From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2006-08-17T05:50:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Reading in files, keeping *ALL* info from file

Chris Binc wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>  I am trying to read in a file and parse it.  It uses hex values, such 
> as 0x0000 to identify certain tags.  When I read this into 
> Ruby(IO.read), it simply gives me a blank string: "" However, I need to 
> be able to get 0x0000 from my input. The same is true of 0x0001, which 
> returns the same as 0x1, but I need the leading 0's.
> 
> I have attempted to use the lower lever sysread an syswrite, but to no 
> avail.  I have the same problem and in addition, when asked to read 
> 0x0000 it returns an (IOError) where read simply returns "".
> 
> Is there any way for me to read this information in and keep every byte?

Since you're reading binary data, here's what I'd do

bytes = File.open(f, "rb") {|io| io.read}

Kind regards

	robert