"rbt" wrote:
I believe that this is the safest way to open files on Windows, Linux, Mac and Unix, but I wanted to ask here just to be sure:
fp = file('filename', 'rb')
The 'b' on the end being the most important ingredient (especially on Windows as a simple 'r' on a binary file might cause some sort of corruption).
Anyway, am I right in saying this? That 'rb' is the safest way to open files for reading and that it should work well on *all* Python supported platforms?
"rb" works on all platforms, yes. but it doesn't work well if you're reading a text file.
(when reading text files, the "U" option may also be useful. see doc for details)
</F>
I'm using 'rb' in a situation where all files on the drive are opened. I'm not checking how the file is encoded before opening it (text, unicode, jpeg, etc.) That's why I though 'rb' would be safest.
Can 'U' be used with 'rb'? Should it be? From what I read, 'U' handles the different ways in which the OS handles the 'end of line' on text files, but other than that, I don't think it's useful for me.
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