From: Ross Bamford <rosco@...>
Date: 2006-11-11T19:35:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Trying to get pack to work with the * template character

On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 01:21:38 -0000, John Hahn <jchahn@cox.net> wrote:

> Ok, here's a snippet of my code.
>
> @image_array = Array.new
> @image = File.open("test.JPG", "rb") do |image|
> 	image.each_byte{|ch| @image_array << ch.to_s}
> end
> @temp = @image_array.pack("m*")
>
> when I display the value of @temp.. only the first element of
> @image_array has been packed.. any idea why the * isn't working?  I
> thought the * meant that it would cycle through the entire array and
> convert each element...   any ideas?
>

As Tim said, ruby does include a base64 library which will probably do  
what you want, but if you're determined to use pack you need to know that  
'm' expects a binary string as it's argument. 'm*' expects one or more  
binary strings. So in this case, you just need 'm' like so:

	[File.read('test.JPG')].pack('m')

or possibly:

	[File.open('test.JPG','rb') { |f| f.read }].pack('m')

-- 
Ross Bamford - rosco@roscopeco.remove.co.uk