dwww Home | Manual pages | Find package

namespace(3tcl)              Tcl Built-In Commands             namespace(3tcl)

______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       namespace - create and manipulate contexts for commands and variables

SYNOPSIS
       namespace ?subcommand? ?arg ...?
______________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION
       The  namespace  command  lets  you create, access, and destroy separate
       contexts for commands and variables.  See the section WHAT IS  A  NAME-
       SPACE?  below  for a brief overview of namespaces.  The legal values of
       subcommand are listed below.  Note that you can abbreviate the  subcom-
       mands.

       namespace children ?namespace? ?pattern?
              Returns  a list of all child namespaces that belong to the name-
              space namespace.  If namespace is not specified, then the  chil-
              dren  are  returned for the current namespace.  This command re-
              turns fully-qualified names, which start  with  a  double  colon
              (::).   If  the optional pattern is given, then this command re-
              turns only the names that match the glob-style pattern.  The ac-
              tual  pattern  used  is  determined  as  follows: a pattern that
              starts with double colon (::) is used  directly,  otherwise  the
              namespace  namespace (or the fully-qualified name of the current
              namespace) is prepended onto the pattern.

       namespace code script
              Captures the current namespace context for  later  execution  of
              the  script script.  It returns a new script in which script has
              been wrapped in a namespace inscope command.  The new script has
              two  important  properties.   First,  it can be evaluated in any
              namespace and will cause script to be evaluated in  the  current
              namespace  (the  one  where  the  namespace code command was in-
              voked).  Second, additional arguments can be appended to the re-
              sulting  script  and they will be passed to script as additional
              arguments.  For example, suppose the command set  script  [name-
              space code {foo bar}] is invoked in namespace ::a::b.  Then eval
              $script [list x y] can be executed in  any  namespace  (assuming
              the  value  of script has been passed in properly) and will have
              the same effect as the command ::namespace eval ::a::b {foo  bar
              x  y}.   This  command is needed because extensions like Tk nor-
              mally execute callback  scripts  in  the  global  namespace.   A
              scoped  command  captures  a command together with its namespace
              context in a way that allows it to be executed  properly  later.
              See  the section SCOPED SCRIPTS for some examples of how this is
              used to create callback scripts.

       namespace current
              Returns the fully-qualified name for the current namespace.  The
              actual  name  of  the  global  namespace  is  “” (i.e., an empty
              string), but this command returns :: for the global namespace as
              a convenience to programmers.

       namespace delete ?namespace namespace ...?
              Each  namespace  namespace  is deleted and all variables, proce-
              dures, and child  namespaces  contained  in  the  namespace  are
              deleted.  If a procedure is currently executing inside the name-
              space, the namespace will be kept alive until the procedure  re-
              turns;  however,  the  namespace is marked to prevent other code
              from looking it up by name.  If a namespace does not exist, this
              command returns an error.  If no namespace names are given, this
              command does nothing.

       namespace ensemble subcommand ?arg ...?
              Creates and manipulates a command that is formed out of  an  en-
              semble of subcommands.  See the section ENSEMBLES below for fur-
              ther details.

       namespace eval namespace arg ?arg ...?
              Activates a namespace called namespace and evaluates  some  code
              in that context.  If the namespace does not already exist, it is
              created.  If more than one arg argument is specified, the  argu-
              ments are concatenated together with a space between each one in
              the same fashion as the eval command, and the result  is  evalu-
              ated.

              If  namespace  has  leading namespace qualifiers and any leading
              namespaces do not exist, they are automatically created.

       namespace exists namespace
              Returns 1 if namespace is a valid namespace in the current  con-
              text, returns 0 otherwise.

       namespace export ?-clear? ?pattern pattern ...?
              Specifies which commands are exported from a namespace.  The ex-
              ported commands are those that can be later  imported  into  an-
              other namespace using a namespace import command.  Both commands
              defined in a namespace and commands the namespace has previously
              imported  can  be  exported by a namespace.  The commands do not
              have to be defined at the time the namespace export  command  is
              executed.   Each  pattern may contain glob-style special charac-
              ters, but it may not include any namespace qualifiers.  That is,
              the pattern can only specify commands in the current (exporting)
              namespace.  Each pattern is appended onto the  namespace's  list
              of  export  patterns.   If  the  -clear flag is given, the name-
              space's export pattern list is reset to empty before any pattern
              arguments are appended.  If no patterns are given and the -clear
              flag is not given, this command returns the namespace's  current
              export list.

