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Tcl_OpenFileChannel(3)	    Tcl	Library	Procedures	Tcl_OpenFileChannel(3)

______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       Tcl_OpenFileChannel,    Tcl_OpenCommandChannel,	  Tcl_MakeFileChannel,
       Tcl_GetChannel, Tcl_GetChannelNames, Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx,  Tcl_Regis-
       terChannel,  Tcl_UnregisterChannel,  Tcl_DetachChannel, Tcl_IsStandard-
       Channel,	Tcl_Close,  Tcl_ReadChars,  Tcl_Read,  Tcl_GetsObj,  Tcl_Gets,
       Tcl_WriteObj, Tcl_WriteChars, Tcl_Write,	Tcl_Flush, Tcl_Seek, Tcl_Tell,
       Tcl_TruncateChannel,	Tcl_GetChannelOption,	 Tcl_SetChannelOption,
       Tcl_Eof,	  Tcl_InputBlocked,   Tcl_InputBuffered,   Tcl_OutputBuffered,
       Tcl_Ungets,  Tcl_ReadRaw,  Tcl_WriteRaw - buffered I/O facilities using
       channels

SYNOPSIS
       #include	<tcl.h>

       Tcl_Channel
       Tcl_OpenFileChannel(interp, fileName, mode, permissions)

       Tcl_Channel
       Tcl_OpenCommandChannel(interp, argc, argv, flags)

       Tcl_Channel
       Tcl_MakeFileChannel(handle, readOrWrite)

       Tcl_Channel
       Tcl_GetChannel(interp, channelName, modePtr)

       int
       Tcl_GetChannelNames(interp)

       int
       Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx(interp, pattern)

       Tcl_RegisterChannel(interp, channel)

       int
       Tcl_UnregisterChannel(interp, channel)

       int
       Tcl_DetachChannel(interp, channel)

       int
       Tcl_IsStandardChannel(channel)

       int
       Tcl_Close(interp, channel)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_ReadChars(channel, readObjPtr, charsToRead, appendFlag)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_Read(channel, readBuf, bytesToRead)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_GetsObj(channel, lineObjPtr)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_Gets(channel, lineRead)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_Ungets(channel, input, inputLen, addAtEnd)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_WriteObj(channel, writeObjPtr)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_WriteChars(channel, charBuf,	bytesToWrite)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_Write(channel, byteBuf, bytesToWrite)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_ReadRaw(channel, readBuf, bytesToRead)

       Tcl_Size
       Tcl_WriteRaw(channel, byteBuf, bytesToWrite)

       int
       Tcl_Eof(channel)

       int
       Tcl_Flush(channel)

       int
       Tcl_InputBlocked(channel)

       int
       Tcl_InputBuffered(channel)

       int
       Tcl_OutputBuffered(channel)

       long long
       Tcl_Seek(channel, offset, seekMode)

       long long
       Tcl_Tell(channel)

       int
       Tcl_TruncateChannel(channel, length)

       int
       Tcl_GetChannelOption(interp, channel, optionName, optionValue)

       int
       Tcl_SetChannelOption(interp, channel, optionName, newValue)

ARGUMENTS
       Tcl_Interp *interp (in)		      Used for error reporting and  to
					      look  up a channel registered in
					      it.

       const char *fileName (in)	      The name of a local  or  network
					      file.

       const char *mode	(in)		      Specifies	 how the file is to be
					      accessed.	 May have any  of  the
					      values  allowed for the mode ar-
					      gument to	the Tcl	open command.

       int permissions (in)		      POSIX-style   permission	 flags
					      such  as 0644.  If a new file is
					      created, these permissions  will
					      be set on	the created file.

