Tcl/Tk quick start

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Table of Contents
If you're viewing this document online, you can click any of the topics below to link directly to that section.

1. About this tutorial.......................................................

2. Tcl/Tk basics ............................................................

3. The Tcl language.......................................................

4. Tk commands ...........................................................

17

5. Getting to know Expect................................................

22

6. Tcl/Tk extensions.......................................................

26

7. Resources and feedback .............................................

29

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Section 1. About this tutorial

Who should take this tutorial?
This tutorial is designed for those with experience
in one or more programming or scripting
languages. While Tcl/Tk is available on several
platforms, including Win32 and MacOS as well as
several of the *NIX environments, this tutorial is
written in the context of running on a GNU/Linux
installation.
Starting out, I'll introduce Tcl/Tk and summarize a
small part of the language's history. Then, I'll
review key features of the Tcl/Tk scripting
language and interpreter, discuss some of the
extensions to the language, and examine several
examples of Tcl/Tk in action. The text is
accompanied by code fragments and occasionally
an image of the resulting output (since Tk is a GUI
toolkit, after all).
Finally, I'll wrap up with a presentation of some
external resources, both Web and print, to help you
deeper into the Tcl/Tk environment.

About the author

Brian Bilbrey is a system administrator, product
engineer, webmaster, and author. Linux is a tool in
his daily work as well as his avocation, much to the
chagrin of his long-suffering spouse, Marcia.
He welcomes your feedback on this tutorial or
other related Linux topics at
[email protected]. His daily journal on life
with Linux and other adventures can be found at
OrbDesigns.com.

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Section 2. Tcl/Tk basics

Origins of Tcl/Tk
Tcl stands for Tool Control Language. Tk is the
Graphical Toolkit extension of Tcl, providing a
variety of standard GUI interface items to facilitate
rapid, high-level application development.
Development on Tcl/Tk, pronounced "tickle
tee-kay", began in 1988 by John K. Ousterhout
(shown in the image), then a Professor at U.C.
Berkeley (UCB). Tcl was designed with the specific
goals of extensibility, a shallow learning curve, and
ease of embedding. Tk development began in
1989, and the first version was available in 1991.
Dr. Ousterhout continued development of Tcl/Tk
after he left UCB, then going to work for Sun
Microsystems for a stint. Now at Scriptics (which
begat Ajuba Solutions, which was purchased by
Interwoven), he keeps on improving the language,
currently in version 8.3.2 stable and 8.4
development, as of this writing.
See the "History of Tcl" page for more details.

Tools and files

There are two main programs that you need on your Linux system to explore Tcl/Tk. These
are tclsh and wish. As you might discern from its name, the former is a Tcl shell, most
frequently used to provide execution context for a shell script. Wish is the equivalent, for a
windowed GUI environment.
Check for the presence of these files by typing the following:
~/tcltk$ which tclsh
/usr/bin/tclsh
~/tcltk$ which wish
/usr/bin/wish

The which command returns the path to the specified executable. If you don't see results
similar to these, then you'll want to head over to the Scriptics Tcl/Tk page to download and
build your own copy. Of course, the absence of these programs on your system is not
indicative of any problem. Unlike Perl, Tcl/Tk is generally not regarded as essential to the
operation of Linux. Every distribution I'm aware of ships with a version of Tcl/Tk and the most
popular extensions as a part of the CDROM or online repository collection. From these
sources, the tools are generally fairly easy to install. If you have difficulty, contact the
publisher of your GNU/Linux software.

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Section 3. The Tcl language

What makes Tcl tick?
In the following listing, you'll find a common first
example program, as implemented in Tcl. This is a
complete script: the first line invokes the tclsh
environment, and the second does the actual work.
Create the script with a text editor of your
choosing, make it executable by typing chmod +x
hello.tcl, then execute it to test your
handiwork.
~/tcltk$ cat hello.tcl
#!/usr/bin/tclsh
puts stdout {Hello, World!}
~/tcltk$ ./hello.tcl
Hello, World!

Tcl and Tk are interpreted, extensible scripting

languages. The license, which is very similar to the
BSD license, permits free use under any
circumstances, as long as the copyright is retained
in all copies and notices pass verbatim in any
distribution. The license terms make Tcl/Tk free
software.
Tcl/Tk is an interpreted environment. The Tcl
interpreter can be extended by adding
pre-compiled C functions, which can be called from
within the Tcl environment. These extensions can
be custom for a specific purpose, or generic and
widely useful. We'll look at a number of extensions
later in the tutorial, with special attention given to
the first extension, the very popular Expect.
In next few panels, we'll review the major features
of the Tcl language, from metacharacters and
global variables, to operators, mathematical
functions, and core commands. After all, the

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commands make Tcl/Tk the distinctive evolving

language it is. Bear in mind that we do not have
the space in this tutorial to cover every command.
The highlights are here, the depths are yours to
explore at a later date.

#!/usr/bin/tclsh
# filename hello2.tcl
# This program code shows
Metacharacters are those characters or character
# metacharacter usage
pairs that have special meaning in the context of
puts stdout "Hello, World! \a"
puts stdout {Hello, World! \a}
the Tcl/Tk environment, including grouping
set Pints 6
statements, encapsulating strings, terminating
set Days 7
statements
and more, as delineated in the
puts stdout "The answer to the
\
following table. Many of these are demonstrated in
universe is [eval $Pints * $Days]!\n"
***
the code listing to the left. One special feature to
~/tcltk$ ./hello2.tcl
notice is the difference in output when curly braces
Hello, World!
(which prevent substitution and expansion) are
Hello, World! \a
used in place of double quotes.
The answer to everything is 42!

