How to get Command history by cursor key in Linux tclsh

Question

Can get the command history by using cursor key (like up arrow key) in TCL shell (tclsh).

I am running tclsh on fedora with linux version 2.6.21.

score 38 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 07 '15 at 22:57

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You want access to the readline library, you can do that with rlwrap:

$ rlwrap tclsh

Useful options are -c for file name completion, and -f to add words from a file to the completion list:

$ rlwrap -cf my_complete_file tclsh

Since you almost always want to use rlwrap, adding a shell alias is useful:

alias tclsh='rlwrap tclsh'

edited Mar 07 '15 at 22:57

Martin Tournoij

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answered Jun 15 '10 at 02:43

glenn jackman

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hi glenn, you are a big TCL fan , I like TCL and want to explore more about the language so that I can use it in my work. Can you suggest me some links or books to learn TCL ? – Adi Jun 15 '10 at 19:15
@Adi: Ask that in another question. That's the way this site works. – Donal Fellows Jun 15 '10 at 21:54
Awesome tool not very often known! – Daniele Orlando Apr 06 '16 at 15:51
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Link to the Tcl tutorial originally provided by @glennjackman is now a 404. Try this: https://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/tutorial/tcltutorial.html – TheDudeAbides Jan 30 '19 at 21:34

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 15 '10 at 21:50

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I usually use tkcon which comes with ActiveTcl, or as a separate installation. tkcon has many features, but the one I use the most is the command-line editing aspect.

answered Jun 15 '10 at 21:50

Hai Vu

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thanks vu tkcon was a nice suggestion.. I used it in ubuntu but getting some error "Application initialization failed: no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable" when i use in fedora – Adi Jun 16 '10 at 05:16
Worked on Ubuntu 14.04. Unfortunately, it opens a GUI shell, does not run directly inside my xterm? :-( – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Aug 03 '15 at 10:40

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 17 '21 at 19:18

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Another good pure-terminal option is tclsh-wrapper

Link to tclsh-wrapper on github

It provides rich command line editing, history, aliasing, and keyword completion but does not require X11. Documentation for the key mapping is also available.

answered Dec 17 '21 at 19:18

Tom Drabenstott

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While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - [From Review](/review/late-answers/30616901) – xom9ikk Dec 19 '21 at 08:58
IMHO, the essential parts are that another good solution exists a concise overview of that solution's features is provided. What's missing? Would it be better if no link was given? Note, the two top voted answers don't even include feature summaries. Feel free to elaborate and/or provide an example and I'll see what can be done to improve the answer. – Tom Drabenstott Dec 20 '21 at 15:54

How to get Command history by cursor key in Linux tclsh

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