Version 17 of tclx file commands for core

Purpose: To get TclX file functionality into the core. These will eventually become TIPs.

The -keepalive option should be added to fconfigure for sockets. Possibly other sockopts should be added to fconfigure too.

A new command pipe should be added to provide TclX pipe functionality. Alternatively, [file pipe] should be used (to save namespace pollution.)

Changes to tcl's file command

A new file type result, tty, will be added. Alternatively, a new subcommand file isatty can be defined on open file descriptors.

A new file option -fileid to allow an open file to be processed in place of the file name argument. (This may not be possible under windows.)

file truncate for tclx's ftruncate
file lock for tclx's flock
file unlock for tclx's funlock
file dup for tclx's dup
file set ... not part of tclx, but would be nice ... [file set stderr [open /tmp/log a+]]]

The most frequent request is to move the TclX signal handling commands into Tcl.

Another suggestion that's been made in the past is to create an extension that provides Tcl bindings for the most useful Posix functions.

But what are the most useful Posix functions? :)

DKF: Useful Posix stuff (to me) has been: all the signal stuff, fork/execl, id and times. YMMV. :^)