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Tcl_ServiceAll

Notifier(3)                 Tcl Library Procedures                 Notifier(3)



______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       Tcl_CreateEventSource,    Tcl_DeleteEventSource,   Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime,
       Tcl_QueueEvent, Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent, Tcl_ThreadAlert,  Tcl_GetCurrent-
       Thread,   Tcl_DeleteEvents,   Tcl_InitNotifier,   Tcl_FinalizeNotifier,
       Tcl_WaitForEvent,  Tcl_AlertNotifier,   Tcl_SetTimer,   Tcl_ServiceAll,
       Tcl_ServiceEvent,  Tcl_GetServiceMode,  Tcl_SetServiceMode  - the event
       queue and notifier interfaces

SYNOPSIS
       #include <tcl.h>

       void
       Tcl_CreateEventSource(setupProc, checkProc, clientData)

       void
       Tcl_DeleteEventSource(setupProc, checkProc, clientData)

       void
       Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime(timePtr)

       void
       Tcl_QueueEvent(evPtr, position)

       void                                                                    |
       Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent(threadId, evPtr, position)                         |

       void                                                                    |
       Tcl_ThreadAlert(threadId, clientData)                                   |

       Tcl_ThreadId                                                            |
       Tcl_GetCurrentThread()                                                  |

       void                                                                    |
       Tcl_DeleteEvents(deleteProc, clientData)                                |

       ClientData                                                              |
       Tcl_InitNotifier()                                                      |

       void                                                                    |
       Tcl_FinalizeNotifier(clientData)                                        |

       int                                                                     |
       Tcl_WaitForEvent(timePtr)                                               |

       void                                                                    |
       Tcl_AlertNotifier(clientData)                                           |

       void                                                                    |
       Tcl_SetTimer(timePtr)                                                   |

       int                                                                     |
       Tcl_ServiceAll()                                                        |

       int                                                                     |
       Tcl_ServiceEvent(flags)                                                 |

       int                                                                     |
       Tcl_GetServiceMode()                                                    |

       int                                                                     |
       Tcl_SetServiceMode(mode)                                                |


ARGUMENTS
       Tcl_EventSetupProc    *setupProc     (in)      Procedure to  invoke  to
                                                      prepare  for  event wait
                                                      in Tcl_DoOneEvent.

       Tcl_EventCheckProc    *checkProc     (in)      Procedure            for
                                                      Tcl_DoOneEvent to invoke
                                                      after    waiting     for
                                                      events.   Checks  to see
                                                      if   any   events   have
                                                      occurred   and,  if  so,
                                                      queues them.

       ClientData            clientData     (in)      Arbitrary one-word value
                                                      to  pass  to  setupProc,
                                                      checkProc,            or
                                                      deleteProc.

       Tcl_Time              *timePtr       (in)      Indicates   the  maximum
                                                      amount of time  to  wait
                                                      for  an  event.  This is
                                                      specified as an interval
                                                      (how  long to wait), not
                                                      an absolute  time  (when
                                                      to   wakeup).    If  the
                                                      pointer    passed     to
                                                      Tcl_WaitForEvent      is
                                                      NULL, it means there  is
                                                      no  maximum  wait  time:
                                                      wait forever  if  neces-
                                                      sary.

       Tcl_Event             *evPtr         (in)      An  event  to add to the
                                                      event queue.  The  stor-
                                                      age  for  the event must
                                                      have been  allocated  by
                                                      the     caller     using
                                                      Tcl_Alloc or ckalloc.

       Tcl_QueuePosition     position       (in)      Where  to  add  the  new
                                                      event   in   the  queue:
                                                      TCL_QUEUE_TAIL,
                                                      TCL_QUEUE_HEAD,       or
                                                      TCL_QUEUE_MARK.

       Tcl_ThreadId          threadId       (in)      A unique identifier  for
                                                      a thread.

