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bgexec(n)		     BLT Built-In Commands		     bgexec(n)

______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       bgexec - Run programs in the background while handling Tk events.

SYNOPSIS
       blt::bgexec varName ?option value?... program ?arg?...
_________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION
       The  bgexec command executes programs in the background, allowing Tk to
       handle events.  A global Tcl variable varName is set when  the  program
       has completed.

INTRODUCTION
       Tcl's  exec  command  is very useful for gathering information from the
       operating system.  It runs a program and	 returns  the  output  as  its
       result.	This works well for Tcl-only applications. But for Tk applica‐
       tions, a problem occurs when the program takes time to process.	 Let's
       say  we want the get the disk usage of a directory.  We'll use the Unix
       program du to get the summary.

	      set out [exec du -s $dir]
	      puts "Disk usage for $dir is $out"

       While du is running, scrollbars won't respond.  None of the Tk  widgets
       will  be redrawn properly.  The send command won't work.	 And the worst
       part is that the application appears hung up or dead.  The  problem  is
       that while exec is waiting for du to finish, Tk is not able to handle X
       events.

       The bgexec command performs the same functions as exec, but also allows
       Tk to handle events.  You can execute a long-running program and the Tk
       widgets will behave normally.  When the program	finishes,  its	output
       and  the	 exit status are written to Tcl variables.  This makes it easy
       to monitor and save the output of a program.

EXAMPLE
       Here is the disk usage example again, this time using bgexec.  The syn‐
       tax to invoke "du" is exactly the same as the previous example, when we
       used exec.

	      global myStatus myOutput
	      blt::bgexec myStatus -output myOutput du -s $dir
	      puts "Disk usage for $dir is $myOutput"

       Two global variables, myStatus and myOutput, will be set by bgexec when
       du  has	completed.  MyStatus  will  contain the program's exit status.
       MyOutput, specified by the -output option, will store the output of the
       program.

       You  can	 also  terminate the program by setting the variable myStatus.
       If myStatus is set before du has	 completed,  the  process  is  killed.
       Under  Unix,  this is done sending by a configurable signal (by default
       it's SIGKILL). Under Win32, this is done by  calling  TerminateProcess.
       It makes no difference what myStatus is set to.

	      set myStatus {}

       There are several bgexec options to collect different types of informa‐
       tion.

	      global myStatus myOutput myErrs
	      blt::bgexec myStatus -output myOutput -error myErrs du -s $dir

       The -error option is similar to -output.	 It  sets  a  global  variable
       when the program completes.  The variable will contain any data written
       to stderr by the program.

       The -output and -error variables are set only after  the	 program  com‐
       pletes.	 But  if the program takes a long time, to run you may want to
       receive its partial output.  You can gather data as it  becomes	avail‐
       able  using  the	 -onoutput option.  It specifies a Tcl command prefix.
       Whenever new data is available, this command is executed, with the data
       appended as an argument to the command.

	      proc GetInfo { data } {
		  puts $data
	      }
	      blt::bgexec myStatus -onoutput GetInfo du -s $dir

       When  output  is	 available,  the  procedure  GetInfo  is  called.  The
       -onerror option performs a similar function for the stderr data stream.

       Like exec, bgexec returns an error if the exit code of the  program  is
       not  zero.   If	you  think you may get a non-zero exit code, you might
       want to invoke bgexec from within a catch.

	      catch { blt::bgexec myStatus -output myOutput du -s $dir }

       By default, bgexec will wait for the program to finish.	 But  you  can
       detach  the  program making ampersand (&) the last argument on the com‐
       mand line.

	      global myStatus myOutput
	      blt::bgexec myStatus -output myOutput du -s $dir &

       Bgexec will return immediately and its result will be  a	 list  of  the
       spawned process ids.  If at some point you need to wait for the program
       to finish up, you can use tkwait.  When the program finishes, the vari‐
       able myStatus will be written to, breaking out the tkwait command.

	      global myStatus myOutput
	      blt::bgexec myStatus -output myOutput du -s $dir &
		...
	      tkwait variable myStatus

SYNTAX
       The bgexec command takes the following form:

	 blt::bgexec varName ?option value?... program ?arg?...

       VarName	is the name of a global variable which is set when program has
       finished executing.  The exit status of will be stored in varName.  The
       exit status is a list of a status token, the process-id of the program,
       the exit code, and a status message.  You can also  prematurely	termi‐
       nate  the  program by setting varName.  Under Unix, the program will be
       sent a signal to terminate it (by default the signal is a SIGKILL;  see
       the -killsignal option).

       Program	is  the	 name  of  the program to be executed and args are any
       extra arguments for program.  The syntax of program  and	 args  is  the
       same  as	 the exec command. So you can redirect I/O, execute pipelines,
       etc. (see the exec manual for further information) just like exec.   If
       the  last  argument  is	an  ampersand  (&),  the  program  will be run
       detached, and bgexec will return immediately.  VarName  will  still  be
       set with the return status when program completes.

OPTIONS
       Option  refers  to  the	switch	name always beginning with a dash (-).
       Value is the value of the option.  Option-value	pairs  are  terminated
       either  by  the	program	 name,	or  double dashes (--).	 The following
       options are available for bgexec:

       -decodeerror encodingName
	      Specifies the encoding of the stderr channel.  This affects only
	      data returned to the Tcl interpreter.  No translation is done on
	      file redirection.
	      For example if data is to be converted from Unicode for  use  in
	      Tcl,  you	 would use the "unicode" encoding. The default is that
	      no tranlation is performed.