       Tcl_Size	argc (in)		      The number of elements in	argv.

       const char **argv (in)		      Arguments	  for  constructing  a
					      command pipeline.	 These	values
					      have  the	 same  meaning	as the
					      non-switch arguments to the  Tcl
					      exec command.

       int flags (in)			      Specifies	the disposition	of the
					      stdio handles in pipeline: OR-ed
					      combination     of    TCL_STDIN,
					      TCL_STDOUT,   TCL_STDERR,	   and
					      TCL_ENFORCE_MODE.	 If  TCL_STDIN
					      is  set,	stdin  for  the	 first
					      child  in	 the  pipe is the pipe
					      channel,	otherwise  it  is  the
					      same  as	the  standard input of
					      the invoking  process;  likewise
					      for  TCL_STDOUT  and TCL_STDERR.
					      If TCL_ENFORCE_MODE is not  set,
					      then the pipe can	redirect stdio
					      handles  to  override  the stdio
					      handles  for  which   TCL_STDIN,
					      TCL_STDOUT  and  TCL_STDERR have
					      been set.	 If it	is  set,  then
					      such  redirections  cause	an er-
					      ror.

       void *handle (in)		      Operating	system specific	handle
					      for I/O to a file. For Unix this
					      is a file	descriptor,  for  Win-
					      dows it is a HANDLE.

       int readOrWrite (in)		      OR-ed  combination  of TCL_READ-
					      ABLE and TCL_WRITABLE  to	 indi-
					      cate  what  operations are valid
					      on handle.

       const char *channelName (in)	      The name of the channel.

       int *modePtr (out)		      Points at	 an  integer  variable
					      that  will receive an OR-ed com-
					      bination	of  TCL_READABLE   and
					      TCL_WRITABLE   denoting  whether
					      the channel is open for  reading
					      and writing.

       const char *pattern (in)		      The  pattern to match on,	passed
					      to Tcl_StringMatch, or NULL.

       Tcl_Channel channel (in)		      A	Tcl channel for	input or  out-
					      put.   Must have been the	return
					      value from a procedure  such  as
					      Tcl_OpenFileChannel.

       Tcl_Obj *readObjPtr (in/out)	      A	 pointer  to  a	 Tcl  value in
					      which to	store  the  characters
					      read from	the channel.

       Tcl_Size	charsToRead (in)	      The number of characters to read
					      from  the	channel.  If the chan-
					      nel's encoding is	 binary,  this
					      is  equivalent  to the number of
					      bytes to read from the channel.

       int appendFlag (in)		      If non-zero, data	read from  the
					      channel  will be appended	to the
					      value.  Otherwise, the data will
					      replace the existing contents of
					      the value.

       char *readBuf (out)		      A	buffer in which	to  store  the
					      bytes read from the channel.

       Tcl_Size	bytesToRead (in)	      The number of bytes to read from
					      the channel.  The	buffer readBuf
					      must  be	large  enough  to hold
					      this many	bytes.

       Tcl_Obj *lineObjPtr (in/out)	      A	pointer	 to  a	Tcl  value  in
					      which  to	 store	the  line read
					      from the channel.	 The line read
					      will be appended to the  current
					      value of the value.

       Tcl_DString *lineRead (in/out)	      A	  pointer  to  a  Tcl  dynamic
					      string in	 which	to  store  the
					      line   read  from	 the  channel.
					      Must have	 been  initialized  by
					      the  caller.  The	line read will
					      be appended to any data  already
					      in the dynamic string.

       const char *input (in)		      The  input  to  add to a channel
					      buffer.

       Tcl_Size	inputLen (in)		      Length of	the input

       int addAtEnd (in)		      Flag indicating whether the  in-
					      put  should  be added to the end
					      or  beginning  of	 the   channel
					      buffer.

       Tcl_Obj *writeObjPtr (in)	      A	 pointer  to a Tcl value whose
					      contents will be output  to  the
					      channel.

       const char *charBuf (in)		      A	 buffer	containing the charac-
					      ters to output to	the channel.

       const char *byteBuf (in)		      A	buffer containing the bytes to
					      output to	the channel.

       Tcl_Size	bytesToWrite (in)	      The number of bytes  to  consume
					      from charBuf or byteBuf and out-
					      put to the channel.

       long long offset	(in)		      How far to move the access point
					      in the channel at	which the next
					      input  or	 output	operation will
					      be applied,  measured  in	 bytes
					      from the position	given by seek-
					      Mode.  May be either positive or
					      negative.

       int seekMode (in)		      Relative to which	point to seek;
					      used  with  offset  to calculate
					      the new  access  point  for  the
					      channel.	  Legal	  values   are
					      SEEK_SET,	    SEEK_CUR,	   and
					      SEEK_END.

       long long length	(in)		      The   (non-negative)  length  to
					      truncate the channel the channel
					      to.

       const char *optionName (in)	      The name of an option applicable
					      to this channel, such as -block-
					      ing.  May	have any of the	values
					      accepted by the fconfigure  com-
					      mand.