       Tcl_EventDeleteProc   *deleteProc    (in)      Procedure  to invoke for
                                                      each  queued  event   in
                                                      Tcl_DeleteEvents.

       int                   flags          (in)      What  types of events to
                                                      service.   These   flags
                                                      are  the  same  as those
                                                      passed                to
                                                      Tcl_DoOneEvent.          |

       int                   mode           (in)                               ||
                                                      Inidicates       whether |
                                                      events  should  be  ser- |
                                                      viced by Tcl_ServiceAll. |
                                                      Must     be    one    of |
                                                      TCL_SERVICE_NONE      or |
                                                      TCL_SERVICE_ALL.
_________________________________________________________________


INTRODUCTION
       The interfaces described here are used to customize the Tcl event loop.
       The two most common customizations are to add new sources of events and
       to  merge Tcl's event loop with some other event loop, such as one pro-
       vided by an application in which Tcl is embedded.  Each of these  tasks
       is described in a separate section below.

       The  procedures  in  this  manual  entry are the building blocks out of
       which the Tcl event notifier is constructed.  The event notifier is the
       lowest layer in the Tcl event mechanism.  It consists of three things:

       [1]    Event  sources:  these represent the ways in which events can be
              generated.  For example, there is  a  timer  event  source  that
              implements  the  Tcl_CreateTimerHandler  procedure and the after
              command, and there is a file event source  that  implements  the
              Tcl_CreateFileHandler  procedure  on  Unix  systems.   An  event
              source must work with the notifier to detect events at the right
              times,  record  them  on  the event queue, and eventually notify
              higher-level software that they have occurred.   The  procedures
              Tcl_CreateEventSource,   Tcl_DeleteEventSource,   and   Tcl_Set-
              MaxBlockTime, Tcl_QueueEvent, and Tcl_DeleteEvents are used pri-
              marily by event sources.

       [2]    The  event queue: for non-threaded applications, there is a sin-
              gle queue for the whole application, containing events that have
              been  detected but not yet serviced.  Event sources place events
              onto the queue so that they may be processed in order at  appro-
              priate times during the event loop. The event queue guarantees a
              fair discipline of event handling, so that no event  source  can
              starve  the  others.  It also allows events to be saved for ser-
              vicing at a future time.  Threaded applications work in a  simi- |
              lar manner, except that there is a separate event queue for each |
              thread containing a Tcl  interpreter.   Tcl_QueueEvent  is  used |
              (primarily  by  event  sources) to add events to the event queue |
              and Tcl_DeleteEvents is used to remove  events  from  the  queue |
              without   processing   them.    In   a   threaded   application, |
              Tcl_QueueEvent adds an event to the current thread's queue,  and |
              Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent  adds  an  event  to  a queue in a specific |
              thread.                                                          |

       [3]                                                                     ||
              The  event  loop:  in  order  to  detect and process events, the |
              application enters a loop that waits for events to occur, places |
              them on the event queue, and then processes them.  Most applica- |
              tions will do this  by  calling  the  procedure  Tcl_DoOneEvent, |
              which is described in a separate manual entry.                   |

       Most  Tcl applications need not worry about any of the internals of the |
       Tcl notifier.  However, the notifier now has enough flexibility  to  be |
       retargeted  either  for a new platform or to use an external event loop |
       (such as the Motif event loop, when Tcl is embedded in a Motif applica- |
       tion).   The  procedures Tcl_WaitForEvent and Tcl_SetTimer are normally |
       implemented by Tcl, but may be replaced with new versions  to  retarget |
       the  notifier (the Tcl_InitNotifier, Tcl_AlertNotifier, Tcl_FinalizeNo- |
       tifier,  Tcl_Sleep,  Tcl_CreateFileHandler,  and  Tcl_DeleteFileHandler |
       must  also be replaced; see CREATING A NEW NOTIFIER below for details). |
       The procedures  Tcl_ServiceAll,  Tcl_ServiceEvent,  Tcl_GetServiceMode, |
       and Tcl_SetServiceMode are provided to help connect Tcl's event loop to |
       an external event loop such as Motif's.                                 |

NOTIFIER BASICS                                                                |
       The easiest way to understand how the notifier  works  is  to  consider
       what happens when Tcl_DoOneEvent is called.  Tcl_DoOneEvent is passed a
       flags argument that indicates what sort of events it is OK  to  process
       and   also   whether   or   not  to  block  if  no  events  are  ready.
       Tcl_DoOneEvent does the following things:

       [1]    Check the event queue to see if it contains any events that  can
              be serviced.  If so, service the first possible event, remove it |
              from the queue, and return.  It does this  by  calling  Tcl_Ser- |
              viceEvent and passing in the flags argument.

