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Tcl_Interp(3)		    Tcl	Library	Procedures		 Tcl_Interp(3)

______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       Tcl_Interp - client-visible fields of interpreter structures

SYNOPSIS
       #include	<tcl.h>

       typedef struct {
	   char	*result;
	   Tcl_FreeProc	*freeProc;
	   int errorLine;
       } Tcl_Interp;

       typedef void Tcl_FreeProc(
	       char *blockPtr);
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DESCRIPTION
       The Tcl_CreateInterp procedure returns a	pointer	to a Tcl_Interp	struc-
       ture.  Callers of Tcl_CreateInterp should use this pointer as an	opaque
       token,  suitable	 for nothing other than	passing	back to	other routines
       in the Tcl interface.  Accessing	fields directly	through	the pointer as
       described below is no longer supported.	The supported public  routines
       Tcl_SetResult,  Tcl_GetResult,  Tcl_SetErrorLine, Tcl_GetErrorLine must
       be used instead.

       For legacy programs and extensions no longer being maintained, compiles
       against the Tcl 8.6 header files	are only possible  with	 the  compiler
       directives
	      #define USE_INTERP_RESULT
       and/or
	      #define USE_INTERP_ERRORLINE
       depending on which fields of the	Tcl_Interp struct are accessed.	 These
       directives may be embedded in code or supplied via compiler options.

       The result and freeProc fields are used to return results or error mes-
       sages  from  commands.	This information is returned by	command	proce-
       dures back to Tcl_Eval, and by Tcl_Eval back to its callers.   The  re-
       sult  field  points  to	the string that	represents the result or error
       message,	and the	freeProc field tells how to dispose of the storage for
       the string when it is not needed	anymore.  The easiest way for  command
       procedures  to  manipulate  these  fields  is  to  call procedures like
       Tcl_SetResult or	Tcl_AppendResult;  they	will hide all the  details  of
       managing	 the  fields.	The  description below is for those procedures
       that manipulate the fields directly.

       Whenever	a command procedure returns, it	must ensure  that  the	result
       field  of  its  interpreter  points to the string being returned	by the
       command.	 The result field must always point to a valid string.	 If  a
       command	wishes to return no result then	interp->result should point to
       an empty	string.	 Normally, results are assumed to be statically	 allo-
       cated,  which  means  that the contents will not	change before the next
       time Tcl_Eval is	called or some other command procedure is invoked.  In
       this case, the freeProc field must be zero.  Alternatively,  a  command
       procedure may dynamically allocate its return value (e.g. using Tcl_Al-
       loc)  and  store	 a pointer to it in interp->result.  In	this case, the
       command procedure must also set interp->freeProc	to the	address	 of  a
       procedure  that	can  free the value, or	TCL_DYNAMIC if the storage was
       allocated directly by Tcl or by a call to Tcl_Alloc.  If	interp->freeP-
       roc is non-zero,	then Tcl will call freeProc to free the	space  pointed
       to  by  interp->result before it	invokes	the next command.  If a	client
       procedure overwrites interp->result when	interp->freeProc is  non-zero,
       then it is responsible for calling freeProc to free the old interp->re-
       sult (the Tcl_FreeResult	macro should be	used for this purpose).

       FreeProc	 should	 have arguments	and result that	match the Tcl_FreeProc
       declaration above:  it receives a single	argument which is a pointer to
       the result value	to free.  In most applications TCL_DYNAMIC is the only
       non-zero	value ever used	for freeProc.	However,  an  application  may
       store  a	different procedure address in freeProc	in order to use	an al-
       ternate memory allocator	or in order to do other	cleanup	when  the  re-
       sult memory is freed.

       As part of processing each command, Tcl_Eval initializes	interp->result
       and  interp->freeProc just before calling the command procedure for the
       command.	 The freeProc field will  be  initialized  to  zero,  and  in-
       terp->result  will  point to an empty string.  Commands that do not re-
       turn any	value can simply leave the  fields  alone.   Furthermore,  the
       empty  string  pointed  to  by  result  is actually part	of an array of
       TCL_RESULT_SIZE characters (approximately 200).	If a command wishes to
       return a	short string, it can simply copy it to the area	pointed	to  by
       interp->result.	 Or,  it  can  use the sprintf procedure to generate a
       short result string at the location pointed to by interp->result.

       It is a general convention in Tcl-based applications that the result of
       an interpreter is normally in the initialized state  described  in  the
       previous	paragraph.  Procedures that manipulate an interpreter's	result
       (e.g.  by returning an error) will generally assume that	the result has
       been initialized	when the procedure is called.  If such a procedure  is
       to  be  called  after the result	has been changed, then Tcl_ResetResult
       should be called	first to reset the result to  its  initialized	state.
       The direct use of interp->result	is strongly deprecated (see Tcl_SetRe-
       sult).

       The  errorLine  field  is valid only after Tcl_Eval returns a TCL_ERROR
       return code.  In	this situation the errorLine field identifies the line
       number of the command being executed when the error occurred.  The line
       numbers are relative to the command being executed:  1 means the	 first
       line of the command passed to Tcl_Eval, 2 means the second line,	and so
       on.   The  errorLine  field  is	typically  used	 in  conjunction  with
       Tcl_AddErrorInfo	to report information about where an  error  occurred.
       ErrorLine should	not normally be	modified except	by Tcl_Eval.

KEYWORDS
       free, initialized, interpreter, malloc, result

Tcl				      7.5			 Tcl_Interp(3)

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