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

NAME

       posix_fadvise - predeclare an access pattern for file data

SYNOPSIS

       #include <fcntl.h>

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

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       posix_fadvise():
	   _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 600 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

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_SEQUENTIAL  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 3.27 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								    2010-09-20							  POSIX_FADVISE(2)