       [2]    Prepare  to  block  for  an  event.   To do this, Tcl_DoOneEvent
              invokes a setup procedure  in  each  event  source.   The  event
              source  will  perform  event-source  specific initialization and |
              possibly call Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime to limit  how  long  Tcl_Wait-
              ForEvent will block if no new events occur.

       [3]    Call  Tcl_WaitForEvent.   This  procedure is implemented differ-
              ently on different platforms;  it waits for an event  to  occur,
              based  on the information provided by the event sources.  It may
              cause the application to block if timePtr specifies an  interval
              other  than 0.  Tcl_WaitForEvent returns when something has hap-
              pened, such as a file becoming readable or the interval given by
              timePtr  expiring.   If there are no events for Tcl_WaitForEvent
              to wait for, so that it would block  forever,  then  it  returns
              immediately and Tcl_DoOneEvent returns 0.

       [4]    Call  a  check procedure in each event source.  The check proce-
              dure determines whether any events of interest  to  this  source
              occurred.  If so, the events are added to the event queue.

       [5]    Check  the event queue to see if it contains any events that can
              be serviced.  If so, service the first possible event, remove it
              from the queue, and return.

       [6]    See  if  there  are idle callbacks pending. If so, invoke all of
              them and return.

       [7]    Either return 0 to indicate that no events  were  ready,  or  go
              back to step [2] if blocking was requested by the caller.


CREATING A NEW EVENT SOURCE
       An  event  source consists of three procedures invoked by the notifier,
       plus additional C procedures that are invoked by higher-level  code  to
       arrange for event-driven callbacks.  The three procedures called by the
       notifier consist of the setup and  check  procedures  described  above,
       plus  an  additional procedure that is invoked when an event is removed
       from the event queue for servicing.

       The procedure Tcl_CreateEventSource creates a new  event  source.   Its
       arguments specify the setup procedure and check procedure for the event
       source.  SetupProc should match the following prototype:
              typedef void Tcl_EventSetupProc(
                ClientData clientData,
                int flags);
       The clientData argument will be the same as the clientData argument  to
       Tcl_CreateEventSource;  it is typically used to point to private infor-
       mation managed by the event source.  The flags  argument  will  be  the
       same as the flags argument passed to Tcl_DoOneEvent except that it will
       never be 0 (Tcl_DoOneEvent  replaces  0  with  TCL_ALL_EVENTS).   Flags
       indicates  what kinds of events should be considered; if the bit corre-
       sponding to this event source isn't set, the event source should return
       immediately without doing anything.  For example, the file event source
       checks for the TCL_FILE_EVENTS bit.

       SetupProc's job is to make sure that  the  application  wakes  up  when
       events  of  the  desired type occur.  This is typically done in a plat-
       form-dependent fashion.  For example, under Unix an event source  might
       call Tcl_CreateFileHandler; under Windows it might request notification
       with a Windows event.  For timer-driven event  sources  such  as  timer
       events  or any polled event, the event source can call Tcl_SetMaxBlock-
       Time to force the application to wake up after a specified time even if
       no  events have occurred.  If no event source calls Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime |
       then Tcl_WaitForEvent will wait as long as necessary for  an  event  to |
       occur;  otherwise,  it  will only wait as long as the shortest interval |
       passed to Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime by one of the event sources.  If an event |
       source knows that it already has events ready to report, it can request |
       a zero maximum block time.  For example, the setup procedure for the  X |
       event source looks to see if there are events already queued.  If there |
       are, it calls Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime with a 0 block time so that Tcl_Wait- |
       ForEvent  does  not  block if there is no new data on the X connection.
       The timePtr argument to Tcl_WaitForEvent points  to  a  structure  that
       describes a time interval in seconds and microseconds:
              typedef struct Tcl_Time {
                long sec;
                long usec;
              } Tcl_Time;
       The usec field should be less than 1000000.