       namespace forget ?pattern pattern ...?
              Removes  previously  imported  commands  from a namespace.  Each
              pattern is a simple or qualified  name  such  as  x,  foo::x  or
              a::b::p*.   Qualified names contain double colons (::) and qual-
              ify a name with the name of one or more namespaces.  Each “qual-
              ified  pattern” is qualified with the name of an exporting name-
              space and may have glob-style special characters in the  command
              name  at the end of the qualified name.  Glob characters may not
              appear in a namespace name.  For each “simple pattern” this com-
              mand deletes the matching commands of the current namespace that
              were imported from a different namespace.  For  “qualified  pat-
              terns”, this command first finds the matching exported commands.
              It then checks whether any of those commands were previously im-
              ported  by  the  current namespace.  If so, this command deletes
              the corresponding imported commands.  In  effect,  this  un-does
              the action of a namespace import command.

       namespace import ?-force? ?pattern pattern ...?
              Imports  commands  into  a  namespace, or queries the set of im-
              ported commands in a namespace.  When no arguments are  present,
              namespace  import  returns  the  list of commands in the current
              namespace that have been imported from  other  namespaces.   The
              commands in the returned list are in the format of simple names,
              with no namespace qualifiers at all.  This  format  is  suitable
              for composition with namespace forget (see EXAMPLES below).

              When  pattern arguments are present, each pattern is a qualified
              name like foo::x or a::p*.  That is, it includes the name of  an
              exporting  namespace  and may have glob-style special characters
              in the command name at the end  of  the  qualified  name.   Glob
              characters  may  not appear in a namespace name.  When the name-
              space name is not fully qualified (i.e., does not start  with  a
              namespace  separator)  it is resolved as a namespace name in the
              way described in the NAME RESOLUTION section; it is an error  if
              no namespace with that name can be found.

              All  the commands that match a pattern string and which are cur-
              rently exported from their namespace are added  to  the  current
              namespace.   This  is done by creating a new command in the cur-
              rent namespace that points to the exported command in its origi-
              nal  namespace;  when the new imported command is called, it in-
              vokes the exported command.  This command  normally  returns  an
              error if an imported command conflicts with an existing command.
              However, if the -force option is given, imported  commands  will
              silently  replace  existing commands.  The namespace import com-
              mand has snapshot semantics: that is,  only  requested  commands
              that  are  currently  defined in the exporting namespace are im-
              ported.  In other words, you can import only the  commands  that
              are in a namespace at the time when the namespace import command
              is executed.  If another command is defined and exported in this
              namespace later on, it will not be imported.

       namespace inscope namespace script ?arg ...?
              Executes  a  script  in  the context of the specified namespace.
              This command is not expected to be used directly by programmers;
              calls to it are generated implicitly when applications use name-
              space code commands to create callback scripts that the applica-
              tions  then  register with, e.g., Tk widgets.  The namespace in-
              scope command is much like the  namespace  eval  command  except
              that the namespace must already exist, and namespace inscope ap-
              pends additional args as proper list elements.

                     namespace inscope ::foo $script $x $y $z

              is equivalent to

                     namespace eval ::foo [concat $script [list $x $y $z]]

              thus additional arguments will not undergo  a  second  round  of
              substitution, as is the case with namespace eval.

       namespace origin command
              Returns  the  fully-qualified  name  of  the original command to
              which the imported command command refers.  When  a  command  is
              imported  into  a  namespace,  a  new command is created in that
              namespace that points to the actual  command  in  the  exporting
              namespace.   If  a  command is imported into a sequence of name-
              spaces a, b,...,n where each successive namespace  just  imports
              the  command  from  the previous namespace, this command returns
              the fully-qualified name of the original command  in  the  first
              namespace, a.  If command does not refer to an imported command,
              the command's own fully-qualified name is returned.

       namespace parent ?namespace?
              Returns the fully-qualified name of  the  parent  namespace  for
              namespace  namespace.  If namespace is not specified, the fully-
              qualified name of the current namespace's parent is returned.

       namespace path ?namespaceList?
              Returns the command resolution path of the current namespace. If
              namespaceList  is  specified  as a list of named namespaces, the
              current namespace's command resolution  path  is  set  to  those
              namespaces and returns the empty list. The default command reso-
              lution path is always empty. See the section NAME RESOLUTION be-
              low for an explanation of the rules regarding name resolution.

