prealloc(1) General Commands Manual prealloc(1)
NAME
prealloc - preallocate disk storage
SYNOPSIS
name size
DESCRIPTION
preallocates at least size bytes of disk space for an ordinary file name, creating the file if name does not already exist. The space is
allocated in an implementation-dependent fashion for fast sequential reads and writes of the file.
fails and no disk space is allocated if name already exists and is not an ordinary file of zero length, if insufficient space is left on
disk, or if size exceeds the maximum file size or the file size limit of the process (see ulimit(2)). The file is zero-filled.
DIAGNOSTICS
returns one of the following values upon completion:
0 Successful completion.
1 name already exists and is not an ordinary file of zero length.
2 There is insufficient room on the disk.
3 size exceeds file size limits.
EXAMPLES
The following example preallocates 50000 bytes for the file
WARNINGS
Allocation of file space is highly dependent on current disk usage. A successful return does not indicate how fragmented the file actually
might be if the disk is approaching its capacity.
AUTHOR
was developed by HP.
SEE ALSO
prealloc(2), ulimit(2).
prealloc(1)