       Tcl_DString *optionValue	(in)	      Where  to	 store the value of an
					      option or	a list of all  options
					      and their	values.	Must have been
					      initialized by the caller.

       const char *newValue (in)	      New  value  for the option given
					      by optionName.
______________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION
       The Tcl channel mechanism provides a device-independent	and  platform-
       independent  mechanism  for performing buffered input and output	opera-
       tions on	a variety of file, socket,  and	 device	 types.	  The  channel
       mechanism  is extensible	to new channel types, by providing a low-level
       channel driver for the new type;	the channel driver  interface  is  de-
       scribed	in  the	manual entry for Tcl_CreateChannel. The	channel	mecha-
       nism provides a buffering scheme	modeled	after Unix's standard I/O, and
       it also allows for nonblocking I/O on channels.

       The procedures described	in this	manual entry comprise the  C  APIs  of
       the generic layer of the	channel	architecture. For a description	of the
       channel	driver	architecture  and how to implement channel drivers for
       new types of channels, see the manual entry for Tcl_CreateChannel.

TCL_OPENFILECHANNEL
       Tcl_OpenFileChannel opens a file	specified by fileName  and  returns  a
       channel	handle	that  can  be  used to perform input and output	on the
       file. This API is modeled after the fopen procedure of the  Unix	 stan-
       dard  I/O  library.  The	syntax and meaning of all arguments is similar
       to those	given in the Tcl open command when opening a file.  If an  er-
       ror  occurs while opening the channel, Tcl_OpenFileChannel returns NULL
       and records a POSIX error code that can be retrieved with Tcl_GetErrno.
       In addition, if interp is non-NULL, Tcl_OpenFileChannel leaves an error
       message in interp's result after	any error.  As of Tcl 8.4, the	value-
       based  API  Tcl_FSOpenFileChannel  should  be  used  in	preference  to
       Tcl_OpenFileChannel wherever possible.

       The newly created channel is not	 registered  in	 the  supplied	inter-
       preter;	to  register it, use Tcl_RegisterChannel, described below.  If
       one of the standard channels, stdin, stdout or  stderr  was  previously
       closed,	the  act  of creating the new channel also assigns it as a re-
       placement for the standard channel.

TCL_OPENCOMMANDCHANNEL
       Tcl_OpenCommandChannel provides a C-level interface to the functions of
       the exec	and open commands.  It	creates	 a  sequence  of  subprocesses
       specified by the	argv and argc arguments	and returns a channel that can
       be used to communicate with these subprocesses.	The flags argument in-
       dicates	what  sort  of	communication  will  exist  with  the  command
       pipeline.

       If the TCL_STDIN	flag is	set then the standard input for	the first sub-
       process will be tied to the channel: writing to the channel  will  pro-
       vide  input  to the subprocess.	If TCL_STDIN is	not set, then standard
       input for the first subprocess will be the same as  this	 application's
       standard	 input.	  If  TCL_STDOUT  is set then standard output from the
       last subprocess can be read from	the channel; otherwise it goes to this
       application's standard output.  If TCL_STDERR is	 set,  standard	 error
       output  for  all	subprocesses is	returned to the	channel	and results in
       an error	when the channel is closed; otherwise it goes to this applica-
       tion's standard error.  If TCL_ENFORCE_MODE is not set, then  argc  and
       argv  can redirect the stdio handles to override	TCL_STDIN, TCL_STDOUT,
       and TCL_STDERR; if it is	set, then it is	an error for argc and argv  to
       override	stdio channels for which TCL_STDIN, TCL_STDOUT,	and TCL_STDERR
       have been set.

       If  an  error  occurs while opening the channel,	Tcl_OpenCommandChannel
       returns NULL and	records	a POSIX	error code that	can be retrieved  with
       Tcl_GetErrno.  In addition, Tcl_OpenCommandChannel leaves an error mes-
       sage in the interpreter's result. interp	cannot be NULL.

