sysread

NAME

sysread - fixed-length unbuffered input from a filehandle


SYNOPSIS

sysread FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH,OFFSET

sysread FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH


DESCRIPTION

Attempts to read LENGTH bytes of data into variable SCALAR from the specified FILEHANDLE, using the system call read(2). It bypasses stdio, so mixing this with other kinds of reads may cause confusion. Returns the number of bytes actually read, or undef if there was an error. SCALAR will be grown or shrunk to the length actually read. An OFFSET may be specified to place the read data at some other place than the beginning of the string.