$read(<fd> [<length>])

This function reads data from an open file. The value <fd> must have been previously returned by the open function. If <length> is given it will read and return that number of bytes from the file. If no <length> is given, it will read and return the next line of text from the file.

If <length> is given, it is considered a binary read, and the return value will be encoded with the CTCP transform, which guarantees you can send the string over irc, or assign it to a variable. You can use xform to convert this data into another format.

The function will return the empty string if <fd> is not a value previously returned by open or if the file has reached EOF, or if there was an error. Use isfilevalid, eof or ferror to determine between these possibilities.

Data read from file, or nothing on error. Binary data reads will be CTCP encoded.

$read(4)                           returns next line from fd 4
$read(4 30)                        returns next 30 bytes from fd 4