       namespace qualifiers string
              Returns any leading namespace qualifiers for string.  Qualifiers
              are namespace names separated by double colons  (::).   For  the
              string  ::foo::bar::x,  this command returns ::foo::bar, and for
              :: it returns an empty string.  This command is  the  complement
              of  the  namespace  tail  command.   Note that it does not check
              whether the namespace names are, in fact, the names of currently
              defined namespaces.

       namespace tail string
              Returns the simple name at the end of a qualified string.  Qual-
              ifiers are namespace names separated by double colons (::).  For
              the  string ::foo::bar::x, this command returns x, and for :: it
              returns an empty string.  This command is the complement of  the
              namespace  qualifiers  command.   It  does not check whether the
              namespace names are, in fact, the  names  of  currently  defined
              namespaces.

       namespace upvar namespace ?otherVar myVar ...?
              This  command  arranges  for zero or more local variables in the
              current procedure to refer to variables in namespace. The  name-
              space  name is resolved as described in section NAME RESOLUTION.
              The command namespace upvar $ns a b has the  same  behaviour  as
              upvar  0  ${ns}::a  b, with the sole exception of the resolution
              rules used for qualified namespace or variable names.  namespace
              upvar returns an empty string.

       namespace unknown ?script?
              Sets  or  returns  the  unknown  command handler for the current
              namespace.  The handler is invoked when a  command  called  from
              within  the  namespace cannot be found in the current namespace,
              the namespace's path nor in the global  namespace.   The  script
              argument,  if given, should be a well formed list representing a
              command name and optional arguments. When  the  handler  is  in-
              voked,  the  full invocation line will be appended to the script
              and the result evaluated in the context of  the  namespace.  The
              default  handler for all namespaces is ::unknown. If no argument
              is given, it returns the handler for the current namespace.

       namespace which ?-command? ?-variable? name
              Looks up name as either a command or variable  and  returns  its
              fully-qualified  name.   For  example, if name does not exist in
              the current namespace but does exist in  the  global  namespace,
              this  command returns a fully-qualified name in the global name-
              space.  If the command or variable does not exist, this  command
              returns  an  empty string.  If the variable has been created but
              not defined, such as with the  variable  command  or  through  a
              trace on the variable, this command will return the fully-quali-
              fied name of the variable.  If no flag is given, name is treated
              as a command name.  See the section NAME RESOLUTION below for an
              explanation of the rules regarding name resolution.

WHAT IS A NAMESPACE?
       A namespace is a collection of commands and variables.  It encapsulates
       the  commands and variables to ensure that they will not interfere with
       the commands and variables of other namespaces.  Tcl has always had one
       such collection, which we refer to as the global namespace.  The global
       namespace holds all global variables and commands.  The namespace  eval
       command lets you create new namespaces.  For example,

              namespace eval Counter {
                  namespace export bump
                  variable num 0

                  proc bump {} {
                      variable num
                      incr num
                  }
              }

       creates  a  new namespace containing the variable num and the procedure
       bump.  The commands and variables in this namespace are  separate  from
       other  commands  and variables in the same program.  If there is a com-
       mand named bump in the global namespace, for example, it will  be  dif-
       ferent from the command bump in the Counter namespace.

       Namespace  variables resemble global variables in Tcl.  They exist out-
       side of the procedures in a namespace but can be accessed in  a  proce-
       dure via the variable command, as shown in the example above.

       Namespaces  are dynamic.  You can add and delete commands and variables
       at any time, so you can build up the contents of a namespace over  time
       using  a series of namespace eval commands.  For example, the following
       series of commands has the same  effect  as  the  namespace  definition
       shown above:

              namespace eval Counter {
                  variable num 0
                  proc bump {} {
                      variable num
                      return [incr num]
                  }
              }
              namespace eval Counter {
                  proc test {args} {
                      return $args
                  }
              }
              namespace eval Counter {
                   rename test ""
              }

       Note  that  the  test  procedure is added to the Counter namespace, and
       later removed via the rename command.

       Namespaces can have other namespaces within them, so they nest  hierar-
       chically.   A  nested namespace is encapsulated inside its parent name-
       space and can not interfere with other namespaces.

