** Summary ** 

How to use and manage Tcl packages.

** See Also **

[Tcl User Guide%|%User Guide%|%]

[Tcl Package Developer Guide%|%Package Developer Guide%|%]

** Finding the Location of a Package **

[Don Porter] offers

======
namespace eval ::myIcons {
    # ...
    variable home [file join [pwd] [file dirname [info script]]]
    # ...
}

# ...

proc ::myIcons::getPath {} {
    variable home
    return $home
}
======

[DGP]: Hmmmm... since someone bothered to record that advice for Wiki
posterity, I should add that this is nothing more than an updated version of
the advice found in library(n) and tclvars(n) that each package should define a
global variable ''${package}_library'' analogous to ''tcl_library'' and
''tk_library'' storing the directory in which that package is installed.

That original advice came before [namespace], back in the bad old days when the
only persistent variables that could be defined were global variables.
(````Persistent'' in the sense that they live longer than the execution of one
[proc].)  Nowadays, we clearly shouldn't be defining global variables when a
namespace variable will do.

Also, I've moved away from a variable named ''library'' because I find that
word is used to just mean way too many different things.  It's just too
confusing.

** Description **

In the most elementary case, using a package is a matter of directly employing
the [load] or [source] command to make the code in some file available to Tcl.
This can be seen in the following examples:

[extension example]

Typically, however, packages are distributed such that they can be loaded via the [package] command.

[Just getting a package found already]:   

[Where does the package command find the packages it seeks?]:   

[How to unload a package]:   

[Package tips and tricks]:   

<<categories>>