Tcl metacharacters

Character(s)
#
; or newline
Name
Name(idx)
Name(j,k,l...)
"string"
{string}
[string]
\char
\

Used as
Comment
Statement separators
A variable (case sensitive)
Array Variable
Multidimensional Array
Quoting with substitution
Quoting without substitution
Command substitution
Backslash substitution
Line continuation (at end of line)

#!/usr/bin/tclsh
#
# Demonstrate global variables
# and backslash substitution
if {$argc >= 1} {
Several global variables exist (and are pre-defined,
set N 1
if not null in the current context) when a Tcl/Tk
foreach Arg $argv {
puts stdout "$N: $Arg\n"
script begins running. These variables permit
set N [expr $N + 1] access to the operating environment as follows:
if {$Arg == "ring"} {argc is the count of arguments to the script, not
puts stdout "\a"
counting the name as invoked. argv is a list (not an
}
array) of arguments. argv0 is the invoked filename
}
} else {
(which may be a symlink). env is an array that is
puts stdout "$argv0 on \ indexed by the names of the current shell's
X Display $env(DISPLAY)\n"
environment variables. errorCode stores
}
information about the most recent Tcl error, while
***
errorInfo contains a stack trace from the same
~/tcltk$ ./hello3.tcl

Tcl global variables and

backslash substitutions

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./hello3.tcl on X Display :0.0

event. The list goes on with another dozen tcl_xxx
~/tcltk$ ./hello3.tcl ring variables from tcl_interactive to
1: ring

tcl_version. A good summary is found in Tcl/Tk

in a Nutshell (see the Resources at the end of this
tutorial for more information).
Several of these variables are used in the sample
code at left, along with (once again) some
backslash-quoted characters, \n and \a. \char
allows substitution of non-printing ASCII
characters. This is common to many scripting and
shell environments under UNIX. As noted in the
table, a backslash-quoted character that has no
defined substitution is simply echoed to output.
\character
\a
\b
\f
\n or \newline
\r
\t
\v
\space ("\ ")
\ddd
\xddd...
\c
\\

Substitution
Bell
Backspace
Formfeed
Newline
Carriage return
Horizontal tab
Vertical Tab
Space
Octal value
Hexadecimal value
Echo 'c'
Backslash

~/tcltk$ cat maths.tcl

#!/usr/bin/tclsh
#
# Demonstrate operators and
# math functions
set PI [expr 2 * asin(1.0)] Tcl supports a standard array of operators and
mathematical functions. The operators include
if {$argc == 3} {
set X [lindex $argv 0]
arithmetic, bitwise, and logical operators, which are
set Y [lindex $argv 1]
evaluated via the expr command using common
set Rad [lindex $argv 2] operator precedence rules. Also, considering Tcl's
set Dist [expr sqrt(($X*$X)+($Y*$Y))]
set Cir [expr 2*$PI*$Rad] fundamental roots as a string-oriented scripting
language, there's a reasonable complement of
set Area [expr $PI*$Rad*$Rad]
puts stdout "Distance = $Dist"
mathematical functions as follows:
puts stdout "Circumference = $Cir"
puts stdout "Area = $Area"
* Trigonometric functions include cos(x),
} else {
acos(x), cosh(x), sin(x), asin(x), sinh(x),
puts stdout "Wrong argument count!"
puts stdout "Needs X, Y, and Radius"
tan(x), atan(x), atan2(y, x), tanh(x), and
}
hypot(x, y). The pertinent unit for these
********
functions is radians.
~/tcltk$ ./maths.tcl 3 4 5
*
The
Log functions are exp(x), log(x), and
Distance = 5.0
log10(x).
Circumference = 31.4159265359

Tcl operators and

mathematical functions

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* The Arithmetic functions are ceil(x), floor(x),

fmod(x, y), pow(x, y), abs(x), int(x), double(x),
and round(x).
* Random numbers are handled by rand() and
srand(x).

The example at left makes use of just a few of

these operators and functions to calculate the
distance between a specified point and the origin,
and to return the circumference and area of a circle
of the specified radius. Additionally, in this example
we use the list index (lindex) command to access
individual elements of $argv.

...
#
# parse command line switches
The looping commands in Tcl are while, for, and
set Optimize 0
foreach. The conditional (branching) commands
set Verbose 0
foreach Arg $argv {
are if/then/else/elsif and switch. Modifiers for the
switch -glob -- $Arg preceding
{
commands are break, continue, return,
-o* {set Optimize 1}
and
error.
Finally,
the catch command is provided
-v* {set Verbose 1}
for
error
handling.
default {
error "Unknown $Arg"
}
if/then/else/elsif was demonstrated in previous
}
panels. While then is a part of the formal syntax, it
}
is most often observed in absentia.
set LineCount 0
while {[gets stdin Line] >= 0} {
# to confuse Vanna White...
In the example at the left, a switch command is fed
Remove_Vowels $Line \
the command line arguments by the foreach
$Optimize $Verbose
incr LineCount
}
return LineCount
...

Looping and branching in Tcl

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construct. As the arguments are processed (Note:

improper input terminates the script, since we
haven't implemented an error catch), the while loop
processes input by calling a procedure for each
line, and incrementing a line counter. The code
fragment ends by returning the count of lines
processed.