       The  newly  created  channel  is	 not registered	in the supplied	inter-
       preter; to register it, use Tcl_RegisterChannel,	described  below.   If
       one  of	the  standard channels,	stdin, stdout or stderr	was previously
       closed, the act of creating the new channel also	assigns	it  as	a  re-
       placement for the standard channel.

TCL_MAKEFILECHANNEL
       Tcl_MakeFileChannel makes a Tcl_Channel from an existing, platform-spe-
       cific, file handle.  The	newly created channel is not registered	in the
       supplied	 interpreter;  to  register  it,  use Tcl_RegisterChannel, de-
       scribed below.  If one of  the  standard	 channels,  stdin,  stdout  or
       stderr  was previously closed, the act of creating the new channel also
       assigns it as a replacement for the standard channel.

TCL_GETCHANNEL
       Tcl_GetChannel returns a	channel	given the channelName used  to	create
       it with Tcl_CreateChannel and a pointer to a Tcl	interpreter in interp.
       If  a  channel  by that name is not registered in that interpreter, the
       procedure returns NULL. If the modePtr argument is not NULL, it	points
       at  an  integer	variable  that	will  receive  an OR-ed	combination of
       TCL_READABLE and	TCL_WRITABLE describing	whether	the  channel  is  open
       for reading and writing.

       Tcl_GetChannelNames  and	 Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx	write the names	of the
       registered channels to  the  interpreter's  result  as  a  list	value.
       Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx will filter these names according to the pattern.
       If  pattern  is	NULL,  then  it	will not do any	filtering.  The	return
       value is	TCL_OK if no errors occurred writing to	the result,  otherwise
       it is TCL_ERROR,	and the	error message is left in the interpreter's re-
       sult.

TCL_REGISTERCHANNEL
       Tcl_RegisterChannel adds	a channel to the set of	channels accessible in
       interp. After this call,	Tcl programs executing in that interpreter can
       refer to	the channel in input or	output operations using	the name given
       in the call to Tcl_CreateChannel.  After	this call, the channel becomes
       the  property  of  the  interpreter,  and  the  caller  should not call
       Tcl_Close for the channel; the channel  will  be	 closed	 automatically
       when it is unregistered from the	interpreter.

       Code  executing	outside	 of any	Tcl interpreter	can call Tcl_Register-
       Channel with interp as NULL, to indicate	that it	wishes to hold a  ref-
       erence  to this channel.	Subsequently, the channel can be registered in
       a Tcl interpreter and it	will only be closed when the  matching	number
       of calls	to Tcl_UnregisterChannel have been made.  This allows code ex-
       ecuting	outside	 of  any  interpreter  to safely hold a	reference to a
       channel that is also registered in a Tcl	interpreter.

       This procedure interacts	with the code managing the standard  channels.
       If  no  standard	 channels  were	 initialized  before the first call to
       Tcl_RegisterChannel, they  will	get  initialized  by  that  call.  See
       Tcl_StandardChannels for	a general treatise about standard channels and
       the behavior of the Tcl library with regard to them.

TCL_UNREGISTERCHANNEL
       Tcl_UnregisterChannel removes a channel from the	set of channels	acces-
       sible  in  interp. After	this call, Tcl programs	will no	longer be able
       to use the channel's name to refer to the channel in that  interpreter.
       If  this	 operation removed the last registration of the	channel	in any
       interpreter, the	channel	is also	closed and destroyed.

       Code not	associated with	a Tcl interpreter can call Tcl_UnregisterChan-
       nel with	interp as NULL,	to indicate to Tcl that	it no longer  holds  a
       reference  to  that channel. If this is the last	reference to the chan-
       nel, it will now	be closed.  Tcl_UnregisterChannel is very  similar  to
       Tcl_DetachChannel except	that it	will also close	the channel if no fur-
       ther references to it exist.

TCL_DETACHCHANNEL
       Tcl_DetachChannel removes a channel from	the set	of channels accessible
       in  interp. After this call, Tcl	programs will no longer	be able	to use
       the channel's name to refer to the channel in that interpreter.	Beyond
       that, this command has no further effect.  It cannot  be	 used  on  the
       standard	channels (stdout, stderr, stdin), and will return TCL_ERROR if
       passed one of those channels.

