'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1997 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\"
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
'\" SCCS: @(#) resource.n 1.3 97/07/25 10:24:23
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH resource n 8.0 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
.BS
'\" Note:  do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
.SH NAME
resource \- Manipulate Macintosh resources
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBresource \fIoption\fR ?\fIarg arg ...\fR?
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The \fBresource\fR command provides some generic operations for
dealing with Macintosh resources.  This command is only supported on
the Macintosh platform.  Each Macintosh file consists of two
\fIforks\fR: a \fIdata\fR fork and a \fIresource\fR fork.  You use the
normal open, puts, close, etc. commands to manipulate the data fork.
You must use this command, however, to interact with the resource
fork.  \fIOption\fR indicates what resource command to perform.  Any
unique abbreviation for \fIoption\fR is acceptable.  The valid options
are:
.TP
\fBresource close \fIrsrcRef\fR
Closes the given resource reference (obtained from \fBresource
open\fR).  Resources from that resource file will no longer be
available.
.TP
\fBresource list \fIresourceType\fR ?\fIresourceRef\fR?
List all of the resources ids of type \fIresourceType\fR (see RESOURCE
TYPES below).  If \fIresourceRef\fR is specified then the command will
limit the search to that particular resource file.  Otherwise, all
resource files currently opened by the application will be searched.
A Tcl list of either the resource name's or resource id's of the found
resources will be returned.  See the RESOURCE IDS section below for
more details about what a resource id is.
.TP
\fBresource open \fIfileName\fR ?\fIpermissions\fR?
Open the resource for the file \fIfileName\fR.  Standard file
permissions may also be specified (see the manual entry for \fBopen\fR
for details).  A resource reference (\fIresourceRef\fR) is returned
that can be used by the other resource commands.  An error can occur
if the file doesn't exist or the file does not have a resource fork.
However, if you open the file with write permissions the file and/or
resource fork will be created instead of generating an error.
.TP
\fBresource read \fIresourceType\fR \fIresourceId\fR ?\fIresourceRef\fR?
Read the entire resource of type \fIresourceType\fR (see RESOURCE
TYPES below) and the name or id of \fIresourceId\fR (see RESOURCE IDS
below) into memory and return the result.  If \fIresourceRef\fR is
specified we limit our search to that resource file, otherwise we
search all open resource forks in the application.  It is important to
note that most Macintosh resource use a binary format and the data
returned from this command may have embedded NULLs or other non-ASCII
data.
.TP
\fBresource types ?\fIresourceRef\fR?
This command returns a Tcl list of all resource types (see RESOURCE
TYPES below) found in the resource file pointed to by
\fIresourceRef\fR.  If \fIresourceRef\fR is not specified it will
return all the resource types found in every resource file currently
opened by the application.
.TP
\fBresource write\fR ?\fIoptions\fR? \fIresourceType\fR \fIdata\fR
This command will write the passed in \fIdata\fR as a new resource of
type \fIresourceType\fR (see RESOURCE TYPES below).  Several options
are available that describe where and how the resource is stored.
.RS
.TP
\fB\-id\fR \fIresourceId\fR
If the \fB-id\fR option is given the id \fIresourceId\fR (see RESOURCE
IDS below) is used for the new resource, otherwise a unique id will be
generated that will not conflict with any existing resource.  However,
the id must be a number - to specify a name use the \fB\-name\fR option.
.TP
\fB\-name\fR \fIresourceName\fR
If \fB-name\fR is specified the resource will be named
\fIresourceName\fR, otherwise it will have the empty string as the
name.
.TP
\fB\-file\fR \fIresourceRef\fR
If the \fB-file\fR option is specified then the resource will be
written in the file pointed to by \fIresourceRef\fR, otherwise the
most resently open resource will be used.
.RE

.SH "RESOURCE TYPES"
Resource types are defined as a four character string that is then
mapped to an underlying id.  For example, \fBTEXT\fR refers to the
Macintosh resource type for text.  The type \fBSTR#\fR is a list of
counted strings.  All Macintosh resources must be of some type.  See
Macintosh documentation for a more complete list of resource types
that are commonly used.

.SH "RESOURCE IDS"
For this command the notion of a resource id actually refers to two
ideas in Macintosh resources.  Every place you can use a resource Id
you can use either the resource name or a resource number.  Names are
always searched or returned in preference to numbers.  For example,
the \fBresource list\fR command will return names if they exist or
numbers if the name is NULL.

.SH "SEE ALSO"
open

.SH "PORTABILITY ISSUES"
The resource command is only available on Macintosh.

.SH KEYWORDS
open, resource
