continue process after end of file

You havent posted the whole code, so I can only go off what you have posted:

- You check for end of file from a file called "input" but you read from a file called "datafile".

- Are there enough values in the file? You only check for end of file every 8 values - so is the total length of the file divisible by 8?

- Your code will not do what you're talking about. Because signals are only assigned when a process suspends, according to your code "inputvariable" is only assigned the 8th value, the first 7 are discarded. and you're talking about reading bits - do you mean reading bytes?

- You also wait for a specified period of time. Does this sync up with the clock properly? why dont you wait for a rising/falling edge of a clock?