From: Milan Maksimovic <maksa@...>
Date: 2002-12-28T20:51:23+09:00
Subject: WARN: mswin32 build binary file read change of behavior

Hello,

Maybe it's been mentioned before, but since I've spent some time looking for
error in my code (things broke), here it goes anyway, in case somebody runs
into this issue (low chance, this mostly being Linux crowd, but still...).
Maybe putting it in a FAQ isn't a bad idea.

On cygwin builds:

File.open( 'somebinaryfile.bin' ) do | file |
  binaryContent = file.read()
end

worked fine, i.e. it read all that it should have.

In mswin32 builds one must explicitly specify "rb" flags.

File.open( 'somebinaryfile.bin', "rb" )

or the file will be truncated.


I suppose it would be good to have it fixed in mswin32 build, since a major
practical consequence is that libraries and programs that don't take this
into consideration (like those done on Unix flavors and used on Win32) will
break. In my case it was a SMTP/MIME thingie. ( .pack("m") failed to produce
proper content).


Regards,
M.