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diff --git a/doc/platform.n b/doc/platform.n new file mode 100644 index 0000000..053448d --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/platform.n @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +'\" +'\" Copyright (c) 2006 ActiveState Software Inc +'\" +'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution +'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. +'\" +.so man.macros +.TH "platform" n 1.0.4 platform "Tcl Bundled Packages" +.BS +'\" Note: do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below! +.SH NAME +platform \- System identification support code and utilities +.SH SYNOPSIS +.nf +\fBpackage require platform ?1.0.4?\fR +.sp +\fBplatform::generic\fR +\fBplatform::identify\fR +\fBplatform::patterns \fIidentifier\fR +.fi +.BE +.SH DESCRIPTION +.PP +The \fBplatform\fR package provides several utility commands useful +for the identification of the architecture of a machine running Tcl. +.PP +Whilst Tcl provides the \fBtcl_platform\fR array for identifying the +current architecture (in particular, the platform and machine +elements) this is not always sufficient. This is because (on Unix +machines) \fBtcl_platform\fR reflects the values returned by the +\fBuname\fR command and these are not standardized across platforms and +architectures. In addition, on at least one platform (AIX) the +\fBtcl_platform(machine)\fR contains the CPU serial number. +.PP +Consequently, individual applications need to manipulate the values in +\fBtcl_platform\fR (along with the output of system specific +utilities) - which is both inconvenient for developers, and introduces +the potential for inconsistencies in identifying architectures and in +naming conventions. +.PP +The \fBplatform\fR package prevents such fragmentation - i.e., it +establishes a standard naming convention for architectures running Tcl +and makes it more convenient for developers to identify the current +architecture a Tcl program is running on. +.SH COMMANDS +.TP +\fBplatform::identify\fR +This command returns an identifier describing the platform the Tcl +core is running on. The returned identifier has the general format +\fIOS\fR-\fICPU\fR. The \fIOS\fR part of the identifier may contain +details like kernel version, libc version, etc., and this information +may contain dashes as well. The \fICPU\fR part will not contain +dashes, making the preceding dash the last dash in the result. +.TP +\fBplatform::generic\fR +This command returns a simplified identifier describing the platform +the Tcl core is running on. In contrast to \fBplatform::identify\fR it +leaves out details like kernel version, libc version, etc. The +returned identifier has the general format \fIOS\fR-\fICPU\fR. +.TP +\fBplatform::patterns \fIidentifier\fR +This command takes an identifier as returned by +\fBplatform::identify\fR and returns a list of identifiers describing +compatible architectures. +.SH KEYWORDS +operating system, cpu architecture, platform, architecture |