       -decodeoutput encodingName
	      Specifies the encoding of the  stdout  channels.	 This  affects
	      only  data  returned  to the Tcl interpreter.  No translation is
	      done on file redirection.
	      For example if data is to be converted from Unicode for  use  in
	      Tcl,  you	 would use the "unicode" encoding. The default is that
	      no tranlation is performed.

       -error varName
	      Specifies that a global variable varName is to be set  with  the
	      contents of stderr after the program has completed.

       -keepnewline boolean
	      Specifies that a trailing newline should be retained in the out‐
	      put. If boolean is true, the trailing newline is truncated  from
	      the  output of the -onoutput and -output variables.  The default
	      value is true.

       -killsignal signal
	      Specifies the signal to be sent to the program when terminating.
	      This  is available only under Unix.  Signal can either be a num‐
	      ber (typically 1-32) or a mnemonic (such as SIGINT).  If	signal
	      is the empty string, then no signal is sent.  The default signal
	      is 9 (SIGKILL).

       -lasterror varName
	      Specifies a variable  varName  that  is  updated	whenever  data
	      becomes  available  from standard error of the program.  VarName
	      is a global variable. Unlike the -error option, data  is	avail‐
	      able as soon as it arrives.

       -lastoutput varName
	      Specifies	 a  variable  varName  that  is	 updated whenever data
	      becomes available from standard output of the program.   VarName
	      is  a global variable. Unlike the -output option, data is avail‐
	      able as soon as it arrives.

       -linebuffered boolean
	      Specifies that updates should be made on a  line-by-line	basis.
	      Normally when new data is available bgexec will set the variable
	      (-lastoutput and	-lasterror  options)  or  invoke  the  command
	      (-onoutput  and  -onerror	 options)  delivering all the new data
	      currently available.  If boolean is true, only  one  line	 at  a
	      time  will  be  delivered.   This can be useful when you want to
	      process the output on a line-by-line basis.  The	default	 value
	      is false.

       -output varName
	      Specifies	 that  a global variable varName is to be set with the
	      output of the program, once it has completed.  If this option is
	      not set, no output will be accumulated.

       -onerror command
	      Specifies the start of a Tcl command that will be executed when‐
	      ever new data is available from  standard	 error.	 The  data  is
	      appended	to  the command as an extra argument before it is exe‐
	      cuted.

       -onoutput command
	      Specifies the start of a Tcl command that will be executed when‐
	      ever  new	 data  is  available from standard output. The data is
	      appended to the command as an extra argument before it  is  exe‐
	      cuted.

       -update varName
	      Deprecated. This option is replaced by -lasterror.

       --     This  marks the end of the options.  The following argument will
	      be considered the name of a program even if  it  starts  with  a
	      dash (-).

PREEMPTION
       Because	bgexec	allows Tk to handle events while a program is running,
       it's possible for an application to preempt itself with	further	 user-
       interactions.   Let's  say  your application has a button that runs the
       disk usage example.  And while the du  program  is  running,  the  user
       accidently presses the button again.  A second bgexec program will pre‐
       empt the first.	What this means is that the first program can not fin‐
       ish until the second program has completed.

       Care  must be taken to prevent an application from preempting itself by
       blocking further user-interactions (such as button  clicks).   The  BLT
       busy  command  is  very useful for just these situations.  See the busy
       manual for details.

DIFFERENCES WITH FILEEVENT
       Since Tk 4.0, a subset  of  bgexec  can	be  also  achieved  using  the
       fileevent  command.   The steps for running a program in the background
       are:

       Execute the program with the open command (using the  "|"  syntax)  and
       save the file handle.

	      global fileId
	      set fileId [open "|du -s $dir" r]

       Next register a Tcl code snippet with fileevent to be run whenever out‐
       put is available on the file handle.  The code snippet will  read  from
       the file handle and save the output in a variable.

	      fileevent fileId readable {
		  if { [gets $fileId line] < 0 } {
		close $fileId
		set output $temp
		unset fileId temp
		  } else {
		append temp $line
		  }
	      }

       The  biggest advantage of bgexec is that, unlike fileevent, it requires
       no additional Tcl code to run a program.	 It's simpler and  less	 error
       prone.	You  don't have to worry about non-blocking I/O.  It's handled
       tranparently for you.

       Bgexec runs programs that fileevent can not.   Fileevent	 assumes  that
       the  when  stdout  is  closed the program has completed.	 But some pro‐
       grams, like the Unix compress program, reopen stdout, fooling fileevent
       into  thinking  the  program  has terminated.  In the example above, we
       assume that the program will write and flush its	 output	 line-by-line.
       However running another program, your application may block in the gets
       command reading a partial line.

       Bgexec lets you get back the exit status of the program. It also allows
       you  to	collect	 data  from  both  stdout  and	stderr simultaneously.
       Finally, since data collection is handled in C code, bgexec is  faster.
       You get back to the Tk event loop more quickly, making your application
       seem more responsive.

SEE ALSO
       busy, exec, tkwait

KEYWORDS
       exec, background, busy

BLT				      2.4			     bgexec(n)
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