READAHEAD(2)		   Linux Programmers Manual		 READAHEAD(2)



NAME
       readahead - perform file readahead into page cache

SYNOPSIS
       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #include 

       ssize_t readahead(int fd, off64_t offset, size_t count);

DESCRIPTION
       readahead() populates the page cache with data from a file so that sub
       sequent reads from that file will not block on disk I/O.  The fd  argu
       ment  is  a  file  descriptor identifying the file which is to be read.
       The offset argument specifies the starting point from which data is  to
       be  read  and  count  specifies the number of bytes to be read.	I/O is
       performed in whole pages, so that offset is effectively rounded down to
       a page boundary and bytes are read up to the next page boundary greater
       than or equal to (offset+count).  readahead() does not read beyond  the
       end  of the file.  readahead() blocks until the specified data has been
       read.  The current file offset of the open file referred to  by	fd  is
       left unchanged.

RETURN VALUE
       On  success,  readahead()  returns  0; on failure, -1 is returned, with
       errno set to indicate the cause of the error.

ERRORS
       EBADF  fd is not a valid file descriptor or is not open for reading.

       EINVAL fd does not refer to a file type to  which  readahead()  can  be
	      applied.

VERSIONS
       The readahead() system call appeared in Linux 2.4.13; glibc support has
       been provided since version 2.3.

CONFORMING TO
       The readahead() system call is Linux-specific, and its  use  should  be
       avoided in portable applications.

SEE ALSO
       lseek(2), madvise(2), mmap(2), posix_fadvise(2), read(2)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.05 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				  2007-07-26			  READAHEAD(2)