tcl

Tcl scripting language shell

TLDR

Start an interactive Tcl shell

$ tclsh

Run a Tcl script

$ tclsh [script.tcl]

Run a script with arguments

$ tclsh [script.tcl] [arg1] [arg2]

Run in interactive mode after executing a script

$ tclsh -i [script.tcl]

Specify encoding for reading the script

$ tclsh -encoding utf-8 [script.tcl]

Execute a Tcl command directly

$ echo 'puts "Hello World"' | tclsh

SYNOPSIS

tclsh [-encoding name] [-i] [-norc] [--] [filename] [arg ...]

tclsh is the standard shell for the Tcl (Tool Command Language) scripting language. It reads and evaluates Tcl commands from standard input or from a script file. When invoked without arguments, it runs interactively with a % prompt.Several variables are set for scripts: argc contains the argument count, argv is a list of arguments, argv0 is the script name, and tcl_interactive indicates whether the shell is interactive.In interactive mode, the shell reads the ~/.tclshrc startup file before accepting commands. The prompts can be customized via tcl_prompt1 and tcl_prompt2 variables.

PARAMETERS

-encoding name

Specify the character encoding for reading the script file (e.g., utf-8).

-i

Force interactive mode even when a script file is provided.

-f

Force the first non-option argument to be treated as a script file.

-norc

Do not load the user's startup file (~/.tclshrc).

-t

Equivalent to -i, forces interactive mode.

End of options; all following arguments are the script file and its arguments.

INSTALL

sudo dnf install tcl

sudo pacman -S tcl

sudo zypper install tcl

nix profile install nixpkgs#tcl

CAVEATS

Tcl uses different syntax than most Unix shells. Braces {} are used for grouping, brackets [] for command substitution, and $ for variable expansion. String quoting and list handling follow Tcl conventions rather than POSIX shell conventions.

HISTORY

Tcl was created by John Ousterhout at UC Berkeley in 1988 as an embeddable scripting language. The name stands for "Tool Command Language". Tcl gained popularity with the Tk GUI toolkit. Development continued at Sun Microsystems in the 1990s and is now maintained by the Tcl Core Team. The current major version is Tcl 8.6, with Tcl 9.0 in development.

tcl