lgets(1tcl)

lgets -- read next Tcl list from file and discard terminating newline

Synopsis

lgets fileId [varName]

Description

Reads the next Tcl list from the file given by fileId and discards the terminating newline character. This command differs from the gets command, in that it reads Tcl lists rather than lines. If the list contains a newline, then that newline will be returned as part of the result. Only a newline not quoted as part of the list indicates the end of the list. There is no corresponding command for outputting lists, as puts will do this correctly.

If varName is specified, then the line is placed in the variable by that name and the return value is a count of the number of characters read (not including the newline).

If the end of the file is reached before reading any characters then -1 is returned and varName is set to an empty string.

If varName is not specified then the return value will be the line (minus the newline character) or an empty string if the end of the file is reached before reading any characters. An empty string will also be returned if a line contains no characters except the newline, so eof may have to be used to determine what really happened.