       Code  not  associated with a Tcl	interpreter can	call Tcl_DetachChannel
       with interp as NULL, to indicate	to Tcl that it no longer holds a  ref-
       erence  to  that	channel. If this is the	last reference to the channel,
       unlike Tcl_UnregisterChannel, it	will not be closed.

TCL_ISSTANDARDCHANNEL
       Tcl_IsStandardChannel tests whether a channel is	one of the three stan-
       dard channels, stdin, stdout or stderr.	If so, it returns 1, otherwise
       0.

       No attempt is made to check whether the given channel or	 the  standard
       channels	are initialized	or otherwise valid.

TCL_CLOSE
       Tcl_Close  destroys  the	channel	channel, which must denote a currently
       open channel. The channel should	not be registered in  any  interpreter
       when  Tcl_Close	is called. Buffered output is flushed to the channel's
       output device prior to destroying the channel, and any  buffered	 input
       is  discarded.  If this is a blocking channel, the call does not	return
       until all buffered data is successfully sent to	the  channel's	output
       device.	 If this is a nonblocking channel and there is buffered	output
       that cannot be written without blocking,	the call returns  immediately;
       output is flushed in the	background and the channel will	be closed once
       all  of	the buffered data has been output.  In this case errors	during
       flushing	are not	reported.

       If the channel was closed successfully, Tcl_Close returns  TCL_OK.   If
       an  error occurs, Tcl_Close returns TCL_ERROR and records a POSIX error
       code that can be	retrieved with Tcl_GetErrno.  If the channel is	 being
       closed  synchronously and an error occurs during	closing	of the channel
       and interp is not NULL, an error	message	is left	in  the	 interpreter's
       result.

       Note  that  it is not safe to call Tcl_Close on a channel that has been
       registered  using  Tcl_RegisterChannel;	see  the   documentation   for
       Tcl_RegisterChannel,  above,  for details. If the channel has ever been
       given as	the chan argument in a call to Tcl_RegisterChannel, you	should
       instead use Tcl_UnregisterChannel, which	will internally	call Tcl_Close
       when all	calls to Tcl_RegisterChannel have been matched by  correspond-
       ing calls to Tcl_UnregisterChannel.

TCL_READCHARS AND TCL_READ
       Tcl_ReadChars  consumes	bytes  from  channel,  converting the bytes to
       UTF-8 based on the channel's encoding and storing the produced data  in
       readObjPtr's  string representation.  The return	value of Tcl_ReadChars
       is the number of	characters, up to charsToRead,	that  were  stored  in
       readObjPtr.   If	 an error occurs while reading,	the return value is -1
       and Tcl_ReadChars records a POSIX error code that can be	retrieved with
       Tcl_GetErrno. If	an encoding error happens  while  the  channel	is  in
       blocking	 mode with -profile strict, the	characters retrieved until the
       encoding	error happened will be stored in readObjPtr.

       Setting charsToRead to -1 will cause the	command	to read	all characters
       currently available (non-blocking) or everything	 until	eof  (blocking
       mode).

       The return value	may be smaller than the	value to read, indicating that
       less  data  than	requested was available.  This is called a short read.
       In blocking mode, this can only happen on an end-of-file.  In nonblock-
       ing mode, a short read can also occur if	an encoding error  is  encoun-
       tered  (with -profile strict) or	if there is not	enough input currently
       available: Tcl_ReadChars	returns	a short	count rather than waiting  for
       more data.

       If the channel is in blocking mode, a return value of zero indicates an
       end-of-file condition.  If the channel is in nonblocking	mode, a	return
       value  of zero indicates	either that no input is	currently available or
       an end-of-file condition.  Use Tcl_Eof  and  Tcl_InputBlocked  to  tell
       which of	these conditions actually occurred.

       Tcl_ReadChars  translates  the various end-of-line representations into
       the canonical \n	internal representation	according to the current  end-
       of-line	recognition  mode.   End-of-line  recognition  and the various
       platform-specific modes are described in	the manual entry for  the  Tcl
       fconfigure command.

