# phpman > man > readfile(3am)

[READFILE(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/READFILE/3am/markdown)                         GNU Awk Extension Modules                        [READFILE(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/READFILE/3am/markdown)



## NAME
       readfile - return the entire contents of a file as a string

## SYNOPSIS
       @load "readfile"

       result = readfile("/some/path")

       For making whole files be single records:

       @load "readfile"
       BEGIN { PROCINFO["readfile"] = 1 }

## DESCRIPTION
       The  _readfile_ extension adds a single function named **readfile()**.  The argument is the name of
       the file to read.  The return value is a string containing the entire  contents  of  the  re‐
       quested file.

       Upon error, the function returns the empty string and sets **ERRNO**.

       In  addition, it adds an input parser that is activated if PROCINFO["readfile"] exists.  When
       activated, each input file is returned in its entirety as $0.  RT is set to the null string.

## EXAMPLE
       @load "readfile"
       ...
       contents = readfile("/path/to/file");
       if (contents == "" && ERRNO != "") {
           print("problem reading file", ERRNO) > "/dev/stderr"
           ...
       }

## SEE ALSO
       _GAWK:_ _Effective_ _AWK_ _Programming_, [_filefuncs_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/filefuncs/3am/markdown), [_fnmatch_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fnmatch/3am/markdown), [_fork_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fork/3am/markdown), [_inplace_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/inplace/3am/markdown),  _ord__‐
       [_chr_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/chr/3am/markdown), [_readdir_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/readdir/3am/markdown), [_revoutput_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/revoutput/3am/markdown), [_rwarray_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rwarray/3am/markdown), [_time_(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/time/3am/markdown).

## AUTHOR
       Arnold Robbins, **<arnold@skeeve.com>**.

## COPYING PERMISSIONS
       Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual page provided the
       copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

       Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual page under  the
       conditions  for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distrib‐
       uted under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

       Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual  page  into  another
       language,  under  the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission no‐
       tice may be stated in a translation approved by the Foundation.



Free Software Foundation                     Feb 02 2018                               [READFILE(3am)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/READFILE/3am/markdown)