Read binary file as string in Ruby

Question

I need an easy way to take a tar file and convert it into a string (and vice versa). Is there a way to do this in Ruby? My best attempt was this:

file = File         


        

Answer 1

Ruby have binary reading

data = IO.binread(path/filaname)

or if less than Ruby 1.9.2

data = IO.read(path/file)