QUALIFIED NAMES
       Each namespace has a textual name such as  history  or  ::safe::interp.
       Since  namespaces  may  nest, qualified names are used to refer to com-
       mands, variables, and child  namespaces  contained  inside  namespaces.
       Qualified  names  are  similar  to the hierarchical path names for Unix
       files or Tk widgets, except that :: is used as the separator instead of
       /  or  ..   The  topmost  or global namespace has the name “” (i.e., an
       empty string), although :: is a  synonym.   As  an  example,  the  name
       ::safe::interp::create  refers  to  the command create in the namespace
       interp that is a child of namespace ::safe, which in turn is a child of
       the global namespace, ::.

       If  you  want  to access commands and variables from another namespace,
       you must use some extra syntax.  Names must be qualified by  the  name-
       space  that  contains them.  From the global namespace, we might access
       the Counter procedures like this:

              Counter::bump 5
              Counter::Reset

       We could access the current count like this:

              puts "count = $Counter::num"

       When one namespace contains another, you may need more than one  quali-
       fier  to  reach its elements.  If we had a namespace Foo that contained
       the namespace Counter, you could invoke its  bump  procedure  from  the
       global namespace like this:

              Foo::Counter::bump 3

       You  can  also use qualified names when you create and rename commands.
       For example, you could add a procedure to the Foo namespace like this:

              proc Foo::Test {args} {return $args}

       And you could move the same procedure to another namespace like this:

              rename Foo::Test Bar::Test

       There are a few remaining points about qualified names that  we  should
       cover.  Namespaces have nonempty names except for the global namespace.
       :: is disallowed in simple command, variable, and namespace  names  ex-
       cept as a namespace separator.  Extra colons in any separator part of a
       qualified name are ignored; i.e. two or more colons are  treated  as  a
       namespace  separator.  A trailing :: in a qualified variable or command
       name refers to the variable or command named {}.  However,  a  trailing
       :: in a qualified namespace name is ignored.

NAME RESOLUTION
       In  general, all Tcl commands that take variable and command names sup-
       port qualified names.  This means you can give qualified names to  such
       commands  as  set,  proc,  rename,  and interp alias.  If you provide a
       fully-qualified name that starts with a ::, there is no question  about
       what  command,  variable,  or namespace you mean.  However, if the name
       does not start with a :: (i.e., is relative), Tcl follows  basic  rules
       for looking it up:

       •      Variable  names are always resolved by looking first in the cur-
              rent namespace, and then in the global namespace.

       •      Command names are always resolved  by  looking  in  the  current
              namespace  first.  If  not found there, they are searched for in
              every namespace on the current namespace's command  path  (which
              is  empty  by  default).  If  not found there, command names are
              looked up in the global namespace (or, failing  that,  are  pro-
              cessed by the appropriate namespace unknown handler.)

       •      Namespace  names are always resolved by looking in only the cur-
              rent namespace.

       In the following example,

              set traceLevel 0
              namespace eval Debug {
                  printTrace $traceLevel
              }

       Tcl looks for traceLevel in the namespace Debug and then in the  global
       namespace.   It  looks up the command printTrace in the same way.  If a
       variable or command name is not found in either context,  the  name  is
       undefined.  To make this point absolutely clear, consider the following
       example:

              set traceLevel 0
              namespace eval Foo {
                  variable traceLevel 3

                  namespace eval Debug {
                      printTrace $traceLevel
                  }
              }

       Here Tcl looks for traceLevel first in the namespace Foo::Debug.  Since
       it  is  not found there, Tcl then looks for it in the global namespace.
       The variable Foo::traceLevel is completely ignored during the name res-
       olution process.

       You  can use the namespace which command to clear up any question about
       name resolution.  For example, the command:

              namespace eval Foo::Debug {namespace which -variable traceLevel}

       returns ::traceLevel.  On the other hand, the command,

              namespace eval Foo {namespace which -variable traceLevel}

       returns ::Foo::traceLevel.

       As mentioned above, namespace names are looked up differently than  the
       names  of  variables and commands.  Namespace names are always resolved
       in the current namespace.  This means, for example,  that  a  namespace
       eval command that creates a new namespace always creates a child of the
       current namespace unless the new namespace name begins with ::.

       Tcl has no access control to limit what variables, commands,  or  name-
       spaces  you  can  reference.   If you provide a qualified name that re-
       solves to an element by the name resolution rule above, you can  access
       the element.