       Information  provided  to Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime is only used for the next |
       call  to  Tcl_WaitForEvent;  it  is  discarded  after  Tcl_WaitForEvent |
       returns.   The  next  time  an  event  wait  is  done each of the event
       sources' setup procedures will be called again, and  they  can  specify
       new information for that event wait.

       If   the   application   uses   an  external  event  loop  rather  than |
       Tcl_DoOneEvent, the event sources may need to call  Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime |
       at other times.  For example, if a new event handler is registered that |
       needs to poll for events, the event source may call Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime |
       to  set the block time to zero to force the external event loop to call |
       Tcl.  In this case, Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime invokes Tcl_SetTimer  with  the |
       shortest  interval  seen  since  the  last  call  to  Tcl_DoOneEvent or |
       Tcl_ServiceAll.                                                         |

       In addition to the generic procedure Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime,  other  plat- |
       form-specific  procedures may also be available for setupProc, if there |
       is additional information needed by Tcl_WaitForEvent on that  platform. |
       For example, on Unix systems the Tcl_CreateFileHandler interface can be |
       used to wait for file events.

       The second procedure provided by each event source is its check  proce-
       dure,  indicated  by  the  checkProc argument to Tcl_CreateEventSource.
       CheckProc must match the following prototype:
              typedef void Tcl_EventCheckProc(
                ClientData clientData,
                int flags);
       The arguments to this procedure are the same as  those  for  setupProc.
       CheckProc  is invoked by Tcl_DoOneEvent after it has waited for events.
       Presumably at least one event source is now prepared to queue an event.
       Tcl_DoOneEvent  calls  each  of  the event sources in turn, so they all
       have a chance to queue any events that are ready.  The check  procedure
       does  two  things.   First,  it  must see if any events have triggered.
       Different event sources do this in different ways.

       If an event source's check procedure detects an interesting  event,  it
       must  add the event to Tcl's event queue.  To do this, the event source
       calls Tcl_QueueEvent.  The evPtr argument is a pointer to a dynamically
       allocated  structure  containing the event (see below for more informa-
       tion on memory management issues).  Each event source  can  define  its
       own event structure with whatever information is relevant to that event
       source.  However, the first element of the structure must be  a  struc-
       ture  of type Tcl_Event, and the address of this structure is used when
       communicating between the event source and the rest of the notifier.  A
       Tcl_Event has the following definition:
              typedef struct {
                  Tcl_EventProc *proc;
                  struct Tcl_Event *nextPtr;
              } Tcl_Event;
       The  event source must fill in the proc field of the event before call-
       ing Tcl_QueueEvent.  The nextPtr is used to link together the events in
       the queue and should not be modified by the event source.

       An event may be added to the queue at any of three positions, depending
       on the position argument to Tcl_QueueEvent:

       TCL_QUEUE_TAIL          Add the event at the back of the queue, so that
                               all  other  pending  events  will  be  serviced
                               first.  This is almost always the  right  place
                               for new events.

       TCL_QUEUE_HEAD          Add  the  event  at  the front of the queue, so
                               that it  will  be  serviced  before  all  other
                               queued events.

       TCL_QUEUE_MARK          Add the event at the front of the queue, unless
                               there are other events at the front whose posi-
                               tion  is  TCL_QUEUE_MARK;   if  so, add the new
                               event  just  after  all  other   TCL_QUEUE_MARK
                               events.   This  value  of  position  is used to
                               insert an ordered sequence  of  events  at  the
                               front  of  the queue, such as a series of Enter
                               and Leave events synthesized during a  grab  or
                               ungrab operation in Tk.

