POSIX_FADVISE(2)                                    Linux Programmer's Manual                                   POSIX_FADVISE(2)



NAME
       posix_fadvise - predeclare an access pattern for file data

SYNOPSIS
       #define _XOPEN_SOURCE 600
       #include <fcntl.h>

       int posix_fadvise(int fd, off_t offset, off_t len, int advice);

DESCRIPTION
       Programs  can  use posix_fadvise() to announce an intention to access file data in a specific pattern in the future, thus
       allowing the kernel to perform appropriate optimizations.

       The advice applies to a (not necessarily existent) region starting at offset and extending for len bytes  (or  until  the
       end  of  the  file  if  len is 0) within the file referred to by fd.  The advice is not binding; it merely constitutes an
       expectation on behalf of the application.

       Permissible values for advice include:

       POSIX_FADV_NORMAL
              Indicates that the application has no advice to give about its access pattern  for  the  specified  data.   If  no
              advice is given for an open file, this is the default assumption.

       POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL
              The application expects to access the specified data sequentially (with lower offsets read before higher ones).

       POSIX_FADV_RANDOM
              The specified data will be accessed in random order.

       POSIX_FADV_NOREUSE
              The specified data will be accessed only once.

       POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED
              The specified data will be accessed in the near future.

       POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED
              The specified data will not be accessed in the near future.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, an error number is returned.

ERRORS
       EBADF  The fd argument was not a valid file descriptor.

       EINVAL An invalid value was specified for advice.

       ESPIPE The specified file descriptor refers to a pipe or FIFO.  (Linux actually returns EINVAL in this case.)

VERSIONS
       posix_fadvise() appeared in kernel 2.5.60.  Glibc support has been provided since version 2.2.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001.  Note that the type of the len argument was changed from size_t to off_t in POSIX.1-2003 TC1.

NOTES
       Under  Linux,  POSIX_FADV_NORMAL sets the readahead window to the default size for the backing device; POSIX_FADV_SEQUEN-
       TIAL doubles this size, and POSIX_FADV_RANDOM disables file readahead entirely.  These changes affect  the  entire  file,
       not just the specified region (but other open file handles to the same file are unaffected).

       POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED  initiates  a  nonblocking read of the specified region into the page cache.  The amount of data read
       may be decreased by the kernel depending on virtual memory load.  (A few megabytes will usually be fully  satisfied,  and
       more is rarely useful.)

       In  kernels  before  2.6.18,  POSIX_FADV_NOREUSE had the same semantics as POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED.  This was probably a bug;
       since kernel 2.6.18, this flag is a no-op.

       POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED attempts to free cached pages associated with the specified region.  This  is  useful,  for  example,
       while  streaming  large  files.   A program may periodically request the kernel to free cached data that has already been
       used, so that more useful cached pages are not discarded instead.

       Pages that have not yet been written out will be unaffected, so if the application wishes to guarantee that pages will be
       released, it should call fsync(2) or fdatasync(2) first.

BUGS
       In  kernels  before 2.6.6, if len was specified as 0, then this was interpreted literally as "zero bytes", rather than as
       meaning "all bytes through to the end of the file".

SEE ALSO
       readahead(2), sync_file_range(2), posix_fallocate(3), posix_madvise(3), feature_test_macros(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project,  and  information  about
       reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux                                                      2010-06-14                                           POSIX_FADVISE(2)