Added ChannelBuffer.readSlice() methods in case a user doesn't want to copy at the risk of modified content

src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/buffer/AbstractChannelBuffer.java

@@ -224,6 +224,20 @@ public abstract class AbstractChannelBuffer implements ChannelBuffer {
         return readBytes(endIndex);
     }
 
+    public ChannelBuffer readSlice(int length) {
+        ChannelBuffer slice = slice(readerIndex, length);
+        readerIndex += length;
+        return slice;
+    }
+
+    public ChannelBuffer readSlice(ChannelBufferIndexFinder endIndexFinder) {
+        int endIndex = indexOf(readerIndex, writerIndex, endIndexFinder);
+        if (endIndex < 0) {
+            throw new NoSuchElementException();
+        }
+        return readSlice(endIndex);
+    }
+
     public void readBytes(byte[] dst, int dstIndex, int length) {
         checkReadableBytes(length);
         getBytes(readerIndex, dst, dstIndex, length);

src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/buffer/ChannelBuffer.java

@@ -604,6 +604,8 @@ public interface ChannelBuffer extends Comparable<ChannelBuffer> {
 
     ChannelBuffer readBytes(int length);
     ChannelBuffer readBytes(ChannelBufferIndexFinder endIndexFinder);
+    ChannelBuffer readSlice(int length);
+    ChannelBuffer readSlice(ChannelBufferIndexFinder endIndexFinder);
     void readBytes(ChannelBuffer dst);
     void readBytes(ChannelBuffer dst, int length);
     void readBytes(ChannelBuffer dst, int dstIndex, int length);

src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/replay/ReplayingDecoderBuffer.java

@@ -246,6 +246,20 @@ class ReplayingDecoderBuffer implements ChannelBuffer {
         return buffer.readBytes(length);
     }
 
+    public ChannelBuffer readSlice(
+            ChannelBufferIndexFinder endIndexFinder) {
+        int endIndex = buffer.indexOf(buffer.readerIndex(), buffer.writerIndex(), endIndexFinder);
+        if (endIndex < 0) {
+            throw REPLAY;
+        }
+        return readSlice(endIndex);
+    }
+
+    public ChannelBuffer readSlice(int length) {
+        checkReadableBytes(length);
+        return buffer.readSlice(length);
+    }
+
     public void readBytes(OutputStream out, int length) throws IOException {
         reject();
     }