~/tcltk$ tclsh
% set Phrase "hello, world!"
hello, world!
% string toupper $Phrase
HELLO, WORLD!
Strings are the fundamental data type in Tcl. The
% string totitle $Phrase
string command is really a variety of commands,
Hello, world!
% string match ello $Phrase gathered under one umbrella. In use, string reads
0
much like the application of specific object
% string match *ello* $Phrasemethods from OOP programming, as you can see
1
in the example on the left.
% string length $Phrase
14
% append Phrase "Nice day, eh?"
The informational string commands are length and
hello, world!
bytelength (which can differ, depending on
Nice day, eh?
character set). Comparisons that return boolean
% string toupper $Phrase
values (1 or 0) are compare, equal, and match.
HELLO, WORLD!
NICE DAY, EH?
Pattern matching here is accomplished by
% string wordend $Phrase 7 "globbing", the simple type of matching commonly
12
associated with shell operations. Advanced

Tcl strings and pattern

matching

Regular Expressions are also available via the

distinct regex and regsub commands.
Indexing functions in Tcl are performed with the
index, last, first, wordend, and wordstart
commands. String modification is handled by

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tolower, toupper, totitle, trim, trimleft, trimright,

replace, and map. The latter requires a character
mapping table to be pre-defined. Substrings are
extracted with range, and strings are output
multiple times with repeat.
Text can be added to an existing variable using the
append command. The format command can be
used to generate output strings using the same
styles and conventions as the C language's printf
command. scan parses a string and assigns values
to variables. Finally, starting with Tcl 8.0,
functionality for handling binary data as strings
(thus able to process the null character without
failure) was added, with the binary format and
binary scan commands.

~/tcltk$ tclsh
% set c1 {Bob Carol}
Bob Carol
Lists have two major uses in Tcl. The first we've
% set c2 [list Ted Alice]
already seen demonstrated in the context of
Ted Alice
% set Party1 [list $c1 $c2] processing command line arguments via the
{Bob Carol} {Ted Alice}
foreach command (found on Looping and
% set Party2 [concat $c1 $c2]
branching in Tcl on page 7 ). The second use is to
Bob Carol Ted Alice
% linsert $Party1 1 Richard build up elements of a Tcl command dynamically,
{Bob Carol} Richard {Ted Alice}
which can be later executed by using the eval
%
command, as we see later in this tutorial.

Tcl lists

The list command takes all of its arguments and

returns them in a list context. Arguments may be
values or variables. From the example at left, lists
can be created manually, or using list, which can
take other lists as arguments (thus saving the two
couples orientation of our first "Party").
Alternatively, the concat command is used to
merge two or more lists into a single entity of
top-level items, returning the second, more
interesting "Party".

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Some other useful list commands and their syntax

are:
* llength $List - returns count of toplevel items.
* lindex $List n - returns indexed item, counts
from zero.
* lrange $List i j - returns range of list
elements.
* lappend $List item... - append items to list.
* linsert $List n item... - inserts item(s) at the
specified position in the list, moving other
items down the list.

The balance of list commands include lreplace,

lsearch, and lsort. The split command takes a
string as input and generates a properly parsed
list, breaking the string at the specified character.
join performs the complementary operation, taking
list elements and stringing them together,
separated by a joinstring.

~/tcltk$ tclsh
% set People(friend) Tom
Tom
% set People(spouse) Marcia The shortcut to understanding Tcl arrays is to
regard them in the same light as you would a Perl
Marcia
% set People(boss) Jack
hash. The array is not a numerically indexed linear
Jack
data structure, unless you choose to impose that
% array names People
interpretation upon your data. The index (or key)
friend boss spouse
% set Person $People(friend) may be any string, although strings with spaces
Tom
need either to be quoted, or a variable reference.
% array get People
friend Tom boss Jack spouse Marcia
Just as with normal variables, arrays are initialized
% set People(friend) \
with the set command, as shown at left. The index
[concat $People(friend) Bob]
Tom Bob
% set Person $People(friend)
Tom Bob
%

Tcl arrays

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is given inside parentheses. Please note that the

parentheses do not provide grouping like curly
brackets or double quotes. Once initialized as an
array, a variable may not be accessed as a
singular variable. As shown at the bottom of the
listing to the left, array elements may also be lists.

More Tcl arrays

The array command is a multi-purpose tool, much like string. The commands are array exists
to test a variable for existence as an array, array get to convert to list format, array set to
convert from list to array, array names to return a list of indices, and array size to return the
count of indices. Searching through an array has its own set of four commands: array
startseach, array anymore, array nextelement, and array donesearch.
Although Tcl arrays are one-dimensional by design, there is an elegant way to simulate
multi-dimensional constructs. Since indices are arbitrary strings, a 2D array might be
declared as follows:
set i 1 ; set j 10
set array($i,$j) 3.14159
incr $j
set array($i,$j) 2.71828

These array keys are really just the strings "1,10" and "1,11" respectively, but for the
purposes of accessing the data, who's to know the difference?

#!/usr/bin/tclsh
#
# Demonstrate procedures and
The proc command defines a Tcl procedure. Once
# global scoping briefly
set PI [expr 2 * asin(1.0)]
proc circum {rad} {
global PI
return [expr 2.0 * $rad * $PI]
}
proc c_area {rad} {
global PI
return [expr $rad * $rad * $PI]
}
set rad 3
puts stdout "Area of circle of\
radius $rad is [c_area $rad],\n\
the circumference is\
[circum $rad].\n"
*********
~/tcltk$ ./protest.tcl
Area of circle of radius 3 is 28.2743338823,
the circumference is 18.8495559215.

Tcl procedures

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defined, a procedure can be called or used just as

a built-in Tcl command would be. Additionally,
parameters can be defined with default values; for
example, changing the definition at the left to read
proc c_area { {rad 1} } would enable the
c_area procedure to be called without parameters,
returning the area of the unit circle.
The rename command is used just as it sounds, to
give a new name to an existing command or
procedure. There are two distinct reasons for using
rename. The first is to add functionality to an
existing command by renaming the original, then
replacing it with a procedure of the same name.
The procedure can call the original, and add
whatever bells and whistles are necessary. The
second reason for rename is to map a command
out of existence, like rename exec {};, for
example, to prevent users from executing external
commands.

