Tcl_GetVersion(3)

💖 Tcl_GetVersion — bestie edition 💖

okay so this is a page from the Tcl Library Procedures manual, and it's all about the little function that tells you what version of Tcl you're actually running against. no cap, it's more useful than it sounds.

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✨ NAME ✨

Tcl_GetVersion — get the version of the library at runtime 🕵️♀️

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <tcl.h>

Tcl_GetVersion(major, minor, patchLevel, type)

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• int *major (out) — the major version number of the Tcl library, bestie. the big one. 👑
• int *minor (out) — the minor version number of the Tcl library. the little sibling energy. 🦋
• int *patchLevel (out) — the patch level of the Tcl library (or like, the alpha or beta number if that's the era we're in). 🙈
• int *type (out) — the type of release, which also tells you what kind of patch level you're looking at. it can be one of TCL_ALPHA_RELEASE, TCL_BETA_RELEASE, or TCL_FINAL_RELEASE. that's it, that's the whole list. 💅

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

so Tcl_GetVersion is the function you call when you wanna query the version number of the Tcl library at runtime. and yes, at runtime specifically — not compile time, not vibes time. runtime. ⏰

this is genuinely so useful when you're using a dynamically loaded Tcl library, or when you're writing a stubs-aware extension. here's the tea: if you write an extension that is linked against the Tcl stubs library, it could get loaded into a program that's linked to an older version of Tcl than you expected. 😭 rude, honestly. so you use Tcl_GetVersion to verify that fact, and possibly to change the behavior of your extension. flexible, iconic, main character behavior. ✨

and here's the cute part — Tcl_GetVersion accepts NULL for any of the arguments. so for instance, if you do not care about the patchLevel of the library, just pass a NULL for the patchLevel argument. no notes, no guilt, just skip it. 🫶

fr fr, NULL is allowed for any of the arguments, not just patchLevel — that one's just the example. don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

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🔑 KEYWORDS 🔑

version, patchlevel, major, minor, alpha, beta, release

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this one came from the Tcl 7.5 manual, page Tcl_GetVersion(3) — go forth and check your versions responsibly. mwah. 💅🎀🦋