Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!rbj
From: rbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Reading a file into a string
Message-ID: <120644@uunet.UU.NET>
Date: 31 Jan 91 00:02:39 GMT
References: <97130172@bfmny0.BFM.COM> <11235@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <97130173@bfmny0.BFM.COM>
Organization: UUNET Communications Services, Falls Church, VA
Lines: 40

In article <97130173@bfmny0.BFM.COM> tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes:
>In article <11235@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) writes:
>|In article <97130172@bfmny0.BFM.COM> tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes:
>|: In article <1991Jan30.005821.13013@convex.com> tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) writes:

The question is how to slurp a string into a file. Er, vice versa.

LW>|You sure can, including the size of the file:
>|
>|4) open(FILE, $file); read(FILE, $foo, -s $file);
>|
>|or better in two ways,
>|
>|5) open(FILE, $file); sysread(FILE, $foo, -s FILE);
>|
>|I sincerely doubt that any other construct is going to beat that, 
>|timewise.  ...
>
TN>However, 4) and 5) don't work on pipes, named or unnamed.  1) works on 
>named pipes but not unnamed.  Only 2) and 3) work everywhere.

OK, so Larry was being too literal. Suppose we replace -s FILE with $MAXINT?
Sysread will get whatever it can. However, this begs the question,
how does $foo get allocated? By sending the third arg to malloc?
In that case, perhaps one should set a limit on how much they slurp
and die/complain on therwise.

This would also be a good time to ask about args to ioctls. I have
been precreating them out of paranoia:
$sgtty = 'ioekfl'; ioctl(FH,$TIOCGETP,$sgtty);
Is this necessary? In either case, why?

(6) $"=''; @str = <FILE>; $str = "@str";
(7) @str = <FILE>; $str = join(//,"@str");

Horshoe mode .signature: perl -e 'print "Just another $0 hacker,"'
-- 

	Root Boy Jim Cottrell <rbj@uunet.uu.net>
	Close the gap of the dark year in between