Variable scoping rules

Rules of scope describe the visibility of procedure and variable names and values at different
levels of the program. For instance, variables defined at the outermost level of a script are
global variables. By default, these are not visible, nor are their values available from within
procedures. This permits procedure writers to freely define variable names and assign values
without fear of overwriting important variables that are unknown at the local scope. To make
a global variable visible inside a procedure, it must be declared as such within the procedure,
as I did for PI (in the example on the previous panel) using the global command.
The upvar command provides a facility for associating a local-level variable with the value of
a variable from another scope. This permits calling by name into procedures, which is handy
when the procedure needs to be able to modify the value at another scope, rather than just
using it. The command syntax is upvar level $VarName LocalVar, where level is the
number of steps up out of the current scope. "#0" is the representation of the global scope
level.

#!/usr/bin/tclsh
#
# Demonstrate Data Structures
# using procedural wrappers Beyond simple multi-dimensional arrays, it is
generally
recommended
that Tcl data structures be
proc UserAdd { Acct rName eMail
phone
} {
global uData
implemented as arrays that have dedicated
if {[info exists uData($Acct,rname)]}
{
procedural interfaces.
This design hides specific
return 1
implementation
details
from the user of the
}
structures, while providing the ability to perform
set uData($Acct,rname) $rName
set uData($Acct,email) $eMail
significant error checking capabilities.
set uData($Acct,phone) $phone
return 0
In the example at left, after declaring uData as a
}

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puts stdout [UserAdd bpb\

global variable, the code executes a check to see
Brian [email protected] 555-1212]
that the account doesn't already exist. If it does,
puts stdout [UserAdd tom\
Tom [email protected] 555-1212] then the procedure returns with a (non-zero) error
message. The return can be used in a switch to
puts stdout [UserAdd bpb\
Brian [email protected] 555-1212]
generate error text output. For the example, we
******
simply feed it three sequential inputs, including one
~/tcltk$ ./datas.tcl
repeat. This yields the output shown at the bottom,
0
with the '1' indicating a purposeful error return due
0
to a repeating account name.
1

Other possibilities for data structures include lists

of arrays, linked or doubly-linked arrays, or various
permutations thereof. The lists of arrays construct
are considerably more efficient with the list
reimplementation that accompanied Tcl 8.0,
providing constant access times.

~/tcltk$ tclsh
% file exists hello3.tcl
1
File and path operations are a challenging problem
% file executable testit
in a cross-platform environment. Tcl uses UNIX
0
% file pathtype ./hello3.tcl pathnames (separated using the '/' character by
relative
default), as well as the native pathname
% set dir1 home
construction for the host OS. Even when
home
in-program data is constructed properly, it can be
% set dir2 brian
brian
difficult to ensure that user input matches the
% set dir3 tcltk
system requirements. The file join command is
tcltk
used to convert UNIX formats to native pathnames.
% file join /$dir1 dir2 dir3
Other path string commands include file split,
/home/dir2/dir3
dirname, file extension, nativename, pathtype, and
% file delete testit~
%
tail.

Paths and files

In its role as a "Tool Control Language", Tcl has a

wide variety of internal file test and operation
features. Each command leads off with file, as in

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file exists name. Other test commands (which all

return boolean values) include executable,
isdirectory, isfile, owned, readable, and writable.
File information and operations are accomplished
(again, all with the leading file) atime, attributes,
copy, delete, lstat, mkdir, mtime, readlink, rename,
rootname, size, stat, and type. Note that a number
of the file information commands may return
undefined data when running in the Windows or
Mac environments, since, for example, inode and
symbolic (and hard) link data isn't represented in
those file systems.
The advantage of using file ... commands rather
than using native commands via exec is that the
former presents a portable interface.
This whole document could easily be devoted to
just this one section of the Tcl language. However,
content yourself with the tclsh examples to the left,
which reveal the flavor of these commands, and
then follow up with readings from the Resources
listed at the end of the tutorial.

~/tcltk$ tclsh
% nslookup orbdesigns.com
Server:
192.168.1.3
The exec command is used to explicitly execute
Address:
192.168.1.3#53
Name:
orbdesigns.com
Address: 64.81.69.163
% set d [date]
Sun Mar 25 13:51:59 PST 2001
% puts stdout $d
% set d [exec date]
Sun Mar 25 13:52:19 PST 2001
% puts stdout $d
Sun Mar 25 13:52:19 PST 2001
******
% if [catch {open foo r} Chan] {
puts stdout "Sorry, Dave...\n"
}
% gets $Chan
One
% gets $Chan
Two
% eof $Chan
0
% close $Chan
%

Processes and file I/O with Tcl

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external commands. Under Linux, most external

commands can be run directly when Tcl is in
interactive mode, as shown in the example at the
left. Running with exec returns the stdout output of
a program not to the screen, but to Tcl, which
allows the data to be assigned to a variable. When
a program is started in the background, the
immediate return value is the PID for the program.
exec'd programs can take full advantage of I/O
redirection and pipelines in the UNIX environment.
Other process commands are exit, which
terminates a running Tcl script, and pid, which
returns the PID of current (or specified) process,
handy for a variety of purposes. Tcl does not
incorporate any native process control commands,
but you can use the exec command in concert with
PID data to accomplish many tasks.
File manipulation uses the following commands:
open, close, gets, puts, read, tell, seek, eof, and
flush. As demonstrated at left, the catch command
is useful in error checking during file opening
commands. When the program output needs to be
printed before a newline character is encountered,
as in a user data prompt, use flush to write the
output buffer.
An additional feature (in supported environments)
is the ability to open pipelines in the same manner
that you might a file. For instance, after opening a
pipeline channel with set Channel [open "|sort
foobar" r], the output of the first gets is going to be
"Eight" (alphabetically, out of file data "One"
through "Ten", on 10 separate lines).

