This is not necessarily the current version of this TIP.This is not necessarily the current version of this TIP.
| TIP: | 99 |
| Title: | Add 'file link' to Tcl |
| Version: | $Revision: 1.6 $ |
| Author: | Vince Darley <vincentdarley at users dot sourceforge dot net> |
| State: | Draft |
| Type: | Project |
| Tcl-Version: | 8.4 |
| Vote: | Pending |
| Created: | Tuesday, 11 June 2002 |
Tcl can read links, but cannot create them. This TIP proposes adding a file link subcommand to allow cross-platform creation of links.
Add a new subcommand with the following syntax:
file link ?-type linktype? ?--? source ?target?
If target is not given, then returns the value of the link given by source (i.e. the name of the file it points to). If source isn't a symbolic link or its value cannot be read, then an error is returned. If target is given then creates a link from source to target.
The type of link created is platform specific, but is by default a symbolic or soft link where this is supported. Where the user wishes to specify the type of the link explicitly, the option '-type linktype' can be given. Accepted values for linktype will be "soft" and "hard". On filesystems that either do not support any links, or do not support the specific type requested, an error message will be returned (in particular Windows 95, 98 and ME do not support any symbolic links at present, but Unix, MacOS and Windows NT/2000/XP (on NTFS drives) do).
The TIP proposes implementing:
Unix,MacOSX Win-NTFS MacOS
soft: yes directories-only yes
hard: yes files-only no
There are many requests on comp.lang.tcl for this functionality (see http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&threadm=4dd3bea3.0206100250.95eeb4e%40posting.google.com&rnum=1&prev=/&frame=on for a recent thread), and if Tcl can read links (file readlink, file lstat), it really ought to be able to write them.
Discussion has shown that both soft and hard links are desirable.
There is no cross-platform alternative available. TclX provides a link command for Unix only, and Unix platforms can also use exec ln ?-s? command to achieve the same effect.
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=562970&group_id=10894&atid=310894
This reference implementation needs to be updated with the '-type linktype' option.
This document has been placed in the public domain.
This is not necessarily the current version of this TIP.