sunos man page for readfile

readfile(1F)							   FMLI Commands						      readfile(1F)

NAME
       readfile, longline - reads file, gets longest line

SYNOPSIS
       readfile filename

       longline [filename]

DESCRIPTION
       The  readfile  function	reads  filename  and copies it to stdout. No translation of NEWLINE is done. It keeps track of the longest line it
       reads and if there is a subsequent call to longline, the length of that line, including the NEWLINE character,  is returned.

       The longline function returns the length, including the NEWLINE character, of the longest line in filename.  If filename is not	specified,
       it uses the file named in the last call to readfile.

EXAMPLES
       Example 1: Typical use of readfile and longline

       Here is a typical use of readfile and longline in a text frame definition file:

	  .
	  .
	  .
       text="`readfile myfile`"
       columns=`longline`
	  .
	  .
	  .

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO
       cat(1), attributes(5)

DIAGNOSTICS
       If filename does not exist, readfile will return  FALSE (that is, the expression will have an error return).

       longline returns  0 if a readfile has not previously been issued.

NOTES
       More  than  one descriptor can call readfile in the same frame definition file. In text frames, if one of those calls is made from the text
       descriptor, then a subsequent use of longline will always get the longest line of the file read by the readfile associated  with  the  text
       descriptor, even if it was not the most recent use of readfile.

SunOS 5.10							    5 Jul 1990							      readfile(1F)