If end of file occurs while scanning for an end of line, the command returns whatever input is available up to the end of file. If channelId is in nonblocking mode and there is not a full line of input available, the command returns an empty string and does not consume any input. If varName is specified and an empty string is returned in varName because of end-of-file or because of insufficient data in nonblocking mode, then the return count is -1. Note that if varName is not specified then the end-of-file and no-full-line-available cases can produce the same results as if there were an input line consisting only of the end-of-line character(s). The eof and fblocked commands can be used to distinguish these three cases.
Copyright © 1993 The Regents of the University of California. Copyright © 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Copyright © 1995-1997 Roger E. Critchlow Jr.