Arduino serial read

If I got this right:
If I have some data in the serial buffer, then I go serial.read the processor will read the first byte of data in the buffer, executing serial.read successive times reads the next byte and the next.
So there must be a pointer, is there a way I can reset said pointer to zero.
I want to mod some existing software and make it 'think' the serial buffer hasnt been messed with.

Can't you do

Mike.
Edit, you can also do Serial.flush() to wait until the output buffer is empty. In an earlier version this also cleared the input buffer but not any more.

All the source code is freely available, and there's probably already a function call to do exactly that - it's a pretty standard routine for an interrupt driven serial library.

Have a look here:

https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-avr/blob/master/cores/arduino/HardwareSerial.h

Of the associated .CPP file.

There isnt a function call to clear the pointer but there is an rxbuffer pointer in the .h file, but its a protected not a public variable.
There are several routines in my code that use serial, all copied & pasted from other programs I've bodged that only had one routine that looked at serial, pom's idea is a way to do it, use a dummy array for the incomming serial, only thing is I'd have to modify every function using serial, not the end of the world I spose.