1<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Built-In Commands - source manual page</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
2<H3><A NAME="M2">NAME</A></H3>
3source - Evaluate a file or resource as a Tcl script
4<H3><A NAME="M3">SYNOPSIS</A></H3>
5<B>source </B><I>fileName</I><BR>
6<B>source</B> <B>-rsrc </B><I>resourceName </I>?<I>fileName</I>?<BR>
7<B>source</B> <B>-rsrcid </B><I>resourceId </I>?<I>fileName</I>?<BR>
8<H3><A NAME="M4">DESCRIPTION</A></H3>
9This command takes the contents of the specified file or resource
10and passes it to the Tcl interpreter as a text script.  The return
11value from <B>source</B> is the return value of the last command
12executed in the script.  If an error occurs in evaluating the contents
13of the script then the <B>source</B> command will return that error.
14If a <B><A HREF="../TclCmd/return.htm">return</A></B> command is invoked from within the script then the
15remainder of the file will be skipped and the <B>source</B> command
16will return normally with the result from the <B><A HREF="../TclCmd/return.htm">return</A></B> command.
17<P>
18The end-of-file character for files is '&#92;32' (^Z) for all platforms.
19The source command will read files up to this character.  This
20restriction does not exist for the <B><A HREF="../TclCmd/read.htm">read</A></B> or <B><A HREF="../TclCmd/gets.htm">gets</A></B> commands,
21allowing for files containing code and data segments (scripted documents).
22If you require a ``^Z'' in code for string comparison, you can use
23``&#92;032'' or ``&#92;u001a'', which will be safely substituted by the Tcl
24interpreter into ``^Z''.
25<H3><A NAME="M5">EXAMPLE</A></H3>
26Run the script in the file <B>foo.tcl</B> and then the script in the
27file <B>bar.tcl</B>:
28<PRE><B>source</B> foo.tcl
29<B>source</B> bar.tcl</PRE>
30Alternatively:
31<PRE>foreach scriptFile {foo.tcl bar.tcl} {
32   <B>source</B> $scriptFile
33}</PRE>
34<H3><A NAME="M6">SEE ALSO</A></H3>
35<B><A HREF="../TclCmd/file.htm">file</A></B>, <B><A HREF="../TclCmd/cd.htm">cd</A></B>, <B><A HREF="../TclCmd/info.htm">info</A></B>
36<H3><A NAME="M7">KEYWORDS</A></H3>
37<A href="../Keywords/F.htm#file">file</A>, <A href="../Keywords/S.htm#script">script</A>
38<HR><PRE>
39<A HREF="../copyright.htm">Copyright</A> &#169; 1993 The Regents of the University of California.
40<A HREF="../copyright.htm">Copyright</A> &#169; 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
41<A HREF="../copyright.htm">Copyright</A> &#169; 2000 Scriptics Corporation.
42<A HREF="../copyright.htm">Copyright</A> &#169; 1995-1997 Roger E. Critchlow Jr.</PRE>
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