From: Gary Wright <gwtmp01@...>
Date: 2009-07-06T07:43:03+09:00
Subject: Re: file.seek and unused bytes


On Jul 5, 2009, at 6:13 PM, Greg Willits wrote:
>
> Generally, I wouldn't read in the holes, but I have this one little  
> step
> that does end up with some holes, and I know it. What I don't know is
> what to expect in those holes. Null values or, garbage "A' characters
> left over from file X.

You should expect null bytes (at least on Posix-like file systems).   
I'm not sure why you are doubting this.

 From the Open Group Base Specification description of lseek:
<http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/lseek.html>:
> The lseek() function shall allow the file offset to be set beyond  
> the end of the existing data in the file. If data is later written  
> at this point, subsequent reads of data in the gap shall return  
> bytes with the value 0 until data is actually written into the gap.
>

Gary Wright