From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2003-09-08T13:30:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Read files at the byte level - how to?

> Hi All,
>
> I want to use Ruby to compare two Zip files to test whether they are
> identical.  Accordingly,  I want to read at the byte level, but I only
> see methods to read strings, i.e. gets, readline and readlines.
>
> Is there a way to do what I want to do?  Is there an example somewhere
> on the Web?

To get the whole file in one string:

  bytes = File.open("filename", "rb") { |file| file.read }

Sadly, you can't do:

  bytes = File.read("filename", "rb") # File::read assumes text mode

Anyway, "bytes" is now a string with the whole file in it.  You can, of
course, read a certain number of bytes with "file.read(1024)" for
instance.

Sorry for any misinformation in this reply; it's based on experience, not
knowledge ;)

Gavin