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Using eval for dynamic

scripting

~/tcltk$ cat input01.txt

1 + 2
4 + 5
7 - 9
~/tcltk$ tclsh
In this
% set InFile [open input01.txt
r] example, you can sense the power of the
eval command. Under normal circumstances, the
file3
% while {[gets $InFile Op] Tcl interpreter operates in a one-pass mode: It first
>= 0} {
parses the input command line (possibly stretched
set Operation "expr $Op" over several physical lines), performing any
set Result [eval $Operation]
substitutions. Then execution takes place, unless a
puts stdout "$Op = $Result\n"
bad or malformed command is found. eval permits
}
1 + 2 = 3
a second pass (or perhaps more correctly, a
4 + 5 = 9
pre-pass). Thus a Tcl command can be first
7 - 9 = -2
dynamically constructed, then parsed and
%

executed.

In the listing at the left, the input file consists of

three lines, each with one arithmetic operation
shown per line. After invoking tclsh, the file is
opened read only, and associated with the
$InFile variable. The while loop reads in one
line at a time, to $Op. Then a complete Tcl
command is constructed by pre-pending expr to
the $Op variable. This is then expanded,
evaluated, and the result assigned accordingly.
Finally, each operation and result is displayed on
stdout.
While this sample demonstrates a relatively trivial
application of eval, conceptually it can be easily
extended to dynamic file and/or directory
processing based on the input of an input file of
known syntax or to base operations on file type,
permissions, access time or any variety of testable
elements.

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Section 4. Tk commands
What's a widget, anyway?
Tk is the graphical Toolkit extension for Tcl. Tk
release versions are coordinated with those of Tcl.
In the panels that follow, we'll review the Tk widget
set, examine some of the configuration options,
and set up some examples to demonstrate the
useful nature of Tk.
It's difficult to convince any PHB (Pointy Haired
Boss) that this section of the tutorial is work
related. After all, it is about widgets, and
conceptually widgets are closely related to
play...but this is work, so let's dig into it. First,
here's the code for a Tk enhanced "Hello, World!"
#!/usr/bin/wish
#
# Hello World, Tk-style
button .hello -text Hello \
-command {puts stdout \
"Hello, World!"}
button .goodbye -text Bye! \
-command {exit}
pack .hello -padx 60 -pady 5
pack .goodbye -padx 60 -pady 5

Invoking wish (the Tk shell) in the first line brings

up a Window widget of default size. Then I defined
two button widgets, .hello and .goodbye -- these
are packed into the window, and the window
shrinks to the size defined by the specified button
spacing. When the script is executed, you get the
dialog shown at the left. Click on the button to get
"Hello, World!" output in the parent terminal
window, Click on to terminate the script.

Tk widgets
There are remarkably few commands used in the creation of Tk widgets. Better than half are
variants of button or text widgets, as you can see in the following list. Several of these items
are demonstrated in the next panel.
* button - a simple widget with over twenty configuration options from anchor and font to
padx and relief.
* canvas - canvas is a widget that can contain not only other widgets, but an assortment
of structured graphics, including circles, lines, and polygons.
* checkbutton - creates a checkbox-style button widget, which is linked to a variable.
* entry - builds a one-line text entry box.
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*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

ibm.com/developerWorks

frame - frame is a widget used primarily as either a container or spacer.

label - creates a label object.
listbox - creates a text string list box. Items are added after widget definition.
menu - a single multi-faceted widget that can contain a variety of items in assorted
menu styles.
menubutton - provides a clickable toplevel interface for dropdown menu
implementations.
message - creates a text display window widget with features including justification and
word wrap.
radiobutton - creates a radio button that can be one of a set associated with a
specified variable.
scale - creates a slider for selecting values within a specified range and resolution.
scrollbar - generates a widget (slider) for changing the portion of material (usually text
or a drawing) in an associated widget.
text - creates a widget that displays one or more lines of text and allows that text to be
edited.
toplevel - creates a new toplevel (on the X desktop) window.

A Tk demonstration
As an example of some simple Tk code, the listing
below generates the image at left. The code for the
procedure invoked by the OK button and sample
output is shown in the text window of the image.

~/tcltk$ wish
% . configure -width 200 -height 400
% label .header -text "Tk Tutorial Example"
.header
% place .header -x 5 -y 2
% scale .slider -from 1 -to 100 -orient horiz
.slider
% .slider configure -variable SlidVal
% place .slider -x 5 -y 20
% entry .slidbox -width 5 -textvariable SlidVal
.slidbox
% place .slidbox -x 120 -y 38
% radiobutton .one -text "Don't Worry" -variable Mood -val
.one
% radiobutton .two -text "Be Happy" -variable Mood -value
.two

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% place .one -x 5 -y 70
% place .two -x 5 -y 90
% text .twindow -width 22 -height 14 -font {clean -14}
.twindow
% place .twindow -x 5 -y 120
% button .ok -command {process_data $SlidVal} -text "OK"
.ok
% button .cancel -command {exit} -text "Cancel" -backgroun
.cancel
% place .ok -x 15 -y 350
% place .cancel -x 120 -y 350

Tk commands, Part 1
There are over 20 Tk commands, that act on, enhance, or complement the Tk widget set.
These include bell, which rings the bell, depending on the configuration of the X Window
system that's running. bind creates an association between a Tcl script and X events; for
example, a specific key-mouse combination action. clipboard is another of the multi-function
Tk commands -- it contains all the code for clearing, loading, and pasting contents to and
from the Tk clipboard (which is distinct from any clipboard features native to either X or the
window manager you're using).
destroy is used to delete a window and all of its children. Used on the '.' (root) window, it
deletes the entire application. event is a powerful tool for generating virtual window events
and inserting them into the processing queue, as though the actual event (a mouse click on a
button, for example) had happened for real. The font command is used to create specified
instances of system fonts. It permits local (to the script) naming of system fonts, attribute
modification of named fonts, and "deletion" of fonts. Type font families at a wish prompt for
a listing of available fonts for use.
Focus is an important concept in the window management arena -- in any given display, only
one window at a time may have the "attention" of the keyboard and mouse. The Tk focus
command is used to give the script control over the display focus, sending it to specified
windows. A complementary function, grab, allows Tk to monopolize the display focus to the
point where events outside the window are reported within the window's environment. This is
useful when you want to force completion of an option prior to any other system activity
taking place.

