'\"
'\" 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_shell.n,v 1.6 2008/03/26 09:59:22 dkf Exp $
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH "platform::shell" n 1.1.3 platform::shell "Tcl Bundled Packages"
.BS
'\" Note:  do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
.SH NAME
platform::shell \- System identification support code and utilities
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fBpackage require platform::shell ?1.1.3?\fR
.sp
\fBplatform::shell::generic \fIshell\fR
\fBplatform::shell::identify \fIshell\fR
\fBplatform::shell::platform \fIshell\fR
.fi
.BE
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The \fBplatform::shell\fR package provides several utility commands useful
for the identification of the architecture of a specific Tcl shell.
.PP
This package allows the identification of the architecture of a
specific Tcl shell different from the shell running the package. The
only requirement is that the other shell (identified by its path), is
actually executable on the current machine.
.PP
While for most platform this means that the architecture of the
interrogated shell is identical to the architecture of the running
shell this is not generally true. A counter example are all platforms
which have 32 and 64 bit variants and where a 64bit system is able to
run 32bit code. For these running and interrogated shell may have
different 32/64 bit settings and thus different identifiers.
.PP
For applications like a code repository it is important to identify
the architecture of the shell which will actually run the installed
packages, versus the architecture of the shell running the repository
software.
.SH COMMANDS
.TP
\fBplatform::shell::identify \fIshell\fR
This command does the same identification as \fBplatform::identify\fR,
for the specified Tcl shell, in contrast to the running shell.
.TP
\fBplatform::shell::generic \fIshell\fR
This command does the same identification as \fBplatform::generic\fR,
for the specified Tcl shell, in contrast to the running shell.
.TP
\fBplatform::shell::platform \fIshell\fR
This command returns the contents of \fBtcl_platform(platform)\fR for
the specified Tcl shell.
.SH KEYWORDS
operating system, cpu architecture, platform, architecture
