NAME

File::fgets - Read either one line or X characters from a file

SYNOPSIS

use File::fgets;

open my $fh, $file;

# Read either one line or the first 10 characters, which ever comes first
my $line = fgets($fh, 10);

DESCRIPTION

An implementation of the C fgets() function.

fgets

my $string = fgets($fh, $limit);

Reads either one line or at most $limit bytes from the $fh.

Returns undef at end of file.

NOTE: unlike C's fgets, this will read $limit characters not $limit - 1. Perl doesn't have to leave room for a null byte.

EXAMPLE

The following example demonstrates using fgets() to read in at most 5 characters at a time.

use File::fgets;

open my $write_fh, ">", $file;
print $write_fh <<END;
this is
an example
of use
END
close $write_fh;

open my $fh, "<", $file;
while( my $string = fgets($fh, 5) ) {
    $string =~ s{\n}{\\n};  # make newlines show up
    print "--$string--\n";
}

The result will be:

--this --
--is\n--
--an ex--
--ample--
--\n--
--of us--
--e\n--

NOTES

This is implemented as a wrapper around the C fgets() function and is extremely efficient UNLESS the filehandle does not have an underlying fileno. For example, if its given a tied filehandle. Then it falls back to a Perl implementation.

LICENSE

Copyright 2010 by Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

Send bugs, feedback, ideas and suggestions via https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=File-fgets or <bugs-File-fgets@rt.cpan.org>

The latest version of this software can be found at http://github.com/schwern/File-fgets

SEE ALSO

File::GetLineMaxLength