'\" '\" 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. '\" '\" RCS: @(#) $Id: platform.n,v 1.5.2.1 2009/04/08 19:11:44 andreas_kupries Exp $ '\" .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