       You  can access a namespace variable from a procedure in the same name-
       space by using the variable command.  Much  like  the  global  command,
       this  creates a local link to the namespace variable.  If necessary, it
       also creates the variable in the current namespace and initializes  it.
       Note  that  the  global  command only creates links to variables in the
       global namespace.  It is not necessary to use a variable command if you
       always  refer  to the namespace variable using an appropriate qualified
       name.

IMPORTING COMMANDS
       Namespaces are often used to represent libraries.   Some  library  com-
       mands are used so frequently that it is a nuisance to type their quali-
       fied names.  For example, suppose that all of the commands in a package
       like  BLT  are contained in a namespace called Blt.  Then you might ac-
       cess these commands like this:

              Blt::graph .g -background red
              Blt::table . .g 0,0

       If you use the graph and table commands frequently, you may want to ac-
       cess  them  without the Blt:: prefix.  You can do this by importing the
       commands into the current namespace, like this:

              namespace import Blt::*

       This adds all exported commands from the Blt namespace into the current
       namespace context, so you can write code like this:

              graph .g -background red
              table . .g 0,0

       The  namespace  import  command  only imports commands from a namespace
       that that namespace exported with a namespace export command.

       Importing every command from a namespace is generally a bad idea  since
       you  do  not  know  what you will get.  It is better to import just the
       specific commands you need.  For example, the command

              namespace import Blt::graph Blt::table

       imports only the graph and table commands into the current context.

       If you try to import a command that already exists, you will get an er-
       ror.   This  prevents you from importing the same command from two dif-
       ferent packages.  But from time to time (perhaps when  debugging),  you
       may  want  to get around this restriction.  You may want to reissue the
       namespace import command to pick up new commands that have appeared  in
       a namespace.  In that case, you can use the -force option, and existing
       commands will be silently overwritten:

              namespace import -force Blt::graph Blt::table

       If for some reason, you want to stop using the imported  commands,  you
       can remove them with a namespace forget command, like this:

              namespace forget Blt::*

       This searches the current namespace for any commands imported from Blt.
       If it finds any, it removes them.  Otherwise, it does  nothing.   After
       this, the Blt commands must be accessed with the Blt:: prefix.

       When you delete a command from the exporting namespace like this:

              rename Blt::graph ""

       the  command  is  automatically removed from all namespaces that import
       it.

EXPORTING COMMANDS
       You can export commands from a namespace like this:

              namespace eval Counter {
                  namespace export bump reset
                  variable Num 0
                  variable Max 100

                  proc bump {{by 1}} {
                      variable Num
                      incr Num $by
                      Check
                      return $Num
                  }
                  proc reset {} {
                      variable Num
                      set Num 0
                  }
                  proc Check {} {
                      variable Num
                      variable Max
                      if {$Num > $Max} {
                          error "too high!"
                      }
                  }
              }

       The procedures bump and reset are exported, so they are  included  when
       you import from the Counter namespace, like this:

              namespace import Counter::*

       However,  the  Check procedure is not exported, so it is ignored by the
       import operation.

       The namespace import command only imports commands that  were  declared
       as exported by their namespace.  The namespace export command specifies
       what commands may be imported by other namespaces.  If a namespace  im-
       port  command  specifies a command that is not exported, the command is
       not imported.

SCOPED SCRIPTS
       The namespace code command is the means by which a script may be  pack-
       aged  for  evaluation in a namespace other than the one in which it was
       created.  It is used most often to create event handlers, Tk  bindings,
       and  traces  for  evaluation  in the global context.  For instance, the
       following code indicates how to direct a variable trace  callback  into
       the current namespace:

              namespace eval a {
                  variable b
                  proc theTraceCallback { n1 n2 op } {
                      upvar 1 $n1 var
                      puts "the value of $n1 has changed to $var"
                      return
                  }
                  trace add variable b write [namespace code theTraceCallback]
              }
              set a::b c

       When executed, it prints the message:

              the value of a::b has changed to c

ENSEMBLES
       The  namespace  ensemble is used to create and manipulate ensemble com-
       mands, which are commands formed by grouping subcommands together.  The
       commands  typically  come  from the current namespace when the ensemble
       was created, though this is configurable.  Note that there may  be  any
       number  of  ensembles  associated  with  any namespace (including none,
       which is true of all namespaces by default), though all  the  ensembles
       associated with a namespace are deleted when that namespace is deleted.
       The link between an ensemble command and its  namespace  is  maintained
       however the ensemble is renamed.