Tk commands, Part 2
Continuing with our overview of Tk commands, next up is grid, an interface to the Tk window
geometry master. It is used to order widgets in a window in a rows and columns format.
lower (and the complementary command raise) mediate sub-window visibility. A lowered
window obscures none of its overlapping sibling windows; a raised window is brought to the
top. This is used frequently in multi-document display situations. Many of the Tk widgets and
commands work from a common set of standard options. These may be viewed or added to
by the option command.
For putting widgets and sub-windows inside a window, there are two commands, both of
which have already been demonstrated: pack and place. In its simplest use, pack adds one
or more widgets to a window, and unless otherwise instructed, shrinks the window around
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those objects as we saw in the Tk Hello example at the beginning of this section. place sets
and displays objects in a parent window, using either relative or absolute measures, for
example, 5 pixels from the left side or halfway (0.5) down the window.
Other commands include selection, an interface to the X object selection toolset; tk, which
provides access to selected parts of the Tk interpreter's internal state; the winfo command for
retrieving data about Tk-managed windows; and wm, an interface to the running window
manager, for setting a multitude of features from the title bar text to all sorts of geometry
specifications and constraints.

A real (small) Tk application

I want an interface to the LAN changeover scripts that I run daily. So let's use Tcl/Tk to build
a small tool for ease of use. I want it to offer selections based upon an ASCII configuration
file that lives in my home directory. That file contains the data shown in the listing that
follows:
# ~/.netsetrc
# 03.26.2001 bilbrey
# space between name and command
Home /usr/local/bin/nethome
Office /usr/local/bin/netoffice
Admin /usr/local/bin/netadmin

The application (a full listing and image is shown on the next panel) reads the configuration
file and parses each non-blank, non-comment line for a button name and its associated
action. While the script would be easier to write by defining three buttons to run explicit
programs, this more general solution allows me to add just about any feature I want by only
adding a single line to ~/.netsetrc.
A drawback of the code is that it isn't tolerant of a badly formatted config file. It expects a
one-word button name followed by a single space followed by the command (with arguments,
if necessary) to be executed on the button press. But then, a configuration file is theoretically
easier to keep in line than unstructured user input.

A sample Tk app
#!/usr/bin/wish

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#
# netset.tcl
# 03.26.2001 bilbrey
set ConFile "~/.netsetrc"
if [catch {open $ConFile r} Conf] {
puts stderr "Open $ConFile failed"
return 1
}
# parse config, define buttons
set Bcount 0
while {[gets $Conf Cline] >= 0} {
if {1 == [string match #* $Cline]} continue
if {[string length $Cline] < 4} continue
set Nend [string wordend $Cline 0]
incr Nend -1
set Bname [string range $Cline 0 $Nend]
set Cbeg [expr $Nend + 2]
set Bcomd "exec "
append Bcomd [string range $Cline $Cbeg end]
incr Bcount
set NextBut "button$Bcount"
button .$NextBut -text $Bname -command $Bcomd
}
if {$Bcount == 1} {
puts stderr "No buttons defined"
return 2
}
# display buttons
while {$Bcount >= 1} {
set NextBut "button$Bcount"
pack .$NextBut -padx 10 -pady 10
incr Bcount -1
}
button .exit -text Exit -command {exit}
pack .exit -padx 10 -pady 10

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Section 5. Getting to know Expect

What is Expect?
Expect is an extension of the Tcl and Tk
languages. Expect provides a simple, yet powerful
interface for automating the scripting of interactive
programs. Additionally, Expect makes it easy to
embed interactive applications in a GUI. Expect's
development is coincident with the emergence of
Tcl/Tk, and depends on both in its current version,
5.32.
The author of Expect is Don Libes, who works at
the US National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST). The home page for Expect is
hosted on NIST servers. (However, Expect and
any related commercial or non-commercial
products are explicitly not endorsed by NIST.) In
the panels that follow, we'll look at a few examples
of Expect scripts culled from the source code
example directory, along with a brief overview of its
command syntax.
Why learn something about Expect? To quote from
Don's paper, "Using expect to Automate System
Administration Tasks" (USENIX LISA Conference,
Oct. 1990) "...the result is that the UNIX system
administrator's toolbox is filled with representatives
of some of the worst user interfaces ever seen.
While only a complete redesign will help all of
these problems, expect can be used to address a
great many of them."

#!/usr/local/bin/expect -# ftp-rfc <rfc-number>

# ftp-rfc -index
As an introduction
# retrieves an rfc (or the index)
from uunetto Expect, examine the example
on the left. It is only slightly modified from the
exp_version -exit 5.0
if {$argc!=1} {
version found in the example directory from a
send_user "usage: ftp-rfc \[#]
\[-index]\n"
standard
Expect source distribution, as are all of
exit
the
examples
in this section. Let's walk through the
}
code...
set file "rfc$argv.Z"
set timeout 60
spawn ftp ftp.uu.net
This program automates FTP retrieval of IETF
expect "Name*:"
RFC (Request For Comment) documents from the
send "anonymous\r"
UUNet archive. The first line of the script invokes
expect "Password:"
an Expect shell. Note that I've given the full
send "[email protected]\r"
expect "ftp>"
pathname to the executable. That's safest, since
send "binary\r"
it's hard to know the path environment of any given
expect "ftp>"

