Tcl_AsyncCreate(3)
Tcl_AsyncCreate(3) Tcl Library Procedures Tcl_AsyncCreate(3)
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NAME
Tcl_AsyncCreate, Tcl_AsyncMark, Tcl_AsyncInvoke,
Tcl_AsyncDelete, Tcl_AsyncReady - handle asynchronous events
SYNOPSIS
#include <tcl.h>
Tcl_AsyncHandler
Tcl_AsyncCreate(proc, clientData)
Tcl_AsyncMark(async)
int
Tcl_AsyncInvoke(interp, code)
Tcl_AsyncDelete(async)
int
Tcl_AsyncReady()
ARGUMENTS
Tcl_AsyncProc *proc (in) Procedure to
invoke to handle
an asynchronous
event.
ClientData clientData (in) One-word value to
pass to proc.
Tcl_AsyncHandler async (in) Token for asyn-
chronous event
handler.
Tcl_Interp *interp (in) Tcl interpreter in
which command was
being evaluated
when handler was
invoked, or NULL
if handler was
invoked when there
was no interpreter
active.
int code (in) Completion code
from command that
just completed in
interp, or 0 if
interp is NULL.
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Tcl Last change: 7.0 1
Tcl_AsyncCreate(3) Tcl Library Procedures Tcl_AsyncCreate(3)
DESCRIPTION
These procedures provide a safe mechanism for dealing with
asynchronous events such as signals. If an event such as a
signal occurs while a Tcl script is being evaluated then it
is not safe to take any substantive action to process the
event. For example, it is not safe to evaluate a Tcl script
since the interpreter may already be in the middle of
evaluating a script; it may not even be safe to allocate
memory, since a memory allocation could have been in pro-
gress when the event occurred. The only safe approach is to
set a flag indicating that the event occurred, then handle
the event later when the world has returned to a clean
state, such as after the current Tcl command completes.
Tcl_AsyncCreate, Tcl_AsyncDelete, and Tcl_AsyncReady are
thread sensitive. They access and/or set a thread-specific
data structure in the event of a core built with
--enable-threads. The token created by Tcl_AsyncCreate con-
tains the needed thread information it was called from so
that calling Tcl_AsyncMark(token) will only yield the origin
thread into the asynchronous handler.
Tcl_AsyncCreate creates an asynchronous handler and returns
a token for it. The asynchronous handler must be created
before any occurrences of the asynchronous event that it is
intended to handle (it is not safe to create a handler at
the time of an event). When an asynchronous event occurs
the code that detects the event (such as a signal handler)
should call Tcl_AsyncMark with the token for the handler.
Tcl_AsyncMark will mark the handler as ready to execute, but
it will not invoke the handler immediately. Tcl will call
the proc associated with the handler later, when the world
is in a safe state, and proc can then carry out the actions
associated with the asynchronous event. Proc should have
arguments and result that match the type Tcl_AsyncProc:
typedef int Tcl_AsyncProc(
ClientData clientData,
Tcl_Interp *interp,
int code);
The clientData will be the same as the clientData argument
passed to Tcl_AsyncCreate when the handler was created. If
proc is invoked just after a command has completed execution
in an interpreter, then interp will identify the interpreter
in which the command was evaluated and code will be the com-
pletion code returned by that command. The command's result
will be present in the interpreter's result. When proc
returns, whatever it leaves in the interpreter's result will
be returned as the result of the command and the integer
value returned by proc will be used as the new completion
code for the command.
Tcl Last change: 7.0 2
Tcl_AsyncCreate(3) Tcl Library Procedures Tcl_AsyncCreate(3)
It is also possible for proc to be invoked when no inter-
preter is active. This can happen, for example, if an asyn-
chronous event occurs while the application is waiting for
interactive input or an X event. In this case interp will
be NULL and code will be 0, and the return value from proc
will be ignored.
The procedure Tcl_AsyncInvoke is called to invoke all of the
handlers that are ready. The procedure Tcl_AsyncReady will
return non-zero whenever any asynchronous handlers are
ready; it can be checked to avoid calls to Tcl_AsyncInvoke
when there are no ready handlers. Tcl calls Tcl_AsyncReady
after each command is evaluated and calls Tcl_AsyncInvoke if
needed. Applications may also call Tcl_AsyncInvoke at
interesting times for that application. For example, Tcl's
event handler calls Tcl_AsyncReady after each event and
calls Tcl_AsyncInvoke if needed. The interp and code argu-
ments to Tcl_AsyncInvoke have the same meaning as for proc:
they identify the active interpreter, if any, and the com-
pletion code from the command that just completed.
Tcl_AsyncDelete removes an asynchronous handler so that its
proc will never be invoked again. A handler can be deleted
even when ready, and it will still not be invoked.
If multiple handlers become active at the same time, the
handlers are invoked in the order they were created (oldest
handler first). The code and the interpreter's result for
later handlers reflect the values returned by earlier
handlers, so that the most recently created handler has last
say about the interpreter's result and completion code. If
new handlers become ready while handlers are executing,
Tcl_AsyncInvoke will invoke them all; at each point it
invokes the highest-priority (oldest) ready handler, repeat-
ing this over and over until there are no longer any ready
handlers.
WARNING
It is almost always a bad idea for an asynchronous event
handler to modify the interpreter's result or return a code
different from its code argument. This sort of behavior can
disrupt the execution of scripts in subtle ways and result
in bugs that are extremely difficult to track down. If an
asynchronous event handler needs to evaluate Tcl scripts
then it should first save the interpreter's state by calling
Tcl_SaveInterpState, passing in the code argument. When the
asynchronous handler is finished it should restore the
interpreter's state by calling Tcl_RestoreInterpState, and
then returning the code argument.
Tcl Last change: 7.0 3
Tcl_AsyncCreate(3) Tcl Library Procedures Tcl_AsyncCreate(3)
KEYWORDS
asynchronous event, handler, signal, Tcl_SaveInterpState,
thread
Tcl Last change: 7.0 4
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