use Fcntl;
use Benchmark qw(cmpthese);
cmpthese(1000,
     {
      slurp=>sub{
        open(SITE, "/usr/share/dict/words");
        my $xml;
        local($/);
        undef $/;
        $xml = <SITE>;
        close(SITE);
      }
      ,
      sys=>sub{
        sysopen(SITE, "/usr/share/dict/words", O_RDONLY);
        sysread SITE, my $xml, -s SITE;
        close(SITE);
        }
      ,
      sysby128=>sub{
        sysopen(SITE, "/usr/share/dict/words", O_RDONLY);
        my $xml = '';
        while (sysread(SITE, $xml, 1024 * 128, length($xml))) { };
        close(SITE);
        }
      ,
      sysby256=>sub{
        sysopen(SITE, "/usr/share/dict/words", O_RDONLY);
        my $xml = '';
        while (sysread(SITE, $xml, 1024 * 256, length($xml))) { };
        close(SITE);
        }
      ,
      sysby512=>sub{
        sysopen(SITE, "/usr/share/dict/words", O_RDONLY);
        my $xml = '';
        while (sysread(SITE, $xml, 1024 * 512, length($xml))) { };
        close(SITE);
        }
      }
);

##</code><code>##

> uname -a
Linux linux.local 2.4.16 #4 Mon Dec 10 08:26:03 PST 2001 i586 unknown
> perl index.pl
Benchmark: timing 1000 iterations of slurp, sys, sysby128, sysby256, sysby512...
     slurp:  9 wallclock secs ( 3.56 usr +  4.57 sys =  8.13 CPU) @ 123.00/s (n=1000)
       sys:  7 wallclock secs ( 0.17 usr +  5.66 sys =  5.83 CPU) @ 171.53/s (n=1000)
  sysby128:  7 wallclock secs ( 0.27 usr +  5.87 sys =  6.14 CPU) @ 162.87/s (n=1000)
  sysby256:  7 wallclock secs ( 0.18 usr +  5.69 sys =  5.87 CPU) @ 170.36/s (n=1000)
  sysby512:  7 wallclock secs ( 0.16 usr +  5.51 sys =  5.67 CPU) @ 176.37/s (n=1000)
          Rate    slurp sysby128 sysby256      sys sysby512
slurp    123/s       --     -24%     -28%     -28%     -30%
sysby128 163/s      32%       --      -4%      -5%      -8%
sysby256 170/s      39%       5%       --      -1%      -3%
sys      172/s      39%       5%       1%       --      -3%
sysby512 176/s      43%       8%       4%       3%       --

##</code><code>##

> perl index.pl
Benchmark: timing 1000 iterations of slurp, sys, sysby128, sysby256, sysby512...
     slurp: 12 wallclock secs ( 4.29 usr +  5.43 sys =  9.72 CPU) @ 102.88/s (n=1000)
       sys:  8 wallclock secs ( 0.10 usr +  6.88 sys =  6.98 CPU) @ 143.27/s (n=1000)
  sysby128:  9 wallclock secs ( 0.21 usr +  6.98 sys =  7.19 CPU) @ 139.08/s (n=1000)
  sysby256:  8 wallclock secs ( 0.25 usr +  6.74 sys =  6.99 CPU) @ 143.06/s (n=1000)
  sysby512:  9 wallclock secs ( 0.15 usr +  6.70 sys =  6.85 CPU) @ 145.99/s (n=1000)
          Rate    slurp sysby128 sysby256      sys sysby512
slurp    103/s       --     -26%     -28%     -28%     -30%
sysby128 139/s      35%       --      -3%      -3%      -5%
sysby256 143/s      39%       3%       --      -0%      -2%
sys      143/s      39%       3%       0%       --      -2%
sysby512 146/s      42%       5%       2%       2%       --