we dont have a file to string function?

[UnixJunkie]

val BatFile.as_string: BatFile.t -> string

would be pretty handy to me for small files.
I mean, this function would read the whole file and return the corresponding string.

[UnixJunkie]

my current hack:

(* return whole file content as a string *)
let as_string fn =
  let buff = Buffer.create 80 in
  Utls.with_in_file fn (fun input ->
      try
        Buffer.add_channel buff input (1024 * 1024);
        failwith "BatFile.as_string: file is too big"
      with End_of_file -> () (* OK, we read the whole file *)
    );
  Buffer.contents buff

[gasche]

Note that BatFile.with_file_in path BatIO.read_all is a shorter way to do this.

[UnixJunkie]

I want to avoid BatIO. I had performance problems with it in the past.

[c-cube]

Comment is cheap, but I would suggest that batteries 3, with a proper IO module that is compatible with the stdlib, would be the only good solution to this. With containers it's the same one-liner as @gasche mentioned, except it's efficient.

[gasche]

(No disagreement here.)

[UnixJunkie]

batteries 3 makes me think about GNU Hurd ... :)
we are too low on manpower to do big things like this