From: Florian Gross <flgr@...>
Date: 2005-01-23T22:40:54+09:00
Subject: Re: File.read not returning nil [newbie]

Navindra Umanee wrote:

> Hi Florian,

Moin.

>>irb(main):009:0> File.open("NUL") { |f| f.read }
>>=> ""
> 
> I am completely confused.  The documentation says it should print nil:
> 
> http://www.rubycentral.com/book/ref_c_io.html#IO.read
> 
> It does return nil in my first test case.  It does not return nil in
> my second test case which is identical to your test case and as far as
> I can see shows the same problem.
> 
> So why the difference in behavior?  It's still completely baffling me.

Hm, it seems to return nil when you specify a count (even if you use 0) 
argument. I'm not sure why it's like that. Maybe matz or somebody else 
who has knowledge on this could answer...

> Thanks again for your help.  I am hoping I can get a proof-of-concept
> replacement for dot.kde.org up some time in the distant future.  If
> it's successful, this would be another high profile site running on
> Ruby.

That would indeed be very nice. I'm looking forward to this. :)

> Cheers,
> Navin.

Regards,
Florian Gross