Purpose: Demo using [XML] style output for ls information.

----

[RS] wrote the basic structure of this, and [LV] did some hacking to extend it.  Feel free to correct or extend this example to make it even more useful.  See [Formatting file information in CSV] for a variation
using the [tcllib] [csv] package.

----

 #! /usr/tcl83/bin/tclsh
 #simple sample, produces well-formed XML
 # Date formatting by ls is somehow tricky, might be done in other ways

 proc puts! s {global file;catch {puts $file $s}}
 proc putserr! s {catch {puts stderr [format "%s: %s" $argv0 $s]}}
 proc putsdebug! s {global debugfile debug;if { $debug } { puts $debugfile $s}}

 proc ls-l-xml { {directory {.}} {pat {*}} } {
  if { ! [file isdirectory $directory] } {
        putserr! [format "Invalid directory: .%s." $directory]
        return
  }
  if { ! [file executable $directory] } {
        putserr! [format "Unable to access directory: .%s." $directory]
        return
  }
  cd $directory
  puts! <files>
  foreach i [split [eval exec /bin/ls -dl [glob $pat]] \n] {
    foreach {priv links uid gid size Mon Day Hr name} $i break
    file lstat $name stat
    set Yr [clock format $stat(mtime) -format %Y]
    switch -regexp -- $priv {
        "^d" { set Type "directory" }
        "^-" { set Type "file" }
        "^l" { set Type "symbolic_link" }
        default { set Type $stat(type) }
    }
    puts! "<file \
          name=\"$name\" \
          size=\"$size\" \
          uid=\"$uid\" \
          gid=\"$gid\" \
          privstring=\"$priv\" \
          privnumeric=\"[format %o $stat(mode)]\" \
          links=\"$links\" \
          month=\"$Mon\" \
          day=\"$Day\" \
          year=\"$Yr\" \
          type=\"$Type\" \
          atime=\"$stat(atime)\" \
          mtime=\"$stat(mtime)\" \
          ctime=\"$stat(ctime)\" \
          inode=\"$stat(ino)\" \
          device=\"$stat(dev)\" \
          >"
  }
  puts! </files>
 }

  set flag {}
  set help 0
  set directory {.}
  set filter {*}
  set file stdout
  set debugfile stderr
  set filename {}
  set debug 0

  # If this script was executed, and not just "source"'d, handle argv
  if { [string compare [info script] $argv0] == 0} {
       while {[llength $argv] > 0 } {
          set flag [lindex $argv 0]
         putsdebug! [format "flag = %s" $flag]
          switch -- $flag {
           "-help" {
                  putserr! "[format "USAGE: ?-directory dirName? ?-filter globPat? ?-file fileName?"]"
                   exit 1
                   }
           "-debug" {
                   set debug 1
                   set argv [lrange $argv 1 end]
                     }
           "-directory" {
                   set directory [lindex $argv 1]
                  putsdebug! [format "directory is %s" $directory]
                   set argv [lrange $argv 2 end]
                     }
           "-filter" {
                   set filter [lindex $argv 1]
                  putsdebug! [format "filter is %s" $filter]
                   set argv [lrange $argv 2 end]
                     }

          "-file" {
                   set filename [lindex $argv 1]
                  putsdebug! [format "filename is %s" $filename]
                  if { [file isdirectory $filename] } {
                        putsdebug! "filename is a directory"
                        putserr! [format "file must not be directory: .%s." $filename]
                        exit 2
                  }
                  if { [file exists $filename] && ! [file writable $filename] } {
                        putsdebug! "filename is not writable"
                        putserr! [format "file must be writable: .%s." $filename]
                        exit 3
                  }
                   set file [open $filename "w"]
                  putsdebug! "filename is open"
                   set argv [lrange $argv 2 end]
                  }

          "-debugfile" {
                   set debugfilename [lindex $argv 1]
                  putsdebug! [format "debugfilename is %s" $debugfilename]
                  if { [file isdirectory $debugfilename] } {
                        putsdebug! "debugfilename is a directory"
                        putserr! [format "file must not be directory: .%s." $debugfilename]
                        exit 4
                  }
                  if { [file exists $debugfilename] && ! [file writable $debugfilename] } {
                        putsdebug! "debugfilename is not writable"
                        putserr! [format "file must be writable: .%s." $debugfilename]
                        exit 5
                  }
                   set debugfile [open $debugfilename "w"]
                  putsdebug! "debugfilename is open"
                   set argv [lrange $argv 2 end]
                }
            default { break }
        }
       }
   }


  if { [llength $argv] != 0 } {
        putserr! "[format "WARNING! Extraneous arguments ignored; .%s." $argv]"
  }

 ls-l-xml $directory $filter

 exit 0