Safe Tk is based on Safe Tcl, which provides a mechanism that allows restricted and mediated access to auto-loading and packages for safe interpreters. Safe Tk adds the ability to configure the interpreter for safe Tk operations and load Tk into safe interpreters.
The safe::loadTk command initializes the required data structures in the named safe interpreter and then loads Tk into it. The interpreter must have been created with safe::interpCreate or have been initialized with safe::interpInit. The command returns the name of the safe interpreter. If -use is specified, the window identified by the specified system dependent identifier windowId is used to contain the ``.'' window of the safe interpreter; it can be any valid id, eventually referencing a window belonging to another application. As a convenience, if the window you plan to use is a Tk Window of the application you can use the window name (e.g., ``.x.y'') instead of its window Id (e.g., from winfo id .x.y). When -use is not specified, a new toplevel window is created for the ``.'' window of the safe interpreter. On X11 if you want the embedded window to use another display than the default one, specify it with -display. See the SECURITY ISSUES section below for implementation details.
Please read the safe manual page for Tcl to learn about the basic security considerations for Safe Tcl.
safe::loadTk adds the value of tk_library taken from the master interpreter to the virtual access path of the safe interpreter so that auto-loading will work in the safe interpreter.
Tk initialization is now safe with respect to not trusting the slave's state for startup. safe::loadTk registers the slave's name so when the Tk initialization (Tk_SafeInit) is called and in turn calls the master's safe::InitTk it will return the desired argv equivalent (-use windowId, correct -display, etc.)
When -use is not used, the new toplevel created is specially decorated so the user is always aware that the user interface presented comes from a potentially unsafe code and can easily delete the corresponding interpreter.
On X11, conflicting -use and -display are likely to generate a fatal X error.