/**
 * Lossless reading of a file (line-separators are preserved).
 * May temporarily require memory several times the size of the
 * file. For a short time the raw file contents (a byte array),
 * and the decoded characters reside in memory simultaneously.
 * It is safest to apply to files that you know to be small
 * relative to the available memory.
 * @param path the absolute path of the file.
 * @param encoding the charset with which the bytes in the file
 *                 should be decoded.
 */
public static String readFile(String path, Charset encoding)
    throws IOException {
  byte[] encoded = Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(path));
  return new String(encoded, encoding);
}