Tclkill
A Cross-Platform kill Command for Tcl
Version 1.0
Tcl provides the exec command to start processes in the background.
In that case, the command returns a (list of) process identifier(s)
(PIDs). However, Tcl does not have any other built-in functions to
make use of PIDs. Sometimes, a Tcl application may want to terminate
the processes that it started. On Unix, one can always use exec
to execute the system's kill command. But that fails on Windows.
This kill extension provides a kill command that can be
used both on Windows and Unix. (And presumably MacOSX, although I
haven't tested that.)
A compiled extension that implements the kill command is provided
for Windows and Linux/x86. On other platforms, kill is implemented
as a function that calls exec kill $pid.
Download
Download tclkill-1.0.zip.
Installation
Unzip the above file and place the "tclkill" directory in your Tcl
library directory. Alternatively, lappend the tclkill directory
to the ::auto_path variable.
Usage
package require kill ?1.0?
kill ?pid?
This should work with any PID returned from the exec command when
it is used to start a process in the background.
Windows implementation notes
This kill command should only be used with console applications.
This extension does not implement the recommended procedure to close
Windows (GUI) applications (which is to post the WM_CLOSE message to
the application's open windows). See
Microsoft KB 178893.
Unix implementation notes
The kill command sends a SIGTERM signal to the process. This is
different from typing CTRL-C on the console, which usually sends a
SIGINT instead. SIGTERM is considered more explicit; however, it
opens the possibility that an application will behave differently
when receiving a SIGTERM vs. SIGINT signal.
Build notes
This package includes a Makefile. It is specific to the author's
directory set-up. Hopefully there will be no need for you to
recompile, but if there is, you will have to edit the Makefile.
License notes
Written 2008 by Frank Pilhofer. This extension is so trivial that
I can not assert any copyright. Consider this package to be in the
public domain.
Frank Pilhofer
<fp -AT- fpx.de>
Back to the Homepage
Last modified: $Date: 2008/07/29 03:14:45 $