|-
| '''Summary'''
|Reads the binary content of the file specified by {{Code|$path}} and returns it as streamable {{Code|xs:base64Binary}}.<br />
|-
| '''Errors'''
|{{Error|FILE0001|#Errors}} the specified file does not exist.<br />{{Error|FILE0004|#Errors}} the specified path is a directory.<br />{{Error|FILE9999|#Errors}} the operation fails for some other reason.<br />
|-
| '''Examples'''
|
* <code><nowiki>data(file:read-binary("config.data"))</nowiki></code> returns a materialized representation of the streamable result.
|}