Tcl_TranslateFileName(3tcl)				      Tcl Library Procedures				       Tcl_TranslateFileName(3tcl)

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NAME

       Tcl_TranslateFileName - convert file name to native form and replace tilde with home directory

SYNOPSIS

       #include <tcl.h>

       char *
       Tcl_TranslateFileName(interp, name, bufferPtr)

ARGUMENTS

       Tcl_Interp *interp (in)		    Interpreter in which to report an error, if any.

       const char *name (in)		    File name, which may start with a "~".

       Tcl_DString *bufferPtr (in/out)	    If	needed, this dynamic string is used to store the new file name.  At the time of the call it should
					    be uninitialized or free.  The caller must eventually call Tcl_DStringFree to free up anything  stored
					    here.
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DESCRIPTION

       This  utility  procedure  translates  a	file name to a platform-specific form which, after being converted to the appropriate encoding, is
       suitable for passing to the local operating system.  In particular, it converts network names into native form and does tilde substitution.

       However, with the advent of the newer Tcl_FSGetNormalizedPath and Tcl_GetNativePath, there is no longer any need to use this procedure.	In
       particular,  Tcl_GetNativePath  performs all the necessary translation and encoding conversion, is virtual-filesystem aware, and caches the
       native result for faster repeated calls.  Finally Tcl_GetNativePath does not require you to free anything afterwards.

       If Tcl_TranslateFileName has to do tilde substitution or translate the name then it uses the dynamic string at *bufferPtr to hold  the  new
       string  it generates.  After Tcl_TranslateFileName returns a non-NULL result, the caller must eventually invoke Tcl_DStringFree to free any
       information placed in *bufferPtr.  The caller need not know whether or not Tcl_TranslateFileName actually used the string;   Tcl_Translate-
       FileName initializes *bufferPtr even if it does not use it, so the call to Tcl_DStringFree will be safe in either case.

       If an error occurs (e.g. because there was no user by the given name) then NULL is returned and an error message will be left in the inter-
       preter's result.  When an error occurs,	Tcl_TranslateFileName  frees  the  dynamic  string  itself  so	that  the  caller  need  not  call
       Tcl_DStringFree.

       The caller is responsible for making sure that the interpreter's result has its default empty value when Tcl_TranslateFileName is invoked.

SEE ALSO

       filename

KEYWORDS

       file name, home directory, tilde, translate, user

Tcl									8.1					       Tcl_TranslateFileName(3tcl)