FAQ sync. (Ignoring the few URL differences for now.)

p4raw-id: //depot/perl@15813

1 files changed, 9 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perlfaq5.pod b/pod/perlfaq5.pod
index 701a757558..4030824bf2 100644
--- 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: 1.14 $, $Date: 2002/04/07 18:33:45 $)
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -763,21 +763,7 @@ 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.
 
-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, $/);
@@ -790,6 +776,13 @@ 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