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189 lines
6.8 KiB
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189 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
'\"
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'\" Copyright (c) 1991-1993 The Regents of the University of California.
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'\" Copyright (c) 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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'\"
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'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
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'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
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'\"
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'\" SCCS: @(#) library.n 1.20 96/03/25 20:18:29
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.so man.macros
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.TH library n "" Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
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.BS
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.SH NAME
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library \- standard library of Tcl procedures
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.nf
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\fBauto_execok \fIcmd\fR
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\fBauto_load \fIcmd\fR
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\fBauto_mkindex \fIdir pattern pattern ...\fR
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\fBauto_reset\fR
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\fBparray \fIarrayName\fR
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.BE
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.SH INTRODUCTION
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.PP
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Tcl includes a library of Tcl procedures for commonly-needed functions.
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The procedures defined in the Tcl library are generic ones suitable
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for use by many different applications.
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The location of the Tcl library is returned by the \fBinfo library\fR
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command.
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In addition to the Tcl library, each application will normally have
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its own library of support procedures as well; the location of this
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library is normally given by the value of the \fB$\fIapp\fB_library\fR
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global variable, where \fIapp\fR is the name of the application.
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For example, the location of the Tk library is kept in the variable
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\fB$tk_library\fR.
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.PP
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To access the procedures in the Tcl library, an application should
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source the file \fBinit.tcl\fR in the library, for example with
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the Tcl command
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.CS
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\fBsource [info library]/init.tcl\fR
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.CE
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If the library procedure \fBTcl_Init\fR is invoked from an application's
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\fBTcl_AppInit\fR procedure, this happens automatically.
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The code in \fBinit.tcl\fR will define the \fBunknown\fR procedure
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and arrange for the other procedures to be loaded on-demand using
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the auto-load mechanism defined below.
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.SH "COMMAND PROCEDURES"
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.PP
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The following procedures are provided in the Tcl library:
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.TP
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\fBauto_execok \fIcmd\fR
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Determines whether there is an executable file by the name \fIcmd\fR.
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This command examines the directories in the current search path
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(given by the PATH environment variable) to see if there is an
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executable file named \fIcmd\fR in any of those directories.
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If so, it returns 1; if not it returns 0. \fBAuto_exec\fR
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remembers information about previous searches in an array
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named \fBauto_execs\fR; this avoids the path search in
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future calls for the same \fIcmd\fR. The command \fBauto_reset\fR
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may be used to force \fBauto_execok\fR to forget its cached
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information.
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.TP
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\fBauto_load \fIcmd\fR
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This command attempts to load the definition for a Tcl command named
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\fIcmd\fR.
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To do this, it searches an \fIauto-load path\fR, which is a list of
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one or more directories.
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The auto-load path is given by the global variable \fB$auto_path\fR
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if it exists.
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If there is no \fB$auto_path\fR variable, then the TCLLIBPATH environment
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variable is used, if it exists.
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Otherwise the auto-load path consists of just the Tcl library directory.
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Within each directory in the auto-load path there must be a file
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\fBtclIndex\fR that describes one
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.VS
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or more commands defined in that directory
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and a script to evaluate to load each of the commands.
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The \fBtclIndex\fR file should be generated with the
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\fBauto_mkindex\fR command.
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If \fIcmd\fR is found in an index file, then the appropriate
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script is evaluated to create the command.
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.VE
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The \fBauto_load\fR command returns 1 if \fIcmd\fR was successfully
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created.
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The command returns 0 if there was no index entry for \fIcmd\fR
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or if the script didn't actually define \fIcmd\fR (e.g. because
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index information is out of date).
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If an error occurs while processing the script, then that error
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is returned.
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\fBAuto_load\fR only reads the index information once and saves it
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in the array \fBauto_index\fR; future calls to \fBauto_load\fR
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check for \fIcmd\fR in the array rather than re-reading the index
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files.
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The cached index information may be deleted with the command
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\fBauto_reset\fR.
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This will force the next \fBauto_load\fR command to reload the
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index database from disk.
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.TP
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\fBauto_mkindex \fIdir pattern pattern ...\fR
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.VS
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Generates an index suitable for use by \fBauto_load\fR.
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The command searches \fIdir\fR for all files whose names match
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any of the \fIpattern\fR arguments
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.VE
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(matching is done with the \fBglob\fR command),
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generates an index of all the Tcl command
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procedures defined in all the matching files, and stores the
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index information in a file named \fBtclIndex\fR in \fIdir\fR.
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If no pattern is given a pattern of \fB*.tcl\fR will be assumed.
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For example, the command
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.RS
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.CS
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\fBauto_mkindex foo *.tcl\fR
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.CE
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.LP
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will read all the \fB.tcl\fR files in subdirectory \fBfoo\fR
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and generate a new index file \fBfoo/tclIndex\fR.
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.PP
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\fBAuto_mkindex\fR parses the Tcl scripts in a relatively
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unsophisticated way: if any line contains the word \fBproc\fR
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as its first characters then it is assumed to be a procedure
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definition and the next word of the line is taken as the
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procedure's name.
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Procedure definitions that don't appear in this way (e.g. they
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have spaces before the \fBproc\fR) will not be indexed.
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.RE
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.TP
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\fBauto_reset\fR
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Destroys all the information cached by \fBauto_execok\fR and
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\fBauto_load\fR.
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This information will be re-read from disk the next time it is
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needed.
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\fBAuto_reset\fR also deletes any procedures listed in the auto-load
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index, so that fresh copies of them will be loaded the next time
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that they're used.
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.TP
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\fBparray \fIarrayName\fR
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Prints on standard output the names and values of all the elements
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in the array \fIarrayName\fR.
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\fBArrayName\fR must be an array accessible to the caller of \fBparray\fR.
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It may be either local or global.
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.SH "VARIABLES"
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.PP
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The following global variables are defined or used by the procedures in
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the Tcl library:
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.TP
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\fBauto_execs\fR
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Used by \fBauto_execok\fR to record information about whether
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particular commands exist as executable files.
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.TP
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\fBauto_index\fR
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Used by \fBauto_load\fR to save the index information read from
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disk.
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.TP
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\fBauto_noexec\fR
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If set to any value, then \fBunknown\fR will not attempt to auto-exec
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any commands.
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.TP
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\fBauto_noload\fR
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If set to any value, then \fBunknown\fR will not attempt to auto-load
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any commands.
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.TP
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\fBauto_path\fR
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If set, then it must contain a valid Tcl list giving directories to
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search during auto-load operations.
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.TP
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\fBenv(TCL_LIBRARY)\fR
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If set, then it specifies the location of the directory containing
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library scripts (the value of this variable will be returned by
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the command \fBinfo library\fR). If this variable isn't set then
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a default value is used.
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.TP
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\fBenv(TCLLIBPATH)\fR
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If set, then it must contain a valid Tcl list giving directories to
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search during auto-load operations.
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This variable is only used if \fBauto_path\fR is not defined.
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.TP
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\fBunknown_active\fR
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This variable is set by \fBunknown\fR to indicate that it is active.
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It is used to detect errors where \fBunknown\fR recurses on itself
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infinitely.
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The variable is unset before \fBunknown\fR returns.
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.SH KEYWORDS
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auto-exec, auto-load, library, unknown
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