RFC retrieval with Expect

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send "cd inet/rfc\r"

user. The script first checks for the Expect version,
expect "550*ftp>" exit
then prints a usage message unless the correct
"250*ftp>"
number of arguments is given.
send "get $file\r"
expect "550*ftp>" exit
"200*226*ftp>"
Next, a timeout value is set to prevent the Expect
close
script from locking up system resources if the FTP
wait
session spawned on the following line fails to
send_user "\nuncompressing file - wait...\n"
connect properly. Most of the balance of the script
exec uncompress $file

are sets of expect / send command pairs. Each

expect command waits for the specified output
from the spawned program (ftp, in this case), and
then sends the correct response. Note that there
are two traps for ftp error codes following the cd
and get instructions. In each case, the error code
550 is matched against first, and if true, then the
script exits. Otherwise, following a 250 code
(indicating success), expect drops through into the
next command.
After the document is received, the script issues a
close command to the ftp session. The wait
command holds up script processing until ftp is
terminated. Finally the script sends a message to
the user, decompresses the downloaded RFC (or
rfc-index), then exits by default, not explicitly.

#!../expect -f
# wrapper to make passwd(1) be non-interactive
# username is passed as 1st arg, passwd as 2nd
set password [lindex $argv 1]There are four key commands in Expect (the
spawn passwd [lindex $argv 0]language, with an uppercase 'E'). First is expect
expect "password:"
(the command, little 'e'), which searches for
send "$password\r"
patterns and executes commands if a match is
expect "password:"
made. For each expect command, there can be
send "$password\r"
several groups, each composed of option flags, a
expect eof

The keys to Expect, Part 1

pattern to match against, and a command or body

of commands to execute. expect "listens" to
SDTOUT and STDERR by default, until a match is
made or the timeout expires.
Patterns are matched by default using Tcl's string

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match facility, which implements globbing, similar

to C-shell pattern matching. A -re flag invokes
regexp matching, and -ex indicates that the match
should be exact, with no wildcard or variable
expansion. Other optional flags for expect include
-i to indicate which spawned process to monitor
and -nocase, which forces process output to
lowercase prior to matching. For complete
specifications, type man expect at a command
prompt to view the system manual page
documentation for Expect.
The second important command is send, which is
used to generate input for the process being
monitored by the Expect script. send incorporates
options for sending to a specified spawned process
(-i), sending slowly (-s, so as not to overrun a
buffer, in serial communications for instance) and
several others.

#!/usr/local/bin/expect
# Script to enforce a 10 minute break
# every half hour from typing On the left is a script called carpal, yet another
# Written for someone (Uwe Hollerbach)
example from the source Expect distribution.
# with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
# If you type for more than 20 minutes
# straight, the script rings the bell
spawn is the Expect command that's used to
# after every character until you take
create a new process. It's appeared in every
# a 10 minute break.
# Author: Don Libes, NIST
# Date: Feb 26, '95
spawn $env(SHELL)
# set start and stop times
set start [clock seconds]
set stop [clock seconds]
# typing and break, in seconds
set typing 1200
set notyping 600
interact -nobuffer -re . {
set now [clock seconds]
if {$now-$stop > $notyping} {
set start [clock seconds]
} elseif {$now-$start > $typing} {
send_user "\007"
}
set stop [clock seconds]
}

The keys to Expect, Part 2

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example we've used. At left, it pulls the path to the

default shell executable, and spawns a new
instance. In doing so, spawn returns a process ID,
set in the variable spawn_id. This can be saved
and set in the script, giving expect process control
capabilities.
interact is the command that Expect uses to open
communications between a user and a spawned
process. The -nobuffer flag sends characters
that match the pattern directly to the user. -re tells
interact to use the following pattern as a standard
regular expression, and the '.' is the pattern,
matching each character as it comes in. While in
interactive mode, Expect's redirection of the
STDOUT and STDERR streams is also given back
to the user by default.

What you can do with Expect

When your script invokes an interactive program, by default Expect intercepts all input and
output (STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR). This allows Expect to search for patterns that
match the output of the program, and send input to the spawned process to simulate user
interaction. Additionally, Expect can pass control of a process to a user if so instructed, or
take control back upon request.
Not only do these traits make Expect remarkably useful for common administrative tasks, but
it turns out that Expect is quite good for building test scripts to perform I/O validation during
program development.
Finally, there's the stunningly useful program, autoexpect. Itself an Expect script,
autoexpect monitors a command line interactive program, generating an Expect script that
replicates that interaction exactly. Now, while that usually isn't just what's needed, it is easy
to take the results of several autoexpect sessions, generalize the expect patterns, then cut
and paste them into the desired configuration. It's been written in more than one place that
the best learning tool for Expect is to run autoexpect and play with the results.

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Section 6. Tcl/Tk extensions

Tcl/Tk extensions intro
Expect was merely the first arrival in a flood of
Tcl/Tk extensions. Several are of general utility,
many more are either software or application
specific. As Scriptics remains the central repository
for all things Tcl/Tk, the Extensions Page on that
site is a valuable resource for further exploration.
In the panels that follow, we'll take a brief glance at
several of the major extensions, touching on their
salient features and attractions.

[incr Tcl], [incr Tk], and more...

Introduced in 1993, (pronounced inker tickle)
provides object oriented functionality to Tcl/Tk.
[incr Tcl] provides object, class, and namespace
features. These features make it easier to build
large projects with Tcl with data encapsulation,
composition, and inheritance. This is done with the
following: classname, objname, and delete are
object commands. Class creation and editing is
done with the body, class, and configbody
commands. Other miscellaneous commands are
code, ensemble, find, local, and scope.
Its graphical counterpart is . This tool extends to
the GUI the same OO functionality that's needed to
provide ease of scalability and data hiding that
makes large programming jobs much easier to
partition. [incr Tk] provides new base classes:
itk::Archetype, itk::Widget, and itk::Toplevel. These
classes are complemented with a complete set of
methods.

