---
name: "resource"
section: "3tcl"
platform: "linux"
package: "tcl8.4-doc"
version: "8.4.19-5"
release: "Debian 7 (Wheezy)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/resource"
---

# resource(3tcl)

Manipulate Macintosh resources

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## NAME

resource - Manipulate Macintosh resources

## SYNOPSIS

**resource** *option* ?*arg arg ...*?

```

```

## DESCRIPTION

The **resource** command provides some generic operations for dealing with Macintosh resources.  This command is only supported on the Macintosh platform.  Each Macintosh file consists of two *forks*: a *data* fork and a *resource* fork.  You use the normal open, puts, close, etc. commands to manipulate the data fork. You must use this command, however, to interact with the resource fork.  *Option* indicates what resource command to perform.  Any unique abbreviation for *option* is acceptable.  The valid options are:

- **resource close** *rsrcRef*

  Closes the given resource reference (obtained from **resource** **open**).  Resources from that resource file will no longer be available.

- **resource delete** ?*options*? *resourceType*

  This command will delete the resource specified by *options* and type *resourceType* (see RESOURCE TYPES below).  The options give you several ways to specify the resource to be deleted.

  - **-id** *resourceId*

    If the **-id** option is given the id *resourceId* (see RESOURCE IDS below) is used to specify the resource to be deleted.  The id must  be a number - to specify a name use the **-name** option.

  - **-name** *resourceName*

    If **-name** is specified, the resource named *resourceName* will be deleted.  If the **-id** is also provided, then there must be a resource with BOTH this name and this id.  If no name is provided, then the id will be used regardless of the name of the actual resource.

  - **-file** *resourceRef*

    If the **-file** option is specified then the resource will be deleted from the file pointed to by *resourceRef*.  Otherwise the first resource with the given *resourceName* and or *resourceId* which is found on the resource file path will be  deleted.  To inspect the file path, use the *resource files* command.

- **resource files ?***resourceRef*?

  If *resourceRef*is not provided, this command returns a Tcl list of the resource references for all the currently open resource files. The list is in the normal Macintosh search order for resources.  If  *resourceRef* is specified, the command will return the path to the file whose resource fork is represented by that token.

- **resource list** *resourceType* ?*resourceRef*?

  List all of the resources ids of type *resourceType* (see RESOURCE TYPES below).  If *resourceRef* is specified then the command will limit the search to that particular resource file.  Otherwise, all resource files currently opened by the application will be searched. A Tcl list of either the resource name's or resource id's of the found resources will be returned.  See the RESOURCE IDS section below for more details about what a resource id is.

- **resource open** *fileName* ?*access*?

  Open the resource for the file *fileName*.  Standard file access permissions may also be specified (see the manual entry for **open** for details).  A resource reference (*resourceRef*) is returned that can be used by the other resource commands.  An error can occur if the file doesn't exist or the file does not have a resource fork. However, if you open the file with write permissions the file and/or resource fork will be created instead of generating an error.

- **resource read** *resourceType* *resourceId* ?*resourceRef*?

  Read the entire resource of type *resourceType* (see RESOURCE TYPES below) and the name or id of *resourceId* (see RESOURCE IDS below) into memory and return the result.  If *resourceRef* is specified we limit our search to that resource file, otherwise we search all open resource forks in the application.  It is important to note that most Macintosh resource use a binary format and the data returned from this command may have embedded NULLs or other non-ASCII data.

- **resource types ?***resourceRef*?

  This command returns a Tcl list of all resource types (see RESOURCE TYPES below) found in the resource file pointed to by *resourceRef*.  If *resourceRef* is not specified it will return all the resource types found in every resource file currently opened by the application.

- **resource write** ?*options*? *resourceType* *data*

  This command will write the passed in *data* as a new resource of type *resourceType* (see RESOURCE TYPES below).  Several options are available that describe where and how the resource is stored.

  - **-id** *resourceId*

    If the **-id** option is given the id *resourceId* (see RESOURCE IDS below) is used for the new resource, otherwise a unique id will be generated that will not conflict with any existing resource.  However, the id must be a number - to specify a name use the **-name** option.

  - **-name** *resourceName*

    If **-name** is specified the resource will be named *resourceName*, otherwise it will have the empty string as the name.

  - **-file** *resourceRef*

    If the **-file** option is specified then the resource will be written in the file pointed to by *resourceRef*, otherwise the most recently open resource will be used.

  - **-force**

    If the target resource already exists, then by default Tcl will not overwrite it, but raise an error instead.  Use the -force flag to force overwriting the extant resource.

## RESOURCE TYPES

Resource types are defined as a four character string that is then mapped to an underlying id.  For example, **TEXT** refers to the Macintosh resource type for text.  The type **STR#** is a list of counted strings.  All Macintosh resources must be of some type.  See Macintosh documentation for a more complete list of resource types that are commonly used.

## RESOURCE IDS

For this command the notion of a resource id actually refers to two ideas in Macintosh resources.  Every place you can use a resource Id you can use either the resource name or a resource number.  Names are always searched or returned in preference to numbers.  For example, the **resource list** command will return names if they exist or numbers if the name is NULL.

## PORTABILITY ISSUES

The resource command is only available on Macintosh.

## SEE ALSO

[open(3tcl)](/open/3tcl.md)

## KEYWORDS

open, resource