doc/modules/luaevent.core.buffer.mdwn

----
Functions:

[[toc levels=1]]

## buffer.new
* Instantiates a new buffer object

## buffer:add
* Successively concatenates each of the arguments onto the buffer
* Input: `(...)`
	* Sequence of strings or buffer instances
* Side Effects: Buffers 'add'ed are emptied of their contents (per libevent semantics)
* Output: Amount of data added
(QUESTION: Should add return the buffer itself so that chaining can be easy)

## buffer:length (`__len`)
* Output: Length of the remaining buffer contents

## buffer:get\_data (`__tostring`)
* Input:
	* `()` and `__tostring` - Returns all data in the buffer
	* `(len)` - Returns data up to `len` bytes long
	* `(begin, len)` - Returns data beginning at `begin` up to `len` bytes long
	* If `begin < 0`, wraps at data length.  Ex:  (-1, 1) returns last byte, (-2, 2) returns last 2 bytes
* Output: A copy of contents from the buffer

## buffer:read
* Reads data from a file-descriptor/socket into the buffer directly
* Input: `(fd, length)`
	* `fd` - File descriptor to read from
	* `length` - Amount of data to attempt to read into the buffer
* Output: Length of data actually read into the buffer
* Side Effects: fd/socket 'drain'ed of data

## buffer:write
* Attempts to write out all buffer's data to a file-descriptor/socket
* Input: `(fd, length)`
	* `fd` - File descriptor to write to
	* `socket` - [LuaSocket](http://www.luaforge.net/projects/luasocket)-based socket handle
* Output: Amount of data written
* Side Effects: buffer 'drain'ed of written data

## buffer:readline
* Reads a line terminated by either '\r\n', '\n\r', '\r', or, '\n'
* Output:
	* If no terminator found: nil
	* If terminator found: Line returned without terminators
* NOTE: If a '\r' or '\n' are the last characters in the buffer, then the data is returned even if the
potential later data would contain the paired '\n' or '\r'. (TODO: Ask libevent list on how this is handled...)

## buffer:drain
* Removes data from the buffer
* Input: `(amt)`
	* If `amt < 0` drains all data due to auto-casting to unsigned int and capping...
	TODO: Add code to check this condition explicitly for safety
	* If `amt >= 0`, drain up to amt from the buffer (no problem w/ too-large values)

## buffer:close (`__gc`)
* Immediately frees/closes a buffer.  Note that