       When it is time to handle an event from the queue (steps 1 and 4 above) |
       Tcl_ServiceEvent will invoke the proc specified  in  the  first  queued
       Tcl_Event structure.  Proc must match the following prototype:
              typedef int Tcl_EventProc(
                Tcl_Event *evPtr,
                int flags);
       The first argument to proc is a pointer to the event, which will be the
       same as the first argument to the Tcl_QueueEvent call  that  added  the
       event  to the queue.  The second argument to proc is the flags argument
       for the current call to Tcl_ServiceEvent;  this is used  by  the  event |
       source to return immediately if its events are not relevant.

       It is up to proc to handle the event, typically by invoking one or more
       Tcl commands or C-level callbacks.  Once the event source has  finished
       handling  the  event  it  returns  1  to indicate that the event can be
       removed from the queue.  If for some reason the  event  source  decides
       that the event cannot be handled at this time, it may return 0 to indi-
       cate that the event should be deferred for processing later;   in  this |
       case  Tcl_ServiceEvent  will  go  on to the next event in the queue and
       attempt to service it.  There are several reasons why an  event  source
       might  defer an event.  One possibility is that events of this type are
       excluded by the flags argument.  For example,  the  file  event  source
       will  always  return  0  if the TCL_FILE_EVENTS bit isn't set in flags.
       Another example of deferring events happens in Tk if  Tk_RestrictEvents
       has been invoked to defer certain kinds of window events.

       When  proc  returns  1, Tcl_ServiceEvent will remove the event from the |
       event queue and free its storage.  Note that the storage for  an  event |
       must be allocated by the event source (using Tcl_Alloc or the Tcl macro |
       ckalloc) before  calling  Tcl_QueueEvent,  but  it  will  be  freed  by |
       Tcl_ServiceEvent, not by the event source.                              |

       Threaded  applications work in a similar manner, except that there is a |
       separate event queue for each  thread  containing  a  Tcl  interpreter. |
       Calling  Tcl_QueueEvent in a multithreaded application adds an event to |
       the current thread's queue.  To add an event to another thread's queue, |
       use  Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent.  Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent accepts as an argument |
       a Tcl_ThreadId argument, which uniquely identifies a thread  in  a  Tcl |
       application.   To  obtain  the Tcl_ThreadID for the current thread, use |
       the Tcl_GetCurrentThread procedure.  (A thread would then need to  pass |
       this  identifier  to  other threads for those threads to be able to add |
       events to its queue.)  After adding an event to another thread's queue, |
       you  then  typically  need  to  call  Tcl_ThreadAlert to "wake up" that |
       thread's notifier to alert it to the new event.                         |

       Tcl_DeleteEvents can be used to explicitly remove one  or  more  events |
       from  the  event  queue.  Tcl_DeleteEvents calls proc for each event in |
       the queue, deleting those for with the procedure returns 1.  Events for |
       which the procedure returns 0 are left in the queue.  Proc should match |
       the following prototype:                                                |
              typedef int Tcl_EventDeleteProc(                                 |
                Tcl_Event *evPtr,                                              |
                ClientData clientData);                                        |
       The clientData argument will be the same as the clientData argument  to |
       Tcl_DeleteEvents;  it is typically used to point to private information |
       managed by the event source.  The evPtr will point to the next event in |
       the queue.                                                              |

       Tcl_DeleteEventSource  deletes  an event source.  The setupProc, check- |
       Proc, and clientData arguments must exactly match those provided to the |
       Tcl_CreateEventSource  for  the event source to be deleted.  If no such |
       source exists, Tcl_DeleteEventSource has no effect.


CREATING A NEW NOTIFIER
       The notifier consists of all the procedures described  in  this  manual
       entry,  plus  Tcl_DoOneEvent  and Tcl_Sleep, which are available on all |
       platforms, and Tcl_CreateFileHandler and  Tcl_DeleteFileHandler,  which |
       are  Unix-specific.  Most of these procedures are generic, in that they |
       are the same for all notifiers.  However, eight of the  procedures  are |
       notifier-dependent:   Tcl_InitNotifier,  Tcl_AlertNotifier,  Tcl_Final- |
       izeNotifier, Tcl_SetTimer, Tcl_Sleep, Tcl_WaitForEvent, Tcl_CreateFile- |
       Handler  and  Tcl_DeleteFileHandler.   To  support a new platform or to |
       integrate Tcl with an application-specific event loop, you  must  write |
       new versions of these procedures.                                       |

