Version 7 of auto

auto_path is one of the magic names that Tcl knows.

Tcl's init.tcl start up code sets auto_path as a global within an interpreter instance. As the distribution init.tcl for 8.3 says right at the top,

    # The values on the path come from several locations:
    #
    # The environment variable TCLLIBPATH
    #
    # tcl_library, which is the directory containing this init.tcl script.
    # tclInitScript.h searches around for the directory containing this
    # init.tcl and defines tcl_library to that location before sourcing it.
    #
    # The parent directory of tcl_library. Adding the parent
    # means that packages in peer directories will be found automatically.
    #
    # Also add the directory where the executable is located, plus ../lib
    # relative to that path.
    #
    # tcl_pkgPath, which is set by the platform-specific initialization routines
    #       On UNIX it is compiled in
    #       On Windows, it is not used
    #       On Macintosh it is "Tool Command Language" in the Extensions folder

Two points to emphasize from the above:

Notice the rather baroque mixture of platform-dependence, generation-time, and run-time assignments.
As is customary in idiomatic Tcl, "the directory where the executable is located" refers to tclsh (and so on), rather than, for example, my_script.tcl.

Question: is there a Wiki page that discusses how the whole Tcl start up, locate extension, load extension thing works? One of the toughest problems I encounter with Tcl is figuring out how to fix problems when an extension I think should load, doesn't load.

For instance, Tix is a Tk based extension. When one installs it, it places the .so in $exec_prefix/lib and its scripting in $exec_prefix/lib/tix8.2/ (or whatever version is being installed).

When this is a normal file system, and one does the

 package require Tk
 package require Tix

the extension is found, loaded, and things work. When the same directory structure is used within a starkit, an error about not finding the Tix script code is generated.

Understanding the process better - and perhaps some debugging tools - would make fixing things like this easier.

Category Internals

Version 7 of auto_path