| 1 | '\" |
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| 2 | '\" Copyright (c) 2006 ActiveState Software Inc |
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| 3 | '\" |
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| 4 | '\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution |
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| 5 | '\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. |
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| 6 | '\" |
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| 7 | '\" RCS: @(#) $Id: platform.n,v 1.5 2008/03/26 09:59:22 dkf Exp $ |
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| 8 | '\" |
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| 9 | .so man.macros |
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| 10 | .TH "platform" n 1.0.3 platform "Tcl Bundled Packages" |
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| 11 | .BS |
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| 12 | '\" Note: do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below! |
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| 13 | .SH NAME |
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| 14 | platform \- System identification support code and utilities |
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| 15 | .SH SYNOPSIS |
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| 16 | .nf |
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| 17 | \fBpackage require platform ?1.0.3?\fR |
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| 18 | .sp |
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| 19 | \fBplatform::generic\fR |
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| 20 | \fBplatform::identify\fR |
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| 21 | \fBplatform::patterns \fIidentifier\fR |
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| 22 | .fi |
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| 23 | .BE |
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| 24 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
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| 25 | .PP |
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| 26 | The \fBplatform\fR package provides several utility commands useful |
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| 27 | for the identification of the architecture of a machine running Tcl. |
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| 28 | .PP |
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| 29 | Whilst Tcl provides the \fBtcl_platform\fR array for identifying the |
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| 30 | current architecture (in particular, the platform and machine |
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| 31 | elements) this is not always sufficient. This is because (on Unix |
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| 32 | machines) \fBtcl_platform\fR reflects the values returned by the |
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| 33 | \fBuname\fR command and these are not standardized across platforms and |
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| 34 | architectures. In addition, on at least one platform (AIX) the |
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| 35 | \fBtcl_platform(machine)\fR contains the CPU serial number. |
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| 36 | .PP |
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| 37 | Consequently, individual applications need to manipulate the values in |
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| 38 | \fBtcl_platform\fR (along with the output of system specific |
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| 39 | utilities) - which is both inconvenient for developers, and introduces |
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| 40 | the potential for inconsistencies in identifying architectures and in |
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| 41 | naming conventions. |
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| 42 | .PP |
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| 43 | The \fBplatform\fR package prevents such fragmentation - i.e., it |
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| 44 | establishes a standard naming convention for architectures running Tcl |
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| 45 | and makes it more convenient for developers to identify the current |
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| 46 | architecture a Tcl program is running on. |
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| 47 | .SH COMMANDS |
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| 48 | .TP |
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| 49 | \fBplatform::identify\fR |
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| 50 | This command returns an identifier describing the platform the Tcl |
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| 51 | core is running on. The returned identifier has the general format |
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| 52 | \fIOS\fR-\fICPU\fR. The \fIOS\fR part of the identifier may contain |
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| 53 | details like kernel version, libc version, etc., and this information |
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| 54 | may contain dashes as well. The \fICPU\fR part will not contain |
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| 55 | dashes, making the preceding dash the last dash in the result. |
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| 56 | .TP |
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| 57 | \fBplatform::generic\fR |
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| 58 | This command returns a simplified identifier describing the platform |
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| 59 | the Tcl core is running on. In contrast to \fBplatform::identify\fR it |
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| 60 | leaves out details like kernel version, libc version, etc. The |
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| 61 | returned identifier has the general format \fIOS\fR-\fICPU\fR. |
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| 62 | .TP |
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| 63 | \fBplatform::patterns \fIidentifier\fR |
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| 64 | This command takes an identifier as returned by |
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| 65 | \fBplatform::identify\fR and returns a list of identifiers describing |
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| 66 | compatible architectures. |
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| 67 | .SH KEYWORDS |
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| 68 | operating system, cpu architecture, platform, architecture |
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