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Built on the [incr Tk] foundation, now there's , a

so-called Mega-Widget set. This tool permits
complex objects, such as a file selection box, to be
defined and displayed with great ease. Borrowed
from the [incr Widgets] Web pages, the image on
the left is created using just the following
commands commands: fileselectiondialog
.fsd ; .fsd activate.

Tix
Tix, which stands for Tk Interface eXtension, is an extraordinary GUI and graphics Tcl/Tk
extension. Tix is currently at version 4.0, and provides a set of 43 commands, most of which
are either Mega-widgets or components for building Mega-widgets, along with a few utilities.
Tix's Web site, at http://tix.mne.com/, claims "With Tix, you can forget about the frivolous
details of the TK widgets and concentrate on solving your problems at hand." It's easy to see
the basis of this claim, when you can quickly create useful interfaces with commands like
tixDirList, tixFileSelectDialog, tixPopupMenu, tixScrolledWindow, and many more.

TclX
Extended Tcl, TclX, is really more than just another "extension". In the words of the authors,
"Extended Tcl is oriented towards systems programming tasks and large application
development. TclX provides additional interfaces to the native operating system, as well as
many new programming constructs, text manipulation tools, and debugging capabilities." The
online home of TclX is found at http://www.neosoft.com/TclX/.
Many of TclX's original features have made it into the core Tcl distribution over the last few
years. However, the TclX team has stayed on the ball, adding such features as dynamically
loading libraries and packages, network programming support, procedures that provide
command access to the math functions normally called by expr, and much more.
TclX is included as a package that can be optionally installed with most standard Linux
distributions. Alternatively, it can be compiled from source, in conjunction with Tcl and Tk.
One very nice feature of recent TclX versions is a program called tclhelp, which is a Tcl
and Tk help browser that is very handy to have around for reference. Highly recommended.

Visit the extensions emporium

Not unexpectedly for such a popular programming environment, there are many more
extensions than I've space to discuss exhaustively in this tutorial. Point your browser to the
Extensions page at Scriptics, and learn more about the following capabilities that Tcl and Tk
extensions bring to the table:
* Database extensions permit access to everything from dBase files to connection and
query toolkits. Many other database-related tools and utilities are also available.
* Networking extensions add functionality for email, FTP, network monitoring, distributed
processing, Palm connectivity utilities, etc.
* Object Systems extensions include [incr Tcl], and several other OO Tcl
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implementations. These include OTcl (the MIT Object Tcl), XOTcl, TOS, Tea (a
Java-styled Tcl OO), stooop (Simple Tcl-Only Object Oriented Programming), and
more.
* Along with [incr Widgets] and the other Mega-widget libraries we've already seen, the
Tk Widgets extensions provide a vast array of added GUI functionality, from image and
video handling widgets to notebook and document interface extensions. This is
definitely one of the places to check before you design something for yourself.
* The Miscellaneous extensions category is a complete grab-bag, with a little something
for everyone. From an alpha toolkit for implementing neural networks (LANE), to data
conversion, message digest and crypto packages (Trf and TrfCrypto), to audio play and
record capabilities (Snack).
* Additionally, there are Tcl/Tk extensions explicitly for both the Mac and Windows
implementations. If you work in either of these environments, you owe yourself a visit.

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Section 7. Resources and feedback

Collected resources
Here is the concentrated list of Tcl/Tk resources for
easy reference. First, most of the Web links found
in this tutorial are at (or only a hop or two away
from): http://dev.scriptics.com/, the home of Tcl/Tk
development.
To complement those dynamic sources, there are
a number of excellent books on Tcl/Tk and the
extensions thereto. I can only recommend what
I've read and used; you can browse at your favorite
brick and mortar or online bookseller for any of the
more than 20 titles.
* Tcl and the Tk Toolkit, by John K. Ousterhout
(Addison Wesley: 1994, ISBN 020163337X).
Although it's a bit long in the tooth, this book
remains an excellent introduction to the style
and practice of Tcl/Tk programming.
* Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk, Third
Edition, by Brent B. Welch (Prentice Hall:
1994, ISBN 0130220280). Large,
comprehensive, and full of clearly explained
examples, I find this book constantly useful.
* TCL/Tk Tools, by Mark Harrison, et al.
(O'Reilly and Associates: 1997, ISBN
1565922182). A great complement to the first
two book listed, Tools is a multi-author effort
that effectively covers many of the most
popular Tcl/Tk extensions in enough detail to
provide a clear benefit over the Web and
manpage resources for some of these
packages.
* Finally, there's Tcl/Tk in a Nutshell, by Paul
Raines and Jeff Tranter (O'Reilly and
Associates: 1999, ISBN 1565924339). All the
commands are there, with flags, options, and

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more for the Tcl and Tk core commands, the

Tcl/Tk C interface, Expect, and several other
major extensions. When there's a deadline
looming, this is one handy book to have
around.

Your feedback
We look forward to getting your feedback on this tutorial and for future directions in providing
up-to-the-minute information about the always-evolving Linux scripting languages. Also, you
are welcome to contact the author directly at [email protected].

Colophon
This tutorial was written entirely in XML, using the developerWorks Toot-O-Matic tutorial
generator. The open source Toot-O-Matic tool is an XSLT stylesheet and several XSLT
extension functions that convert an XML file into a number of HTML pages, a zip file, JPEG
heading graphics, and two PDF files. Our ability to generate multiple text and binary formats
from a single source file illustrates the power and flexibility of XML. (It also saves our
production team a great deal of time and effort.)
You can get the source code for the Toot-O-Matic at
www6.software.ibm.com/dl/devworks/dw-tootomatic-p. The tutorial Building tutorials with the
Toot-O-Matic demonstrates how to use the Toot-O-Matic to create your own tutorials.
developerWorks also hosts a forum devoted to the Toot-O-Matic; it's available at
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We'd love to know what you think about the tool.

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