       Three subcommands of the namespace ensemble command are defined:

       namespace ensemble create ?option value ...?
              Creates  a new ensemble command linked to the current namespace,
              returning the fully qualified name of the command created.   The
              arguments  to  namespace ensemble create allow the configuration
              of the command as if with the namespace ensemble configure  com-
              mand.   If not overridden with the -command option, this command
              creates an ensemble with exactly the same  name  as  the  linked
              namespace.   See  the  section ENSEMBLE OPTIONS below for a full
              list of options supported and their effects.

       namespace ensemble configure command ?option? ?value ...?
              Retrieves the value of an option associated  with  the  ensemble
              command  named  command, or updates some options associated with
              that ensemble command.  See the section ENSEMBLE  OPTIONS  below
              for a full list of options supported and their effects.

       namespace ensemble exists command
              Returns  a boolean value that describes whether the command com-
              mand exists and is an ensemble command.  This command only  ever
              returns  an  error  if the number of arguments to the command is
              wrong.

       When called, an ensemble command takes its first argument and looks  it
       up (according to the rules described below) to discover a list of words
       to replace the ensemble command and  subcommand  with.   The  resulting
       list  of  words is then evaluated (with no further substitutions) as if
       that was what was typed originally (i.e. by passing the list  of  words
       through  Tcl_EvalObjv)  and  returning the result of the command.  Note
       that it is legal to make the target of an ensemble rewrite  be  another
       (or  even the same) ensemble command.  The ensemble command will not be
       visible through the use of the uplevel or info level commands.

   ENSEMBLE OPTIONS
       The following options, supported by the namespace ensemble  create  and
       namespace  ensemble configure commands, control how an ensemble command
       behaves:

       -map   When non-empty, this option supplies a dictionary that  provides
              a  mapping  from  subcommand  names to a list of prefix words to
              substitute in place of the ensemble command and subcommand words
              (in  a manner similar to an alias created with interp alias; the
              words are not reparsed after substitution); if the first word of
              any  target is not fully qualified when set, it is assumed to be
              relative to the current namespace and changed to be exactly that
              (that is, it is always fully qualified when read). When this op-
              tion is empty, the mapping will be from the local  name  of  the
              subcommand to its fully-qualified name.  Note that when this op-
              tion is non-empty and the -subcommands option is empty, the  en-
              semble  subcommand  names  will be exactly those words that have
              mappings in the dictionary.

       -parameters
              This option gives a list of named  arguments  (the  names  being │
              used during generation of error messages) that are passed by the │
              caller of the ensemble between the name of the ensemble and  the │
              subcommand argument. By default, it is the empty list.

       -prefixes
              This  option  (which is enabled by default) controls whether the
              ensemble command recognizes unambiguous prefixes of its  subcom-
              mands.   When  turned  off,  the ensemble command requires exact
              matching of subcommand names.

       -subcommands
              When non-empty, this option lists exactly what  subcommands  are
              in the ensemble.  The mapping for each of those commands will be
              either whatever is defined in the -map option, or to the command
              with  the same name in the namespace linked to the ensemble.  If
              this option is empty, the subcommands of the namespace will  ei-
              ther  be the keys of the dictionary listed in the -map option or
              the exported commands of the linked namespace at the time of the
              invocation of the ensemble command.

       -unknown
              When non-empty, this option provides a partial command (to which
              all the words that are arguments to the  ensemble  command,  in-
              cluding  the fully-qualified name of the ensemble, are appended)
              to handle the case where an ensemble subcommand  is  not  recog-
              nized  and  would  otherwise generate an error.  When empty (the
              default) an error (in the style of Tcl_GetIndexFromObj) is  gen-
              erated  whenever  the ensemble is unable to determine how to im-
              plement a particular subcommand.  See UNKNOWN HANDLER  BEHAVIOUR
              for more details.

       The following extra option is allowed by namespace ensemble create:

       -command
              This  write-only  option allows the name of the ensemble created
              by namespace ensemble create to  be  anything  in  any  existing
              namespace.  The default value for this option is the fully-qual-
              ified name of the namespace in which the namespace ensemble cre-
              ate command is invoked.

