| ActiveTcl User Guide |

## Tcl/Tk Documentation > TclCmd > vwait

### Tcl/Tk Applications | Tcl Commands | Tk Commands | Tcl Library | Tk Library

### NAME

vwait - Process events until a variable is written

### SYNOPSIS

vwait varName

### DESCRIPTION

This command enters the Tcl event loop to process events, blocking the application if no events are ready. It continues processing events until some event handler sets the value of variable varName. Once varName has been set, the vwait command will return as soon as the event handler that modified varName completes. varName must be globally scoped (either with a call to global for the varName, or with the full namespace path specification).

In some cases the vwait command may not return immediately after varName is set. This can happen if the event handler that sets varName does not complete immediately. For example, if an event handler sets varName and then itself calls vwait to wait for a different variable, then it may not return for a long time. During this time the top-level vwait is blocked waiting for the event handler to complete, so it cannot return either.

### EXAMPLES

Run the event-loop continually until some event calls exit. (You can use any variable not mentioned elsewhere, but the name forever reminds you at a glance of the intent.)

    vwait forever

Wait five seconds for a connection to a server socket, otherwise close the socket and continue running the script:

    # Initialise the state
    after 5000 set state timeout
    set server [socket -server accept 12345]
    proc accept {args} {
       global state connectionInfo
       set state accepted
       set connectionInfo $args
    }

    # Wait for something to happen
    vwait state

    # Clean up events that could have happened
    close $server
    after cancel set state timeout

    # Do something based on how the vwait finished...
    switch $state {
       timeout {
          puts "no connection on port 12345"
       }
       accepted {
          puts "connection: $connectionInfo"
          puts [lindex $connectionInfo 0] "Hello there!"
       }
    }

### SEE ALSO

global, update

### KEYWORDS

event, variable, wait
Copyright © 1995-1997 Roger E. Critchlow Jr. Copyright © 1995-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.