Since I don’t use file opening to often in ruby, I am writing them down here:
Mode | Meaning
-----+--------------------------------------------------------
"r" | Read-only, starts at beginning of file (default mode).
-----+--------------------------------------------------------
"r+" | Read-write, starts at beginning of file.
-----+--------------------------------------------------------
"w" | Write-only, truncates existing file
| to zero length or creates a new file for writing.
-----+--------------------------------------------------------
"w+" | Read-write, truncates existing file to zero length
| or creates a new file for reading and writing.
-----+--------------------------------------------------------
"a" | Write-only, starts at end of file if file exists,
| otherwise creates a new file for writing.
-----+--------------------------------------------------------
"a+" | Read-write, starts at end of file if file exists,
| otherwise creates a new file for reading and
| writing.
-----+--------------------------------------------------------
"b" | Binary file mode (may appear with
| any of the key letters listed above).
| Suppresses EOL <-> CRLF conversion on Windows. And
| sets external encoding to ASCII-8BIT unless explicitly
| specified.
-----+--------------------------------------------------------
"t" | Text file mode (may appear with
| any of the key letters listed above except "b").
From http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3682359/what-are-the-ruby-file-open-modes-and-options/3682374#3682374