       The following extra option is allowed by namespace ensemble configure:

       -namespace
              This  read-only  option allows the retrieval of the fully-quali-
              fied name of  the  namespace  which  the  ensemble  was  created
              within.

   UNKNOWN HANDLER BEHAVIOUR
       If  an  unknown  handler  is specified for an ensemble, that handler is
       called when the ensemble command would otherwise return an error due to
       it  being unable to decide which subcommand to invoke. The exact condi-
       tions under which that occurs are controlled by the -subcommands,  -map
       and -prefixes options as described above.

       To execute the unknown handler, the ensemble mechanism takes the speci-
       fied -unknown option and appends each argument of the attempted  ensem-
       ble  command  invocation  (including  the  ensemble command itself, ex-
       pressed as a fully qualified name). It invokes the resulting command in
       the  scope  of the attempted call. If the execution of the unknown han-
       dler terminates normally, the ensemble engine reparses  the  subcommand
       (as described below) and tries to dispatch it again, which is ideal for
       when the ensemble's configuration has been updated by the unknown  sub-
       command  handler.  Any other kind of termination of the unknown handler
       is treated as an error.

       The result of the unknown handler is expected to be a list  (it  is  an
       error if it is not). If the list is an empty list, the ensemble command
       attempts to look up the original subcommand again and,  if  it  is  not
       found  this  time,  an  error will be generated just as if the -unknown
       handler was not there (i.e. for any particular invocation of an  ensem-
       ble,  its  unknown  handler will be called at most once.) This makes it
       easy for the unknown handler to update  the  ensemble  or  its  backing
       namespace  so as to provide an implementation of the desired subcommand
       and reparse.

       When the result is a non-empty list, the words of that list are used to
       replace  the  ensemble command and subcommand, just as if they had been
       looked up in the -map. It is up to the unknown handler  to  supply  all
       namespace qualifiers if the implementing subcommand is not in the name-
       space of the caller of the ensemble command. Also note that when ensem-
       ble commands are chained (e.g. if you make one of the commands that im-
       plement an ensemble subcommand into an ensemble, in a manner similar to
       the text widget's tag and mark subcommands) then the rewrite happens in
       the context of the caller of the outermost ensemble.  That  is  to  say
       that ensembles do not in themselves place any namespace contexts on the
       Tcl call stack.

       Where an empty -unknown handler is given (the  default),  the  ensemble
       command  will  generate  an error message based on the list of commands
       that the ensemble has defined (formatted similarly to the error message
       from  Tcl_GetIndexFromObj).  This is the error that will be thrown when
       the subcommand is still not recognized during reparsing. It is also  an
       error for an -unknown handler to delete its namespace.

EXAMPLES
       Create a namespace containing a variable and an exported command:

              namespace eval foo {
                  variable bar 0
                  proc grill {} {
                      variable bar
                      puts "called [incr bar] times"
                  }
                  namespace export grill
              }

       Call the command defined in the previous example in various ways.

              # Direct call
              ::foo::grill

              # Use the command resolution path to find the name
              namespace eval boo {
                  namespace path ::foo
                  grill
              }

              # Import into current namespace, then call local alias
              namespace import foo::grill
              grill

              # Create two ensembles, one with the default name and one with a
              # specified name.  Then call through the ensembles.
              namespace eval foo {
                  namespace ensemble create
                  namespace ensemble create -command ::foobar
              }
              foo grill
              foobar grill

       Look up where the command imported in the previous example came from:

              puts "grill came from [namespace origin grill]"

       Remove all imported commands from the current namespace:

              namespace forget {*}[namespace import]

       Create  an ensemble for simple working with numbers, using the -parame-ters option to allow the operator to be put between the first and  sec- │
       ond arguments.                                                          │

              namespace eval do {                                              │
                  namespace export *                                           │
                  namespace ensemble create -parameters x                      │
                  proc plus  {x y} {expr { $x + $y }}                          │
                  proc minus {x y} {expr { $x - $y }}                          │
              }                                                                │

              # In use, the ensemble works like this:                          │
              puts [do 1 plus [do 9 minus 7]]                                  │

SEE ALSO
       interp(3tcl), upvar(3tcl), variable(3tcl)

KEYWORDS
       command, ensemble, exported, internal, variable

Tcl                                   8.5                      namespace(3tcl)

Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Thu Jan 23 00:14:37 CET 2025.