A coworker claimed that "Java could beat Perl on any platform in this simple test: read a file in to a variable, write the contents of the variable to another file", so I decided to take him up on the challenge. I use Red Hat Linux 7.0 on a Pentium III 500Mhz; Perl 5.005_03, Sun's Java 1.3.1.

Here's the Perl I used: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Time::HiRes qw( time );

undef $/;
$| = 0;

my $file;

my $start = time();
open(FILE, $ARGV[0]);
$file = <FILE>;
close FILE;
open(FILE, ">$ARGV[1]");
print FILE $file;
close FILE;
my $total = time() - $start;

print "$total Seconds Elapsed.\n";

[download]
Some sample runs: 
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ dd if=/dev/zero of=ten_meg_file.txt seek=1
+0 count=1 bs=1M
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ perl -w cp.pl ten_meg_file.txt out
0.405324935913086 Seconds Elapsed.
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ perl -w cp.pl ten_meg_file.txt out
0.322497963905334 Seconds Elapsed.
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ perl -w cp.pl ten_meg_file.txt out
0.321141004562378 Seconds Elapsed.
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ perl -w cp.pl ten_meg_file.txt out
0.318119049072266 Seconds Elapsed.

[download]
I realize that subsequent reads may be cached, resulting in faster times.

And the Java (sorry, I know this isn't Javamonks): 
import java.io.*;

public class X {

  public static void copy(String from, String to)throws IOException{

    InputStream inFile = null;
    OutputStream outFile = null;
    try {

      inFile = new FileInputStream(from);
      outFile = new FileOutputStream(to);

      int length = inFile.available();
      byte[] bytes = new byte[length];
      inFile.read(bytes);
      outFile.write(bytes);         
    } finally {
      inFile.close();
      outFile.close();
    }
  }
  public static void copyBuf(String from, String to)throws IOException
+{

    InputStream in = null;
    OutputStream out = null; 
    InputStream inFile = null;
    OutputStream outFile = null;
    try {

      inFile = new FileInputStream(from);
      in = new BufferedInputStream(inFile);
      outFile = new FileOutputStream(to);
      out = new BufferedOutputStream(outFile);

      int length = in.available(); 
      byte[] bytes = new byte[length];
      in.read(bytes);
      out.write(bytes);         
    } finally {
      in.close();
      out.close();
    }
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      long l = System.currentTimeMillis();
      copy(args[0], args[1]);
      System.out.println("Time = "+ (System.currentTimeMillis()-l));
      l = System.currentTimeMillis();
      copyBuf(args[0], args[1]);
      System.out.println("Buf Time = "+ (System.currentTimeMillis()-l)
+);
    } catch (IOException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

[download]
And some sample runs: 
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ javac X.java 
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ dd if=/dev/zero of=ten_meg_file__2.txt see
+k=10 count=1 bs=1M
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ java X ten_meg_file__2.txt out__2
Time = 1205
Buf Time = 815
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ java X ten_meg_file__2.txt out__2
Time = 722
Buf Time = 838
[adamm@pepsi java_vs_perl]$ java X ten_meg_file__2.txt out__2
Time = 814
Buf Time = 779

[download]
These times are in milliseconds, and indicate that Perl was about twice as fast as Java at this simple operation. So now, my questions.

Thanks!

---
"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."

In reply to Java vs. Perl file I/O benchmarks; valid test? by meonkeys

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