       Tcl_InitNotifier initializes the notifier state and returns a handle to |
       the notifier state.  Tcl calls this procedure when  intializing  a  Tcl |
       interpreter.   Similarly, Tcl_FinalizeNotifier shuts down the notifier, |
       and is called by Tcl_Finalize when shutting down a Tcl interpreter.     |

       Tcl_WaitForEvent is the lowest-level procedure in the notifier;  it  is |
       responsible  for waiting for an ``interesting'' event to occur or for a |
       given time to elapse.  Before Tcl_WaitForEvent is invoked, each of  the |
       event  sources'  setup  procedure  will have been invoked.  The timePtr |
       argument to Tcl_WaitForEvent gives the maximum time  to  block  for  an |
       event,  based  on calls to Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime made by setup procedures |
       and on other information (such as the TCL_DONT_WAIT bit in flags).      |

       Ideally, Tcl_WaitForEvent should only wait for an event  to  occur;  it |
       should  not actually process the event in any way.  Later on, the event |
       sources will process the raw events and create Tcl_Events on the  event |
       queue  in their checkProc procedures.  However, on some platforms (such |
       as Windows) this isn't possible; events may be processed  in  Tcl_Wait- |
       ForEvent, including queuing Tcl_Events and more (for example, callbacks |
       for native widgets may be invoked).  The return  value  from  Tcl_Wait- |
       ForEvent  must  be  either  0,  1, or -1.  On platforms such as Windows |
       where events get processed in Tcl_WaitForEvent, a  return  value  of  1 |
       means  that  there  may  be more events still pending that haven't been |
       processed.  This is a sign to the caller that it  must  call  Tcl_Wait- |
       ForEvent  again  if  it  wants  all pending events to be processed. A 0 |
       return value means that calling Tcl_WaitForEvent again  will  not  have |
       any effect: either this is a platform where Tcl_WaitForEvent only waits |
       without doing any event processing, or Tcl_WaitForEvent knows for  sure |
       that  there  are  no  additional  events  to  process (e.g. it returned |
       because the time elapsed).  Finally, a return value of  -1  means  that |
       the  event  loop  is  no  longer operational and the application should |
       probably unwind and terminate.   Under  Windows  this  happens  when  a |
       WM_QUIT   message   is   received;   under   Unix   it   happens   when |
       Tcl_WaitForEvent would have waited forever because there were no active |
       event sources and the timeout was infinite.                             |

       Tcl_AlertNotifier  is  used  in multithreaded applications to allow any |
       thread to "wake up" the notifier to alert  it  to  new  events  on  its |
       queue.   Tcl_AlertNotifier  requires as an argument the notifier handle |
       returned by Tcl_InitNotifier.                                           |

       If the notifier will be used with an external event loop, then it  must |
       also  support  the  Tcl_SetTimer interface.  Tcl_SetTimer is invoked by |
       Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime  whenever  the  maximum  blocking  time  has   been |
       reduced.   Tcl_SetTimer  should  arrange for the external event loop to |
       invoke Tcl_ServiceAll after the specified interval even  if  no  events |
       have occurred.  This interface is needed because Tcl_WaitForEvent isn't |
       invoked when there is an external event loop.   If  the  notifier  will |
       only  be  used  from Tcl_DoOneEvent, then Tcl_SetTimer need not do any- |
       thing.                                                                  |

       On Unix systems, the file event source  also  needs  support  from  the |
       notifier.   The file event source consists of the Tcl_CreateFileHandler |
       and  Tcl_DeleteFileHandler  procedures,  which  are  described  in  the |
       Tcl_CreateFileHandler manual page.                                      |

       The  Tcl_Sleep  and  Tcl_DoOneEvent  interfaces  are described in their |
       respective manual pages.                                                |

