debian man page for readbuffer

readbuffer(1)						      General Commands Manual						     readbuffer(1)

NAME
       readbuffer - read input from devices which don't like constant stopping and starting

SYNOPSIS
       readbuffer [--mlock] [size]

DESCRIPTION
       readbuffer reads data on standard input and writes it to standard output.  It will internally buffer up to size megabytes of data, and will
       only read more data when the buffer is at least 75% empty.

       size may also be suffixed with m, k, or b to indicate that it is in megabytes (2^20), kilobytes (2^10) or bytes.

       It is intended for use in situations where many small reads are undesirable for performance reasons, e.g. tape drives.

OPTIONS
       --mlock
	      Calls mlock(2) to lock the buffer into memory.

SEE ALSO
       writebuffer(1), mlock(2)

chiark-backup							    2001-10-21							     readbuffer(1)