       As a performance	optimization, when reading from	a channel with the en-
       coding  binary,	the bytes are not converted to UTF-8 as	they are read.
       Instead,	they are stored	in readObjPtr's	internal representation	 as  a
       byte-array value.  The string representation of this value will only be
       constructed  if	it  is	needed	(e.g.,	because	 of a call to Tcl_Get-
       StringFromObj).	In this	way, byte-oriented data	can  be	 read  from  a
       channel,	 manipulated  by  calling  Tcl_GetByteArrayFromObj and related
       functions, and then written to a	channel	without	the  expense  of  ever
       converting to or	from UTF-8.

       Tcl_Read	is similar to Tcl_ReadChars, except that it does not do	encod-
       ing  conversions,  regardless  of the channel's encoding.  It is	depre-
       cated and exists	for backwards compatibility with non-internationalized
       Tcl extensions.	It consumes bytes from	channel	 and  stores  them  in
       readBuf,	 performing  end-of-line  translations on the way.  The	return
       value of	Tcl_Read is the	number of bytes, up to bytesToRead, written in
       readBuf.	 The buffer produced by	Tcl_Read is not	null-terminated.   Its
       contents	are valid from the zeroth position up to and excluding the po-
       sition indicated	by the return value.

       Tcl_ReadRaw  is the same	as Tcl_Read but	does not compensate for	stack-
       ing. While Tcl_Read (and	the other functions in	the  API)  always  get
       their  data  from the topmost channel in	the stack the supplied channel
       is part of, Tcl_ReadRaw does not. Thus this function is only usable for
       transformational	channel	drivers, i.e. drivers used in the middle of  a
       stack  of channels, to move data	from the channel below into the	trans-
       formation.

TCL_GETSOBJ AND	TCL_GETS
       Tcl_GetsObj consumes bytes from channel,	converting the bytes to	 UTF-8
       based  on  the  channel's encoding, until a full	line of	input has been
       seen.  If the channel's encoding	is binary, each	 byte  read  from  the
       channel	is  treated  as	 an  individual	Unicode	character.  All	of the
       characters of the line except for the terminating  end-of-line  charac-
       ter(s) are appended to lineObjPtr's string representation.  The end-of-
       line character(s) are read and discarded.

       If  a  line  was	successfully read, the return value is greater than or
       equal to	zero and indicates the number of bytes stored  in  lineObjPtr.
       If  an  error  occurs, Tcl_GetsObj returns -1 and records a POSIX error
       code that can be	retrieved with Tcl_GetErrno.  Tcl_GetsObj also returns
       -1 if the end of	the file is reached; the Tcl_Eof procedure can be used
       to distinguish an error from an end-of-file condition.

       If the channel is in nonblocking	mode, the return value can also	be  -1
       if no data was available	or the data that was available did not contain
       an  end-of-line	character.   When -1 is	returned, the Tcl_InputBlocked
       procedure may be	invoked	to determine if	the channel is blocked because
       of input	unavailability.

       Tcl_Gets	is the same as Tcl_GetsObj except the resulting	characters are
       appended	to the dynamic string given by	lineRead  rather  than	a  Tcl
       value.

TCL_UNGETS
       Tcl_Ungets  is used to add data to the input queue of a channel,	at ei-
       ther the	head or	tail of	the queue.  The	pointer	input  points  to  the
       data  that  is to be added.  The	length of the input to add is given by
       inputLen.  A non-zero value of addAtEnd indicates that the data	is  to
       be added	at the end of queue; otherwise it will be added	at the head of
       the queue.  If channel has a "sticky" EOF set, no data will be added to
       the input queue.	 Tcl_Ungets returns inputLen or	-1 if an error occurs.

TCL_WRITECHARS,	TCL_WRITEOBJ, AND TCL_WRITE
       Tcl_WriteChars accepts bytesToWrite bytes of character data at charBuf.
       The  UTF-8  characters in the buffer are	converted to the channel's en-
       coding and queued for output to channel.	 If bytesToWrite is  negative,
       Tcl_WriteChars  expects	charBuf	 to  be	null-terminated	and it outputs
       everything up to	the null.

