FAQ sync.

[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perlfaq5.pod

diff --git a/pod/perlfaq5.pod b/pod/perlfaq5.pod
index 9863334..4cf2598 100644 (file)
--- a/pod/perlfaq5.pod
+++ b/pod/perlfaq5.pod
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 =head1 NAME
 
-perlfaq5 - Files and Formats ($Revision: 1.12 $, $Date: 2002/03/11 22:25:25 $)
+perlfaq5 - Files and Formats ($Revision: 1.15 $, $Date: 2002/04/12 02:02:05 $)
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -496,7 +496,6 @@ literals
 
        open FILE, "<", "  file  ";  # filename is "   file   "
        open FILE, ">", ">file";     # filename is ">file"
-       
 
 It may be a lot clearer to use sysopen(), though:
 
@@ -758,27 +757,14 @@ you see someone do this:
 
     @lines = <INPUT>;
 
-you should think long and hard about why you need everything loaded
-at once.  It's just not a scalable solution.  You might also find it
-more fun to use the standard DB_File module's $DB_RECNO bindings,
-which allow you to tie an array to a file so that accessing an element
-the array actually accesses the corresponding line in the file.
+you should think long and hard about why you need everything loaded at
+once.  It's just not a scalable solution.  You might also find it more
+fun to use the standard Tie::File module, or the DB_File module's
+$DB_RECNO bindings, which allow you to tie an array to a file so that
+accessing an element the array actually accesses the corresponding
+line in the file.
 
-On very rare occasion, you may have an algorithm that demands that
-the entire file be in memory at once as one scalar.  The simplest solution
-to that is
-
-    $var = `cat $file`;
-
-Being in scalar context, you get the whole thing.  In list context,
-you'd get a list of all the lines:
-
-    @lines = `cat $file`;
-
-This tiny but expedient solution is neat, clean, and portable to
-all systems on which decent tools have been installed.  For those
-who prefer not to use the toolbox, you can of course read the file
-manually, although this makes for more complicated code.
+You can read the entire filehandle contents into a scalar.
 
     {
        local(*INPUT, $/);
@@ -791,6 +777,13 @@ close the file at block exit.  If the file is already open, just use this:
 
     $var = do { local $/; <INPUT> };
 
+For ordinary files you can also use the read function.
+
+       read( INPUT, $var, -s INPUT );
+
+The third argument tests the byte size of the data on the INPUT filehandle
+and reads that many bytes into the buffer $var.
+
 =head2 How can I read in a file by paragraphs?
 
 Use the C<$/> variable (see L<perlvar> for details).  You can either