sub readfile {
    my $fname = shift;
    my $fdata;
    open XML, "<", $fname or die "Couldn't open $fname: $!";
    binmode XML or die "Couldn't binmode $fname: $!";
    
    my $expected = -s XML;
    my $got = read XML, $fdata, $expected;
    $expected == $got or
      die "Read $got but expected $expected bytes from $fname: $!";
    close XML or die "Couldn't close $fname: $!";

    return \ $fdata;
}