Here is an optimized version, that tries to avoid copying data bytes as much as possible:
private static byte[] loadStream (InputStream stream) throws IOException {
int available = stream.available();
int expectedSize = available > 0 ? available : -1;
return loadStream(stream, expectedSize);
}
private static byte[] loadStream (InputStream stream, int expectedSize) throws IOException {
int basicBufferSize = 0x4000;
int initialBufferSize = (expectedSize >= 0) ? expectedSize : basicBufferSize;
byte[] buf = new byte[initialBufferSize];
int pos = 0;
while (true) {
if (pos == buf.length) {
int readAhead = -1;
if (pos == expectedSize) {
readAhead = stream.read(); // test whether EOF is at expectedSize
if (readAhead == -1) {
return buf;
}
}
int newBufferSize = Math.max(2 * buf.length, basicBufferSize);
buf = Arrays.copyOf(buf, newBufferSize);
if (readAhead != -1) {
buf[pos++] = (byte)readAhead;
}
}
int len = stream.read(buf, pos, buf.length - pos);
if (len < 0) {
return Arrays.copyOf(buf, pos);
}
pos += len;
}
}