Index: src/shell.c
==================================================================
--- src/shell.c
+++ src/shell.c
@@ -2278,18 +2278,26 @@
 
 
 /* Forward reference */
 static int process_input(ShellState *p, FILE *in);
 
-
 /*
-** Read the content of a file into memory obtained from sqlite3_malloc64().
-** The caller is responsible for freeing the memory.
+** Read the content of file zName into memory obtained from sqlite3_malloc64()
+** and return a pointer to the buffer. The caller is responsible for freeing 
+** the memory. 
 **
-** NULL is returned if any error is encountered.
+** If parameter pnByte is not NULL, (*pnByte) is set to the number of bytes
+** read.
+**
+** For convenience, a nul-terminator byte is always appended to the data read
+** from the file before the buffer is returned. This byte is not included in
+** the final value of (*pnByte), if applicable.
+**
+** NULL is returned if any error is encountered. The final value of *pnByte
+** is undefined in this case.
 */
-static char *readFile(const char *zName){
+static char *readFile(const char *zName, int *pnByte){
   FILE *in = fopen(zName, "rb");
   long nIn;
   size_t nRead;
   char *pBuf;
   if( in==0 ) return 0;
@@ -2303,10 +2311,11 @@
   if( nRead!=1 ){
     sqlite3_free(pBuf);
     return 0;
   }
   pBuf[nIn] = 0;
+  if( pnByte ) *pnByte = nIn;
   return pBuf;
 }
 
 /*
 ** Implementation of the "readfile(X)" SQL function.  The entire content
@@ -2318,16 +2327,17 @@
   int argc,
   sqlite3_value **argv
 ){
   const char *zName;
   void *pBuf;
+  int nBuf;
 
   UNUSED_PARAMETER(argc);
   zName = (const char*)sqlite3_value_text(argv[0]);
   if( zName==0 ) return;
-  pBuf = readFile(zName);
-  if( pBuf ) sqlite3_result_blob(context, pBuf, -1, sqlite3_free);
+  pBuf = readFile(zName, &nBuf);
+  if( pBuf ) sqlite3_result_blob(context, pBuf, nBuf, sqlite3_free);
 }
 
 /*
 ** Implementation of the "writefile(X,Y)" SQL function.  The argument Y
 ** is written into file X.  The number of bytes written is returned.  Or
@@ -3663,11 +3673,11 @@
     char *zRes = 0;
     output_reset(p);
     if( nArg!=2 ){
       raw_printf(stderr, "Usage: .check GLOB-PATTERN\n");
       rc = 2;
-    }else if( (zRes = readFile("testcase-out.txt"))==0 ){
+    }else if( (zRes = readFile("testcase-out.txt", 0))==0 ){
       raw_printf(stderr, "Error: cannot read 'testcase-out.txt'\n");
       rc = 2;
     }else if( testcase_glob(azArg[1],zRes)==0 ){
       utf8_printf(stderr,
                  "testcase-%s FAILED\n Expected: [%s]\n      Got: [%s]\n",

Index: test/shell6.test
==================================================================
--- test/shell6.test
+++ test/shell6.test
@@ -6,10 +6,12 @@
 #    May you do good and not evil.
 #    May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
 #    May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
 #
 #***********************************************************************
+#
+# Test the shell tool ".lint fkey-indexes" command.
 #
 
 set testdir [file dirname $argv0]
 source $testdir/tester.tcl
 set testprefix shell6

ADDED   test/shell7.test
Index: test/shell7.test
==================================================================
--- test/shell7.test
+++ test/shell7.test
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# 2016 December 17
+#
+# The author disclaims copyright to this source code.  In place of
+# a legal notice, here is a blessing:
+#
+#    May you do good and not evil.
+#    May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
+#    May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
+#
+#***********************************************************************
+#
+# Test the readfile() function built into the shell tool. Specifically,
+# that it does not truncate the blob read at the first embedded 0x00
+# byte.
+#
+
+set testdir [file dirname $argv0]
+source $testdir/tester.tcl
+set testprefix shell7
+set CLI [test_find_cli]
+
+
+do_execsql_test 1.0 { 
+  CREATE TABLE f1(tn INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, x BLOB); 
+  CREATE TABLE f2(tn INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, x BLOB); 
+
+  INSERT INTO f1 VALUES(1, X'01020304');
+  INSERT INTO f1 VALUES(2, X'01000304');
+  INSERT INTO f1 VALUES(3, randomblob(200));
+}
+
+foreach {tn l x} [db eval { SELECT tn, length(x) AS l, x FROM f1 }] {
+  forcedelete shell7_test.bin
+  set fd [open shell7_test.bin w]
+  fconfigure $fd -encoding binary
+  fconfigure $fd -translation binary
+  puts -nonewline $fd $x
+  close $fd
+
+  do_test 1.$tn.1 { file size shell7_test.bin } $l
+  do_test 1.$tn.2 { 
+    catchcmd test.db "INSERT INTO f2 VALUES($tn, readfile('shell7_test.bin'));"
+  } {0 {}}
+
+  do_execsql_test 1.$tn.3 { 
+    SELECT (SELECT x FROM f1 WHERE tn=1)==(SELECT x FROM f2 WHERE tn=1)
+  } {1}
+}
+
+
+
+finish_test
+
+