The [Tclx] package documents '''commandloop''' as: : '''commandloop''' ''options'' Create an interactive command loop reading commands from [stdin] and writing results to [stdout]. Command loops are maybe either be blocking or event oriented. This command is useful for Tcl scripts that do not normally converse interactively with a user through a Tcl command interpreter, but which sometimes want to enter this mode, perhaps for debugging or user configuration. The command loop terminates on EOF. The following options are available: '''-async''': A command handler will be associated with [stdin]. When input is available on [stdin], it will be read and accumulated until a full command is available. That command will then be evaluated. An event loop must be entered for input to be read and processed. '''-interactive''' '''on'''|'''off'''|'''tty''': Enable or disable interactive command mode. In interactive mode, commands are prompted for and the results of comments are printed. The value maybe any boolean value or '''tty'''. If '''tty''' is used, interactive mode is enabled if stdin is associated with a terminal or terminal emulator. The default is '''tty'''. '''-prompt1''' ''cmd'': If specified, ''cmd'' is used is evaluate and its result used for the main command prompt. If not specified, the command in [tcl_prompt1] is evaluated to output the prompt. Note the difference in behavior, ''cmd'' results is used, while [tcl_prompt1] outputs. This is to allow for future expansion to command loops that write to other than [stdout]. '''-prompt2''' ''cmd'': If specified, ''cmd'' is used is evaluate and its result used for the secondary (continuation) command prompt. If not specified, the command in [tcl_prompt2] is evaluated to output the prompt. '''-endcommand''' ''cmd'': If specified, ''cmd'' is evaluated when the command loop terminates. In interactive mode, the results of set commands with two arguments are not printed. If SIGINT is configured to generate a Tcl error (with [signal]), it can be used to delete the current command being type without aborting the program in progress. ---- [KBK] 2004-05-18 - Something very similar can be done in pure Tcl; the signal handling and 'isatty' checking is Unix and hence unportable, but the following code works for many purposes: namespace eval ::mainloop { variable partialCommand {} } proc ::mainloop::prompt {} { variable partialCommand if { [info complete $partialCommand] } { set status [catch { uplevel \#0 $partialCommand } result] if { $result ne {} } { if { $status != 0 } { puts stderr $result } else { puts stdout $result } } set partialCommand {} if { [info exists ::tcl_prompt1] } { catch { uplevel \#0 $::tcl_prompt1 } prompt } else { set prompt "% " } } else { append partialCommand \n if { [info exists ::tcl_prompt2] } { catch { uplevel \#0 $::tcl_prompt2 } prompt } else { set prompt "> " } } puts -nonewline stderr $prompt return } proc ::mainloop::readable {} { variable partialCommand variable eof if { [gets stdin text] < 0 } { fileevent stdin readable {} set eof 1 } else { append partialCommand $text prompt } return } proc ::mainloop::mainloop {} { variable eof set ::tcl_interactive 1 info script "" fconfigure stdin -buffering line -blocking 0 fileevent stdin readable ::mainloop::readable ::mainloop::prompt vwait [namespace which -variable eof] return } ::mainloop::mainloop ---- [JH] wrote the following code that you tack on to the end of a script to get the near equivalence of the tclsh prompt. For those who really want an interactive loop and are doing UI apps, look into the [console] megawidget or [tkcon], both of which can be embedded into apps and provide many more features and polish. if {!$tcl_interactive} { set long_command "" set verbose_history 0 if {![catch {rename unknown tcl_unknown}]} { proc unknown {cmdname args} { if {[regexp "^!..*" $cmdname]} { banghist [string range $cmdname 1 end] } else { tcl_unknown $cmdname $args } } } proc banghist {val} { global verbose_history if {![string compare $val "!"]} {set val ""} if {$verbose_history} {puts "[history event $val]"} history redo $val } if {![info exists tcl_prompt1]} { set tcl_prompt1 {puts -nonewline "tclsh ([history nextid]) % "} } proc read_stdin {} { global eventLoop tcl_prompt1 long_command set l [gets stdin] if {[eof stdin]} { set eventLoop "done" ;# terminate the vwait eventloop } else { if {[string compare $l {}]} { append long_command "\n$l" set l $long_command if {[info complete $l]} { if {[catch {uplevel \#0 history add [list $l] exec} err]} { puts stderr $err } elseif {[string compare $err {}]} { puts $err } set long_command "" catch $tcl_prompt1 } else { puts -nonewline "> " } } elseif {![string compare $long_command {}]} { catch $tcl_prompt1 } else { puts -nonewline "> " } flush stdout } } # set up our keyboard read event handler: # Vector stdin data to the socket fileevent stdin readable read_stdin catch $tcl_prompt1 flush stdout # wait for and handle or stdin events... vwait eventLoop } ---- [MH] It would be great to see an example of command line completion here. Is this possible with commandloop ? ---- [RS] provides a minimal version here [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/msg/d7603f0403592348]: while 1 { puts -nonewline "% "; flush stdout ;#-- prompt - can be more elaborated gets stdin line catch $line res puts $res } Other noteworthy functional alternatives include a cute hack of [the rc file] by [Stephan Kuhagen] [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/msg/e3f2bbbfec3d6b42] and Ivan Young's [stdin]-based approach [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/msg/040b658be7e4695d] ---- [stk] If you don't mind, I add my tclshrc-hack, mentioned above, here. My first contribution here, so I hope, I do not mess things up... Put the following script into your ~/.tclshrc: if {[info exists env(TCL_INIT_FILE)] && [info exists env(TCL_INIT_ARGS)]} { if {[file exists $env(TCL_INIT_FILE)]} { source "$env(TCL_INIT_FILE)" } catch {tclsh_init_proc "$env(TCL_INIT_ARGS)"} } Now, if you have a Tcl script running, and the environment vars TCL_INIT_FILE and TCL_INIT_ARGS are set, then the Tcl-initialization will source that file, and call a proc named tclsh_init_proc afterwards, which should contain all your initialization stuff. The args to this proc are the args to your script. Your wrapper script mentioned above should then look like this: #!/bin/sh #\ export TCL_INIT_FILE="$0" #\ export TCL_INIT_ARGS="$@" #\ exec tclsh proc tclsh_init_proc {args} { puts "Do your init-stuff here" puts "my args are: $args" set ::example_var "Try to reach this var from the interactive shell" } ---- !!!!!! %| [Category Command] | [Category TclX] |% !!!!!!