new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/io/fileread.m
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2010 VZLU Prague
+##
+## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+## it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
+## (at your option) any later version.
+##
+## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+## but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+## GNU General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with this program; if not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File}  {@var{str} =} fileread (@var{filename})
+## Read the contents of a file and return it as a string.
+## @seealso{fread, textread}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function str = fileread (filename)
+
+  if (nargin != 1)
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+  if (! ischar (filename))
+    error ("fileread: argument must be a string");
+  endif
+
+  fid = fopen (filename, "r");
+  if (fid < 0)
+    error ("fileread: cannot open file");
+  endif
+
+  unwind_protect
+    str = fread (fid, "*char");    
+  unwind_protect_cleanup
+    fclose (fid)
+  end_unwind_protect
+
+endfunction
+