From: bwv549 <jtprince@...>
Date: 2008-11-07T01:38:20+09:00
Subject: Re: how to quickly find a string towards the end of a large io object

I really appreciate all the comments.  They are very helpful.  I
should have been more specific:

In this case, I am dealing with a file that will usually be >= 100
MB.  It may easily be up to 1GB or more.  The file is in binary form,
but about 9/10ths of the way there is a small text file embedded into
it.  I need to check a parameter in the file before processing the
complete binary format (which I've decoded).  At this point I only
expect to see files, but I was hoping to make it generic to any IO
object.  I would settle on a solution for a file (rather than an IO
object), but I would like it to be cross-platform and prefer the
solution in ruby if it is fast enough (who wouldn't).

Again, the basic layout of the file:

................................my_param = X........

I need the value 'X' following the 'my_para = '

Thanks again!