NAME

readfile - return the entire contents of a file as a string

SYNOPSIS

@load "readfile"

result = readfile("/some/path")

For making whole files be single records:

@load "readfile"
BEGIN { PROCINFO["readfile"] = 1 }

DESCRIPTION

The readfile extension adds a single function named readfile(). The
argument is the name of the file to read. The return value is a string
containing the entire contents of the requested file.

Upon error, the function returns the empty string and sets ERRNO.

In addition, it adds an input parser that is activated if

PROCINFO["readfile"]

exists. When activated, each input file is returned in its entirety as
$0. RT is set to the null string.

EXAMPLE

    @load "readfile"
    ...
    contents = readfile("/path/to/file");
    if (contents == "" && ERRNO != "") {
        print("problem reading file", ERRNO) > "/dev/stderr"
        ...
    }

SEE ALSO

GAWK: Effective AWK Programming, and the man pages for the other
extensions shipped with gawk.

AUTHOR

Arnold Robbins, arnold@skeeve.com.

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