What is tabs?

TABS (Tcl Automated Build System) is a tool for building cookfs, mk4 and zip archives. It is loosely based on idea of SDX (Starkit Developer eXtension) and Makefile-like approach. It is mainly used to create starkits, zipkits, starpacks and cookfs-based archives and binaries. Initially it was developed mainly for cookfs, however, all jobs now support all major archive formats used in Tcl world.

Latest version: 1.2.1 (released 2011-05-22) | download files

TABS documentation: wrap

Tcl/Tk - TABS

Job wrap is used to create a starkit, zipkit, cookfs archives and can be used to create tclkit or cookit based standalone applications.

The following table shows all options accepted by wrap job:

Option	Default value	Description
-binary		Runtime to use for standalone binaries
-checkuptodate	false	Whether check if job is up to date should be done; otherwise job is always run
-copy		List of files/directories to copy; specified as file/directory to copy or list specified as {source destination}
-driver		VFS type to use - supports mk4, zip and cookfs
-driveroptions		Additional options to pass to VFS driver; type dependant
-excludedirectories	CVS .svn	List of directories to exclude from including
-excludefiles	core	List of filenames to exclude
-executionlevel		Set execution level for binary for Windows Vista, Windows 7, if possible; only valid for win32 platform
-fail	true	Fail entire build if job fails
-fileinfo		List of name-value for specifying resource information; only valid for win32 platform
-icons		List of *.ico files to use for replacing icons in runtime; only valid for win32 platform
-output		Output file
-packages		List of packages to include; specific to cookfs/cookit building
-skiptags		Currently unused
-starkit	false	Create a starkit header for sourcing in Tcl

Where -fileinfo is one of: FileDescription, OriginalFilename, CompanyName, LegalCopyright, FileVersion, ProductName, ProductVersion or ProductVersionBinary.

Sample wrap job

tabs wrap -driver mk4 -output app.tcl -copy "app.vfs/*" -starkit 1

Building zip or cookfs based archive requires specifying appropriate -driver - for example -driver cookfs or -driver zip.

Copying from multiple directories or files can also be done easily:

Copying common.vfs, client.vfs and main.tcl

tabs wrap -driver mk4 -output app.tcl -copy "app.vfs/* client.vfs/* scripts/main.tcl" -starkit 1

Building a standalone binary on Windows can be done by adding -binary instead of -starkitt:

Creating standalone binary

tabs wrap -output app.exe -copy "app.vfs/*" -binary tclkit.exe

We can also change file resources and icons by adding -icons and -fileinfo:

Creating standalone binary with custom resources and icons

tabs wrap -output app.exe -copy "app.vfs/*" -binary tclkit.exe \
    -icons "icons/icon16.ico icons/icon32.ico icons/icon48.ico" \
    -fileinfo "ProductName {Sample App} ProductVersion 1.0"

Even though script is run from shell, -fileinfo takes a Tcl name-value pairs list.

What is tabs?

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