       The easiest way to create a new notifier is to look at the code for  an |
       existing notifier, such as the files unix/tclUnixNotfy.c or win/tclWin- |
       Notify.c in the Tcl source distribution.                                |


EXTERNAL EVENT LOOPS                                                           |
       The notifier interfaces are designed so that Tcl can be  embedded  into |
       applications  that  have  their own private event loops.  In this case, |
       the application does not call Tcl_DoOneEvent  except  in  the  case  of |
       recursive  event  loops  such  as  calls  to the Tcl commands update or |
       vwait.  Most of the time is spent in the external  event  loop  of  the |
       application.   In  this case the notifier must arrange for the external |
       event loop to call back into Tcl when something happens on the  various |
       Tcl  event sources.  These callbacks should arrange for appropriate Tcl |
       events to be placed on the Tcl event queue.                             |

       Because the external event loop is not calling Tcl_DoOneEvent on a reg- |
       ular basis, it is up to the notifier to arrange for Tcl_ServiceEvent to |
       be called whenever events are pending on the Tcl event queue.  The eas- |
       iest  way  to  do  this  is to invoke Tcl_ServiceAll at the end of each |
       callback from the external event loop.  This will ensure  that  all  of |
       the  event  sources are polled, any queued events are serviced, and any |
       pending idle handlers are processed before  returning  control  to  the |
       application.   In  addition, event sources that need to poll for events |
       can call Tcl_SetMaxBlockTime to force the external event loop  to  call |
       Tcl even if no events are available on the system event queue.          |

       As  a  side  effect  of processing events detected in the main external |
       event loop, Tcl may invoke Tcl_DoOneEvent to start  a  recursive  event |
       loop  in  commands like vwait.  Tcl_DoOneEvent will invoke the external |
       event loop, which will result in callbacks as described in the  preced- |
       ing  paragraph, which will result in calls to Tcl_ServiceAll.  However, |
       in these cases it is undesirable to service events  in  Tcl_ServiceAll. |
       Servicing  events there is unnecessary because control will immediately |
       return to the external event loop and hence  to  Tcl_DoOneEvent,  which |
       can service the events itself.  Furthermore, Tcl_DoOneEvent is supposed |
       to service only a single event, whereas  Tcl_ServiceAll  normally  ser- |
       vices  all  pending  events.   To handle this situation, Tcl_DoOneEvent |
       sets a flag for Tcl_ServiceAll that causes it to return without servic- |
       ing  any  events.  This flag is called the service mode; Tcl_DoOneEvent |
       restores it to its previous value before it returns.                    |

       In some cases, however, it may be necessary for Tcl_ServiceAll to  ser- |
       vice  events  even  when it has been invoked from Tcl_DoOneEvent.  This |
       happens when there is yet another recursive event loop invoked  via  an |
       event  handler  called by Tcl_DoOneEvent (such as one that is part of a |
       native widget).  In this case, Tcl_DoOneEvent may not have a chance  to |
       service  events so Tcl_ServiceAll must service them all.  Any recursive |
       event loop that calls an external event loop rather than Tcl_DoOneEvent |
       must  reset  the  service  mode  so  that  all  events get processed in |
       Tcl_ServiceAll.  This is done by invoking the Tcl_SetServiceMode proce- |
       dure.   If Tcl_SetServiceMode is passed TCL_SERVICE_NONE, then calls to |
       Tcl_ServiceAll will return immediately without processing  any  events. |
       If Tcl_SetServiceMode is passed TCL_SERVICE_ALL, then calls to Tcl_Ser- |
       viceAll will behave normally.  Tcl_SetServiceMode returns the  previous |
       value  of the service mode, which should be restored when the recursive |
       loop exits.  Tcl_GetServiceMode returns the current value of  the  ser- |
       vice mode.

SEE ALSO
       Tcl_CreateFileHandler,         Tcl_DeleteFileHandler,        Tcl_Sleep,
       Tcl_DoOneEvent, Thread(3)

KEYWORDS
       event, notifier, event queue, event sources, file events, timer,  idle,
       service mode, threads



Tcl                                   8.1                          Notifier(3)