then the value will  be
              returned  as  the  result  of the command. In this case, if key is not found in the
              list, an error will result.

              If retvar is specified and key is in the list, then the value is  returned  in  the
              variable  retvar  and the command returns 1 if the key was present within the list.
              If key isn't in the list, the command will  return  0,  and  retvar  will  be  left
              unchanged.  If  {} is specified for retvar, the value is not returned, allowing the
              Tcl programmer to determine if a key is present in a keyed list without  setting  a
              variable as a side-effect.

       tsv::keylkeys varname keylist ?key?
              Return   the  a  list  of the keys in the keyed list keylist in the shared variable
              varname. If key is specified, then it is the name of a  key  field  who's  subfield
              keys are to be retrieved.

       tsv::keylset varname keylist key value ?key value..?
              Set  the  value  associated  with  key,  in the keyed list keylist to value. If the
              keylist does not exists, it is created.  If key is not currently in  the  list,  it
              will  be  added.  If it already exists, value replaces the existing value. Multiple
              keywords and values may be specified, if desired.

DISCUSSION

       The current implementation of thread shared  variables  allows  for  easy  and  convenient
       access  to  data  shared between different threads.  Internally, the data is stored in Tcl
       objects and all package commands operate on internal data representation, thus  minimizing
       shimmering  and  improving  performance.  Special  care  has been taken to assure that all
       object data is properly locked and deep-copied when moving objects between threads.

       Due to the internal design of the Tcl core, there is no provision of full  integration  of
       shared  variables  within the Tcl syntax, unfortunately. All access to shared data must be
       performed with the supplied package commands.  Also, variable traces  are  not  supported.
       But even so, benefits of easy, simple and safe shared data manipulation outweights imposed
       limitations.

CREDITS

       Thread shared variables are inspired by the nsv interface found  in  AOLserver,  a  highly
       scalable Web server from America Online.

SEE ALSO

       thread, tpool, ttrace

KEYWORDS

       locking, synchronization, thread shared data, threads