'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1989-1993 The Regents of the University of California.
'\" Copyright (c) 1994-1998 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\"
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
'\" 
'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: Translate.3,v 1.13 2007/12/13 15:22:32 dgp Exp $
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH Tcl_TranslateFileName 3 8.1 Tcl "Tcl Library Procedures"
.BS
.SH NAME
Tcl_TranslateFileName \- convert file name to native form and replace tilde with home directory
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fB#include <tcl.h>\fR
.sp
char *
\fBTcl_TranslateFileName\fR(\fIinterp\fR, \fIname\fR, \fIbufferPtr\fR)
.SH ARGUMENTS
.AS Tcl_DString *bufferPtr in/out
.AP Tcl_Interp *interp in
Interpreter in which to report an error, if any.
.AP "const char" *name in
File name, which may start with a
.QW ~ .
.AP 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 \fBTcl_DStringFree\fR to free up
anything stored here.
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
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.  
.PP
However, with the advent of the newer \fBTcl_FSGetNormalizedPath\fR and
\fBTcl_GetNativePath\fR, there is no longer any need to use this
procedure.  In particular, \fBTcl_GetNativePath\fR performs all the
necessary translation and encoding conversion, is virtual-filesystem
aware, and caches the native result for faster repeated calls.
Finally \fBTcl_GetNativePath\fR does not require you to free anything
afterwards.
.PP
If
\fBTcl_TranslateFileName\fR has to do tilde substitution or translate
the name then it uses
the dynamic string at \fI*bufferPtr\fR to hold the new string it
generates.
After \fBTcl_TranslateFileName\fR returns a non-NULL result, the caller must
eventually invoke \fBTcl_DStringFree\fR to free any information
placed in \fI*bufferPtr\fR.  The caller need not know whether or
not \fBTcl_TranslateFileName\fR actually used the string;  \fBTcl_TranslateFileName\fR
initializes \fI*bufferPtr\fR even if it does not use it, so the call to
\fBTcl_DStringFree\fR will be safe in either case.
.PP
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 interpreter's result.
When an error occurs, \fBTcl_TranslateFileName\fR
frees the dynamic string itself so that the caller need not call
\fBTcl_DStringFree\fR.
.PP
The caller is responsible for making sure that the interpreter's result
has its default empty value when \fBTcl_TranslateFileName\fR is invoked.

.SH "SEE ALSO"
filename

.SH KEYWORDS
file name, home directory, tilde, translate, user