man watch (1): call Tcl procedures before and after each command

SYNOPSIS

watch create watchName ?options?

watch activate watchName

watch deactivate watchName

watch delete watchName

watch configure watchName ?options

watch info watchName

watch names

DESCRIPTION

The watch command arranges for Tcl procedures to be invoked before and after the execution of each Tcl command.

INTRODUCTION

When an error occurs in Tcl, the global variable errorInfo will contain a stack-trace of the active procedures when the error occured. Sometimes, however, the stack trace is insufficient. You may need to know exactly where in the program's execution the error occured. In cases like this, a more general tracing facility would be useful.

The watch command lets you designate Tcl procedures to be invoked before and after the execution of each Tcl command. This means you can display the command line and its results for each command as it executes. Another use is to profile your Tcl commands. You can profile any Tcl command (like if and set), not just Tcl procedures.

EXAMPLE

The following example use watch to trace Tcl commands (printing to standard error) both before and after they are executed.



proc preCmd { level command argv } {
    set name [lindex $argv 0]
    puts stderr "$level $name => $command"
}
proc postCmd { level command argv retcode results } {
    set name [lindex $argv 0]
    puts stderr "$level $name => $argv= ($retcode) $results"
}
watch create trace \
   -postcmd postCmd -precmd preCmd

OPERATIONS

The following operations are available for the watch command:

watch activate watchName

Activates the watch, causing Tcl commands the be traced to the maximum depth selected.

watch create watchName ?options?...

Creates a new watch watchName. It's an error if another watch watchName already exists and an error message will be returned. Options may have any of the values accepted by the watch configure command. This command returns the empty string.

watch configure watchName ?options...?

Queries or modifies the configuration options of the watch watchName. WatchName is the name of a watch. Options may have any of the following values:

-active boolean: Specifies if the watch is active. By default, watches are active when created.
-postcmd string: Specifies a Tcl procedure to be called immediately after each Tcl command. String is name of a Tcl procedure and any extra arguments to be passed to it. Before string is invoked, five more arguments are appended: 1) the current level 2) the current command line 3) a list containing the command after substitutions and split into words 4) the return code of the command, and 5) the results of the command. The return status of the postcmd procedure is always ignored.
-precmd string: Specifies a Tcl procedure to be called immediately before each Tcl command. String is name of a Tcl procedure and any extra arguments to be passed to it. Before string is invoked, three arguments are appended: 1) the current level 2) the current command line, and 3) a list containing the command after substitutions and split into words. The return status of the -precmd procedure is always ignored.
-maxlevel number: Specifies the maximum evaluation depth to watch Tcl commands. The default maximum level is 10000.

watch deactivate watchName

Deactivates the watch. The -precmd and -postcmd procedures will no longer be invoked.

watch info watchName

Returns the configuration information associated with the watch watchName. WatchName is the name of a watch.

watch names ?state?

Lists the names of the watches for a given state. State may be one of the following: active, idle, or ignore. If a state argument isn't specified,
all watches are listed.

KEYWORDS

debug, profile