       Data queued for output may not appear on	the output device immediately,
       due to internal buffering.  If the data should appear immediately, call
       Tcl_Flush after the call	to Tcl_WriteChars, or set the  -buffering  op-
       tion on the channel to none.  If	you wish the data to appear as soon as
       a  complete  line  is accepted for output, set the -buffering option on
       the channel to line mode.

       The return value	of Tcl_WriteChars is a count of	how  many  bytes  were
       accepted	for output to the channel.  This is either -1 to indicate that
       an  error occurred or another number greater than zero to indicate suc-
       cess.  If an error occurs, Tcl_WriteChars records a  POSIX  error  code
       that may	be retrieved with Tcl_GetErrno.

       Newline	characters  in the output data are translated to platform-spe-
       cific end-of-line sequences according to	the  -translation  option  for
       the channel.  This is done even if the channel has no encoding.

       Tcl_WriteObj is similar to Tcl_WriteChars except	it accepts a Tcl value
       whose  contents will be output to the channel.  The UTF-8 characters in
       writeObjPtr's string representation are converted to the	channel's  en-
       coding  and  queued  for	output to channel.  As a performance optimiza-
       tion, when writing to a channel with the	encoding binary, UTF-8 charac-
       ters are	not converted as they are  written.   Instead,	the  bytes  in
       writeObjPtr's internal representation as	a byte-array value are written
       to  the	channel.   The	byte-array representation of the value will be
       constructed if it is needed.  In	this way, byte-oriented	 data  can  be
       read from a channel, manipulated	by calling Tcl_GetByteArrayFromObj and
       related functions, and then written to a	channel	without	the expense of
       ever converting to or from UTF-8.

       Tcl_Write  is  similar to Tcl_WriteChars	except that it does not	do en-
       coding conversions, regardless of the channel's encoding.  It is	depre-
       cated and exists	for backwards compatibility with non-internationalized
       Tcl extensions.	It accepts bytesToWrite	bytes of data at  byteBuf  and
       queues  them  for  output  to  channel.	 If  bytesToWrite is negative,
       Tcl_Write expects byteBuf to be null-terminated and it  outputs	every-
       thing up	to the null.

       Tcl_WriteRaw  is	 the  same  as	Tcl_Write  but does not	compensate for
       stacking. While Tcl_Write (and the other	functions in the  API)	always
       feed their input	to the topmost channel in the stack the	supplied chan-
       nel  is	part of, Tcl_WriteRaw does not.	Thus this function is only us-
       able for	transformational channel drivers, i.e.	drivers	 used  in  the
       middle  of  a  stack  of	channels, to move data from the	transformation
       into the	channel	below it.

TCL_FLUSH
       Tcl_Flush causes	all of the buffered output  data  for  channel	to  be
       written	to  its	underlying file	or device as soon as possible.	If the
       channel is in blocking mode, the	call does not  return  until  all  the
       buffered	data has been sent to the channel or some error	occurred.  The
       call  returns  immediately  if  the channel is nonblocking; it starts a
       background flush	that will write	the buffered data to the channel even-
       tually, as fast as the channel is able to absorb	it.

       The return value	is normally TCL_OK.  If	an error occurs, Tcl_Flush re-
       turns TCL_ERROR and records a POSIX error code that  can	 be  retrieved
       with Tcl_GetErrno.

TCL_SEEK
       Tcl_Seek	 moves	the access point in channel where subsequent data will
       be read or written. Buffered output  is	flushed	 to  the  channel  and
       buffered	input is discarded, prior to the seek operation.

       Tcl_Seek	 normally  returns  the	new access point.  If an error occurs,
       Tcl_Seek	returns	-1 and records a POSIX error  code  that  can  be  re-
       trieved with Tcl_GetErrno.  After an error, the access point may	or may
       not have	been moved.

TCL_TELL
       Tcl_Tell	 returns  the current access point for a channel. The returned
       value is	-1 if the channel does not support seeking.

TCL_TRUNCATECHANNEL
       Tcl_TruncateChannel truncates the file underlying channel  to  a	 given
       length  of  bytes.  It  returns	TCL_OK if the operation	succeeded, and
       TCL_ERROR otherwise.

