read_file ?-nonewline? fileName read_file fileName numBytes This proecure reads the file fileName and returns the contents as a string. If -nonewline is speci- fied, then the last character of the file is dis- carded if it is a newline. The second form speci- fies exactly how many bytes will be read and returned, unless there are fewer than numBytes bytes left in the file; in this case, all the remaining bytes are returned. This procedure is provided by Extended Tcl.