man tell () - Return current access position for an open channel
NAME
tell - Return current access position for an open channel
SYNOPSIS
tell channelId
DESCRIPTION
Returns an integer string giving the current access position in channelId. This value returned is a byte offset that can be passed to seek in order to set the channel to a particular position. Note that this value is in terms of bytes, not characters like read. The value returned is -1 for channels that do not support seeking.
ChannelId must be an identifier for an open channel such as a Tcl standard channel (stdin, stdout, or stderr), the return value from an invocation of open or socket, or the result of a channel creation command provided by a Tcl extension.
EXAMPLE
Read a line from a file channel only if it starts with foobar: # Save the offset in case we need to undo the read... set offset [tell $chan] if {[read $chan 6] eq "foobar"} { gets $chan line } else { set line {} # Undo the read... seek $chan $offset }
SEE ALSO
KEYWORDS
access position, channel, seeking