---
name: "source"
section: "n"
platform: "linux"
package: "tcl"
version: "8.6.16-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/source/n"
---

# source(n)

Evaluate a file or resource as a Tcl script

```

```

## NAME

source - Evaluate a file or resource as a Tcl script

## SYNOPSIS

**source** *fileName*

**source** **-encoding** *encodingName fileName*

```

```

## DESCRIPTION

This command takes the contents of the specified file or resource and passes it to the Tcl interpreter as a text script.  The return value from **source** is the return value of the last command executed in the script.  If an error occurs in evaluating the contents of the script then the **source** command will return that error. If a **return** command is invoked from within the script then the remainder of the file will be skipped and the **source** command will return normally with the result from the **return** command.

The end-of-file character for files is “\\32” (^Z) for all platforms. The source command will read files up to this character.  This restriction does not exist for the **read** or **gets** commands, allowing for files containing code and data segments (scripted documents). If you require a “^Z” in code for string comparison, you can use “\\032” or “\\u001a”, which will be safely substituted by the Tcl interpreter into “^Z”.

A leading BOM (Byte order mark) contained in the file is ignored for unicode encodings (utf-8, unicode).

The **-encoding** option is used to specify the encoding of the data stored in *fileName*.  When the **-encoding** option is omitted, the system encoding is assumed.

## EXAMPLE

Run the script in the file **foo.tcl** and then the script in the file **bar.tcl**:

```
source foo.tcl
source bar.tcl
```

Alternatively:

```
foreach scriptFile {foo.tcl bar.tcl} {
    source $scriptFile
}
```

## SEE ALSO

[file(n)](/file/n.md), [cd(n)](/cd/n.md), [encoding(n)](/encoding/n.md), [info(n)](/info/n.md)

## KEYWORDS

file, script