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@@ -115,8 +115,13 @@ module Net; module SFTP
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       end
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       # Identical to #download, but blocks until the download is complete.
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-      def download!(remote, local, options={}, &block)
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-        download(remote, local, options, &block).wait
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+      # If +local+ is omitted, downloads the file to an in-memory buffer
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+      # and returns the result as a string; otherwise, returns the
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+      # Net::SFTP::Operations::Download instance.
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+      def download!(remote, local=nil, options={}, &block)
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+        destination = local || StringIO.new
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+        result = download(remote, destination, options, &block).wait
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+        local ? result : destination.string
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       end
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       # Returns an Net::SFTP::Operations::FileFactory instance, which can be used to