Message-ID: <3C945635.4050101@mandrakesoft.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 03:39:17 -0500
From: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@mandrakesoft.com>
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To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
CC: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: fadvise syscall?
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Has anyone ever done an madvise(2)-type syscall for file descriptors?
(or does the capability exist and I'm missing it?)


I was thinking, in playing around with stuff like cp(1) I've found that 
standard read(2) and write(2) of a 4-8K buffer is the fastest solution 
overall, in addition to providing the useful side effect of better error 
reporting, such as ENOSPC report.  Better error reporting than the 
alternative I see anyway, mmap(2).

So... we have madvise, why not fadvise?  I would love the capability for 
applications to provide hints to the OS like madvise, but for file 
descriptors...

    Jeff


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