TCL_GETCHANNELOPTION
       Tcl_GetChannelOption retrieves, in optionValue, the value of one	of the
       options currently in effect for a channel, or a list of all options and
       their values.  The channel argument identifies the channel for which to
       query an	option or retrieve all options and their values.   If  option-
       Name  is	 not NULL, it is the name of the option	to query; the option's
       value is	copied to the Tcl dynamic string denoted  by  optionValue.  If
       optionName  is  NULL, the function stores an alternating	list of	option
       names and their values in optionValue,  using  a	 series	 of  calls  to
       Tcl_DStringAppendElement.  The  various	preexisting  options and their
       possible	values are described in	the manual entry for the Tcl  fconfig-
       ure  command.  Other  options can be added by each channel type.	 These
       channel type specific options are described in the manual entry for the
       Tcl command that	creates	a channel of that type;	for example, the addi-
       tional options for TCP-based channels are described in the manual entry
       for the Tcl socket command.  The	procedure normally returns TCL_OK.  If
       an  error  occurs, it returns TCL_ERROR and calls Tcl_SetErrno to store
       an appropriate POSIX error code.

TCL_SETCHANNELOPTION
       Tcl_SetChannelOption sets a new value newValue for an option optionName
       on channel.  The	procedure normally returns TCL_OK.  If	an  error  oc-
       curs,  it  returns  TCL_ERROR;	in  addition,  if  interp is non-NULL,
       Tcl_SetChannelOption leaves an error message in the  interpreter's  re-
       sult.

TCL_EOF
       Tcl_Eof	returns	 a nonzero value if channel encountered	an end of file
       during the last input operation.

TCL_INPUTBLOCKED
       Tcl_InputBlocked	returns	a nonzero value	if channel is  in  nonblocking
       mode and	the last input operation returned less data than requested be-
       cause  there  was insufficient data available.  The call	always returns
       zero if the channel is in blocking mode.

TCL_INPUTBUFFERED
       Tcl_InputBuffered returns  the  number  of  bytes  of  input  currently
       buffered	 in  the internal buffers for a	channel. If the	channel	is not
       open for	reading, this function always returns zero.

TCL_OUTPUTBUFFERED
       Tcl_OutputBuffered returns the number  of  bytes	 of  output  currently
       buffered	 in  the internal buffers for a	channel. If the	channel	is not
       open for	writing, this function always returns zero.

PLATFORM ISSUES
       The handles returned from Tcl_GetChannelHandle depend on	 the  platform
       and  the	 channel type.	On Unix	platforms, the handle is always	a Unix
       file descriptor as returned from	the  open  system  call.   On  Windows
       platforms,  the	handle	is  a file HANDLE when the channel was created
       with Tcl_OpenFileChannel, Tcl_OpenCommandChannel, or  Tcl_MakeFileChan-
       nel.  Other channel types may return a different	type of	handle on Win-
       dows platforms.

REFERENCE COUNT	MANAGEMENT
       The  readObjPtr argument	to Tcl_ReadChars must be an unshared value; it
       will be modified	by this	function.  Using the  interpreter  result  for
       this  purpose  is strongly not recommended; the preferred pattern is to
       use a new value from Tcl_NewObj to receive the data and only to pass it
       to Tcl_SetObjResult if this function succeeds.

       The lineObjPtr argument to Tcl_GetsObj must be an  unshared  value;  it
       will  be	 modified  by this function.  Using the	interpreter result for
       this purpose is strongly	not recommended; the preferred pattern	is  to
       use a new value from Tcl_NewObj to receive the data and only to pass it
       to Tcl_SetObjResult if this function succeeds.

       The  writeObjPtr	 argument  to  Tcl_WriteObj should be a	value with any
       reference count.	This function will not modify the reference count. Us-
       ing the interpreter result without adding an additional reference to it
       is not recommended.

SEE ALSO
       DString(3), fconfigure(n), filename(n), fopen(3), Tcl_CreateChannel(3)

KEYWORDS
       access point, blocking, buffered	I/O, channel, channel driver,  end  of
       file, flush, input, nonblocking,	output,	read, seek, write

Tcl				      8.3		Tcl_OpenFileChannel(3)

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