Change 20155 by [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 2003/07/11 19:11:17
Subject: [DOCPATCH] perlfunc/read
From: Steve Grazzini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 10:23:03 -0400
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Clarify the OFFSET parameter to read().
Affected files ...
... //depot/perl/pod/perlfunc.pod#397 edit
Differences ...
==== //depot/perl/pod/perlfunc.pod#397 (text) ====
Index: perl/pod/perlfunc.pod
--- perl/pod/perlfunc.pod#396~20137~ Thu Jul 10 17:10:14 2003
+++ perl/pod/perlfunc.pod Fri Jul 11 12:11:17 2003
@@ -3807,12 +3807,19 @@
Attempts to read LENGTH I<characters> of data into variable SCALAR
from the specified FILEHANDLE. Returns the number of characters
actually read, C<0> at end of file, or undef if there was an error (in
-the latter case C<$!> is also set). SCALAR will be grown or shrunk to
-the length actually read. If SCALAR needs growing, the new bytes will
-be zero bytes. An OFFSET may be specified to place the read data into
-some other place in SCALAR than the beginning. The call is actually
-implemented in terms of either Perl's or system's fread() call. To
-get a true read(2) system call, see C<sysread>.
+the latter case C<$!> is also set). SCALAR will be grown or shrunk
+so that the last character actually read is the last character of the
+scalar after the read.
+
+An OFFSET may be specified to place the read data at some place in the
+string other than the beginning. A negative OFFSET specifies
+placement at that many characters counting backwards from the end of
+the string. A positive OFFSET greater than the length of SCALAR
+results in the string being padded to the required size with C<"\0">
+bytes before the result of the read is appended.
+
+The call is actually implemented in terms of either Perl's or system's
+fread() call. To get a true read(2) system call, see C<sysread>.
Note the I<characters>: depending on the status of the filehandle,
either (8-bit) bytes or characters are read. By default all
End of Patch.
